Henry Cavill is apparently not one to mince words.
In a recent interview with Men's Health, the actor and erstwhile Superman was asked about
the three films in which he filled out Kal-El's famous cape.
In responding, he admitted to feeling exactly like the rest of us do about Justice League.
The DC Movie Universe has been on a roll for the last couple years or so; 2017's Wonder
Woman was a critical and box office hit, and more recently, last year's Aquaman and this
year's Joker have both cleared the billion dollar mark at the worldwide box office while
satisfying the fandom.
Prior to these successes, though, the road was quite a bit rockier — and that rocky
stretch included the entirety of Cavill's tenure as Big Blue — so far, anyway.
2013's Man of Steel led off the franchise, and while it performed respectably, it divided
fans — many of whom were unprepared for writer David S. Goyer and director Zak Snyder's
exceedingly dark vision of the Last Son of Krypton's tale.
That flick was followed by 2016's Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice, a film which probably
should have broken every box office record in existence due to its pairing of the two
comic book icons onscreen for the first time.
The flick did clear $870 million globally, but critics were generally not impressed,
and it divided audiences even more sharply; industry observers noted that the failure
of a movie with both Batman and Superman in its title to make over a billion dollars was
troubling.
2016's Suicide Squad, which endured a mid-production course correction aimed at injecting a bit
more levity, continued the trend of earning respectable box office numbers while getting
mostly trashed by critics — and then came 2017's Justice League.
Wooo, boy…
"He's back."
The team-up film reunited Ben Affleck's Batman and Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman with Cavill's
Superman, and also introduced Jason Momoa's Aquaman, Ezra Miller's the Flash, and Ray
Fisher's Cyborg.
Despite production troubles, it was a film that should have had DC fans over the moon
with excitement.
It... did not.
Justice League struggled to a $677 million worldwide gross, the worst performance for
a DC Movie Universe film thus far — and for the reason why, look no further than Cavill's
assessment of his three outings as Supes.
On Man of Steel, he said:
"A great starting point.
If I were to go back, I don't think I'd change anything."
On Dawn of Justice, he opined:
"Very much a Batman movie.
And I think that realm of darkness is great for a Batman movie."
Finally, on Justice League, he admitted that, quote, "It didn't work."
There's no denying that Justice League indeed didn't work, although things may have turned
out differently had Snyder not handed over the reins to Joss Whedon following a family
tragedy.
By all accounts, the film turned in by Whedon was a very, very different one from that which
would have been fielded by Snyder — so much so that in the years since Justice League's
release, fans have been lobbying hard for studio Warner Bros. to release Snyder's cut
of the film, which the director has said would need only a few "CGI tweaks" to complete.
Here's hoping!
"A man I knew used to say that hope is like your car keys.
Easy to lose, but if you dig around it's usually close by."
The movie's failure, though, has contributed to the public perception that Cavill may indeed
be done playing Superman.
His Dawn of Justice co-star Affleck has hung up Batman's cape and cowl for good, making
way for a different, younger iteration of the Caped Crusader to be portrayed by Robert
Pattinson in writer/director Matt Reeves' forthcoming The Batman; while no comparable
Superman project has yet been announced, it seems like just a matter of time before Big
Blue gets the reboot treatment, as well.
The perception that Cavill is through was further bolstered by his non-cameo at the
end of this year's Shazam!, in which Supes showed up to have a bite of lunch with the
titular hero — and was portrayed by a stand-in, shown only from the neck down.
For the record, though, Cavill only failed to reprise his role because of scheduling
conflicts with Mission: Impossible - Fallout — and to hear the star tell it, he may not
be as done with Superman as everyone seems to think he is.
The actor said:
"The cape is still in the closet.
It's still mine.
I'm not just going to sit quietly in the dark as all this stuff is going on.
I've not given up the role.
There's a lot I have to give for Superman yet.
A lot of storytelling to do.
A lot of real, true depths to the honesty of the character I want to get into.
I want to reflect the comic books.
That's important to me.
There's a lot of justice to be done for Superman."
That is far, far more than Cavill has had to say on the subject in the last couple of
years.
If we're being honest, we've always felt like his version of Supes got the short end of
the stick, and his obvious sense of ownership over the role has us pretty much convinced
that he should be given a chance to flesh out the character in a way that his previous
appearances didn't quite allow for.
So: does Cavill have an actual status for us on the future of his version of Superman?
According to Cavill, quote, "The status is: You'll see."
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