Today saw an announcement made about a Supergirl movie being in development, but it was an announcement about the wrong Kryptonian, as most fans wanted to hear that a Superman Man of Steel 2 movie starring Henry Cavill would be next.
Man of Steel 2 was actually rumored to be announced this Summer at Comic-Con, but then further rumors surfaced that Warner Bros. and Henry Cavill were playing hardball regarding contract negotiations.
It was said that Henry Cavill’s manager, who also manages and is the business partner and former wife of Dwayne Johnson, is trying to get Cavill paid as an A-lister for Man of Steel 2, but WB thinks differently considering that his three previous outings as Superman weren’t that well received and didn’t do all that well at the box office (not the fault of Cavill).
A recent rumor from Revenge of The Fans even offered that WB now has a “take it or leave it” attitude regarding bringing back Henry Cavill as Superman for Man of Steel 2.
Now with the announcement about Supergirl, Deadline chimes in with rumors of their own offering that WB may want to use Supergirl to reboot Superman with a new actor:
It is unclear whether Superman will appear in this but if the rumors are true that Warner Bros and DC Entertainment are looking to create a new template for future Superman movies, this would seem a likely place to hatch a new persona. Henry Cavill, coming off a terrific turn opposite Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible Fallout, has played the stoic Man of Steel in the movies so far.
Deadline continues with mention of something similar to what I previously said, in that WB may want to move away from the darker aspects of the DCEU under Zack Snyder:
The move toward Supergirl is reflective of a change in focus at the studio, where the superhero effort is now headed by Walter Hamada, who shepherded many of New Line’s genre film hits before moving over when the entire DC braintrust was dismantled after the lackluster Justice League, which grossed $615 million worldwide on a reported $300 million budget.
Finding a different way back to the Superman universe through Supergirl reflects the differing mindset of DC priority titles to be a bit out of the box, and away from a slate which, with the notable exception of the Patty Jenkins-directed Wonder Woman, has resulted in too many films that have been leaden, dark, and not that fun. And expensive — Man of Steel, Batman Vs Superman and Justice League carried around $800 million in production budgets to gross a collective $2.1 billion, according to reported budget estimates.
So it just may be possible that WB doesn’t want to pay the big bucks to Henry Cavill and feels they can replace him as Superman, and at the same time, move away from the Zack Snyder moody and dark version of the character on to something new, something more in line with the Christopher Reeve version (which interestingly enough Tyler Hoechlin recently played a version of on The CW’s Supergirl and was really well received).
I’ll also add that the announcement of a Supergirl movie seemingly replacing Henry Cavill as Superman and a Man of Steel 2 could always be a part of WB’s hardball approach to contract negotations with the actor.
The Supergirl movie presently has no producers attached, no directors, and of course no cast. It’s like WB just came up with the Supergirl idea out of the thin air and “told” writer Oren Uziel to come up with a script–and then WB intentionally “leaked” the information to Deadline. The article could just be a way to get Henry Cavill to sign at a lower cost, as it could drum up fears he could be replaced as Superman.
The article also comes out after the release of Mission: Impossible – Fallout starring Henry Cavill, which had the best opening for the franchise. It has also been said WB was waiting to see if Fallout was going to be a success, which it is, to decide on resigning Cavill. Now that Fallout is a big hit, we see there is talk of replacing him in the Hollywood trade sites, which again could simply be BS that the studios fed to the sites.
Henry Cavill is also speculated to star as the new James Bond under none other than director Christopher Nolan so perhaps if WB doesn’t feel he is worth it, Cavill could take or leave Superman as well.
I personally hope Henry Cavill remains on as Superman for the foreseeable future, so hopefully both sides come to a mutual beneficial decision soon, which means we get both Henry Cavill as Superman for Man of Steel 2 and a Supergirl flick.
