James Gunn responds to a fan theory that he was going to do his new Superman movie all along, which means Henry Cavill never had a chance to return as the Man of Steel.
Recall how Henry Cavill appeared in that post-credit scene for Black Adam and there was that big announcement about Cavill returning as Superman.
Months later would then see James Gunn and Peter Safran announcing their new DCU, with Henry Cavill gone as Superman along with Dwayne Johnson as Black Adam, Ben Affleck as Batman, etc.
So some fans (the Snyder fans) think that there is some sort of conspiracy among Gunn and Warner Bros., which Gunn replied to on Threads.
Clearing up Nathan Fillion confusion
A fan mentioned the recent comments by Nathan Fillion about being told he is going to play Guy Gardner Green Lantern in the new DCU, where Fillion said he was told the news at the premiere of Gunn’s The Suicide Squad.
Well, Gunn’s The Suicide Squad premiered back in 2021, so if Fillion was told three years ago about the DCU, that means there were apparently no plans to bring back Henry Cavill as Superman.
However, Gunn corrected things and said Fillion misspoke and was actually told the news at the premiere for Guardians of the Galaxy 3.
“Yes he meant the GotG Vol 3 premiere party,” Gunn said.
Guardians of the Galaxy 3 happened to be released in May of 2023, AFTER the big DCU announcement that took place at the end of January 2023.
Gunn responds to “conspiracy theory” on Threads
A fan then chimed in the following:
I’m going to infer that the “we were lied to” angle is regarding a popular conspiracy theory that you were always planning on rebooting DC and making your own Superman movie when you first got hired by Warner Bros. and finished The Suicide Squad, hence “intending on always screwing over Cavill” and “lying to the fans” since you said you had (at the time) no interest in running DC, and didn’t want to make a Superman movie.
Gunn replied:
I don’t quite understand how that fits. Aside from the fact I had no interest in running DC until Peter decided to do it with me so he could do the exec stuff & I could focus on creative, when I was hired to write Superman it was always intended as & pitched as a new Superman story, so why would I lie about not planning that at the Squad premiere which would have amounted to the same thing at the end of the day? How does this particular conspiracy theory make sense?
Blame David Zaslav not James Gunn
Adding in my own two cents, as I went over about the real ending of The Flash, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO demanded to Gunn that he recast DC with cheaper talent.
It was also Zaslav who put the kibosh on Henry Cavill returning as Superman (I was told Cavill was asking for a lot of money) as well as Ben Affleck returning as Batman, which was the original end scene in The Flash.
Also as my insiders have filled me in over the years, WB loves Gunn and loved when he came over from Marvel, so I assume when Gunn was told about rebooting DC, he jumped at the chance. I’ve been told he likes the DC characters better than Marvel.
