James Gunn opened up about the tough moment when he had to tell Henry Cavill he would no longer play Superman in the DC Universe.
In a recent chat on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the DC Studios boss recounted the time and said it was a “terrible” moment.
“It’s terrible. Believe it or not, the day we were dealing with trying to figure out if we could take the job at DC Studios,” Gunn said. “The day the deal closed, all of a sudden, they were announcing that Henry was back. And I was like, ‘What is going on? We know what the plan is. The plan was to come in and do Superman.’ It was really unfair to him and a total bummer.”
Gunn explained that when he and DC co-head Peter Safran were chosen to lead DC Studios in 2022, many people had their own ideas for the franchise
“There was a vacuum at the time and a lot of people were… They had a take on what they wanted to do at DC and they were trying to force their way and it was just never part of the equation for [WBD CEO] David Zaslav. We came in, and that was really unfortunate. I’m like, ‘This poor guy.’”
They later sat down with Cavill, “He was an absolute gentleman and a great guy about it,” recalled Gunn. “He said, ‘The only thing I ask is that I’m able to reveal it myself as opposed to coming from you guys.’ And I’m like, ‘That’s a class act.’”
“I talked to him about it on that day. I would love to put Henry in something,” Gunn added.