Superman is on everyone’s mind in the DC universe. Ever since James Gunn dismissed Henry Cavill from the role and fans lost their minds, we’ve all been wondering who the next Superman will be. There have been some good rumors circulating. A lot of fans have made excellent art, putting different actors’ heads on Superman’s body. But Gunn assures us that his plan for the DCU involves a little bit of a wait before Superman will be cast again. And this is probably for the best.
Gunn tweeted recently that despite his plans to announce some things in the near future, “the casting of Superman won’t be one of them.” The filmmaker turned studio executive is creating a new DCU, and it seems he’s doing it with the skills that made him a good director. In his tweet, he stated that any casting being done for any of his movies would happen after a script was at least close to being done. And it’s safe to say that DC Studios is nowhere near that mark on Man of Steel 2, if it could even still be called that.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
As DC fans wait with bated breath for James Gunn’s announcement of his fabulous plans for the universe, we’re of the opinion that he shouldn’t rush into casting Superman or even planning another Superman film.
Change Is Hard For Fans
Warner Bros.
There was a lot of controversy when James Gunn and Peter Safran dropped Henry Cavill as Superman. Understandable, since fans who had just gone to see The Rock’s Black Adam just saw Cavill wearing the red cape at the end of the movie. There wasn’t really any question about it; Cavill was returning and Gunn would remake the DCU around the star.
But perhaps Dwayne Johnson spoke too quickly of his plans for a Superman/Black Adam showdown. Now the future of DC is uncertain, and we’re all a bit confused by what the story that the upcoming movies might tell. Gunn assures the public that his ten-year plan with Peter Safran is in the works and that they will begin making announcements soon. But he’s also said that the future of Superman will remain in the dark for now.
Fans have gone from having an assured Man of Steel 2 movie in the works with Cavill all the way back to an Untitled Superman Project set for some time in the next ten years. But it’s the right decision, even if it makes people unhappy. Getting the DC universe to change was never going to be easy. If Gunn and the other executives had let DC keep moving forward as it had in the past, sure fans might still be excited about upcoming movies, but once they premiered, we would’ve all complained about how DC wasn’t as good as Marvel just like we’ve been doing for the past decade. Now that Gunn is in a position to change things about DC he needs to make his decisions carefully, and putting Superman on the back burner is a good idea.
Superman Is the Heart of DC
DC Comics
Gunn is set to write a story that is ten years long. If it’s to be anything like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it will begin with a single story and expand to something much bigger. When Disney came to Robert Downey Jr. to ask him to play Tony Stark, they must’ve known they were going to build an entire franchise on him; that he wouldn’t just have to be Tony Stark for the Iron Man movies, but for every other movie in the Marvel universe as well. Gunn will have to choose someone like this on which to hedge his bets. Superman is the most important superhero in all of DC, and he’s going to have to lift that entire franchise out of a decade-long rut.
Once he has his plan outlined, Gunn will have to write a spectacular movie. And the content of that movie will tell us more about who Superman will be than anything else Gunn might be able to predict. The mood and tone of the film that he’s using to build the DCU will help to sculpt the idea that will eventually become the red and blue suit someone will have to put on.
Though it’s hard, fans ought to be patient. Good movies take time, and Gunn is trying to create a whole universe of films. DC is in the process of taking a bitter pill that will hopefully turn it into a better movie studio. Fans should acknowledge what difficulties that might create in the short term in order to reap the benefits down the road. Superman is a core character that deserves to be done right. The decisions Gunn has to make are difficult and take a long time to come to fruition, but he is making the right choices as a responsible manager for DC. We won’t see Superman again for a long time, but when we do, it will be all the better.
