While it feels like Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel has been filming forever, star Henry Cavill is finally looking to book his first post-Superman role. Variety reports that Cavill is now in negotiations to star in director Edward Zwick’s (The Last Samurai) period epic The Great Wall. The film “looks at the mystery behind how China’s Great Wall was constructed.” Zwick wrote the screenplay with Marshall Herskovitz, based on a story by World War Z author Max Brooks and Thomas Tull.

No other plot details are given, but historically speaking the Great Wall was constructed in the 5th century BC in order to keep nomadic groups out of the Chinese Empire. It’s unknown what kind of approach Zwick will take, or what kind of character Cavill will play. The actor was recently seen in Immortals, but we’ve got quite a while to wait before we see him don the tights. Man of Steel opens June 14th, 2013.