After a week of drama and intrigue at DC Studios, the major headline news was the canning of major sequels involving the biggest names in the DC Comics canon. One of those involved Henry Cavill returning to the role of Clark Kent/Superman in a sequel to 2013's Man of Steel (directed by Zack Snyder). The story of Cavill's Superman was directly followed up with the events of Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, which attempted to pull off a fast-tracking to a major team-up movie, Avengers-style, with Justice League.
However, tepid box office and critical response to that film looked set to lay Cavill's take on the character to rest, for good. Things changed earlier this year, when Cavill made a surprising cameo in Dwayne Johnson's Black Adam. In an end credits tease, Cavill's Superman confronted the anti-hero, setting up a potential film where the two of them would undoubtedly begin as adversaries before uniting for the greater good. Following this, news emerged of a sequel in the works to Man of Steel.
Johnson took matters into his own hands by bringing Cavill on board, against what he described as resistance from Warner Bros. executives, and Cavill himself then announced to the world that he was returning to the role. This week, the landscape changed. A report by Deadline burst into view, reporting that the entire DC Extended Universe - including the proposed sequels to Man of Steel and Wonder Woman - had been canned.
But now, a new report by The Hollywood Reporter has shed even more light on the background to the proposed sequel. According to their sources, Steven Knight - the creator of the acclaimed television drama Peaky Blinders, as well as the movies Spencer and Eastern Promises - was the writer behind the most recent treatment for the next iteration of Superman. However, it failed to set the world alight, according to the report, and was rejected out of hand by the Warner Bros. executives, who gave Knight notes on how he could improve the treatment.
Before he was able to do that, or indeed, before another writer could be hired to complete another pass at the project, the world of DC Films was turned upside down by the hiring of James Gunn and Peter Safran to become the new studio heads. As a result, the studio never officially greenlit the movie, and Cavill is left in limbo having announced his involvement in both a film that does not exist, with a character that may be recast, and whose only upcoming appearance is set to be a cameo in The Flash, which opens next summer.