In a late 2021 GQ interview, Henry Cavill spoke about his time as the Man of Steel and how much he had invested in the role and each arc of the character’s development. Even though years have passed since his official exit from the DC Universe, the actor still reiterated his character’s need to be rid of any guilt for his journey down the darkest path. But for that to happen, audiences would need a sequel to Zack Snyder’s. Justice League.
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The DCEU World-Building of Henry Cavill and Zack Snyder
2013 marked the beginning of an era where Zack Snyder and Henry Cavill gave the world its best version of Superman. The DC Extended Universe was formed at the same time Steel man Was launched. The following years defined what would happen to Snyder’s vision before it was abruptly and haphazardly cut short. But the basics of Justice League The trilogy was still laid bare for the DCEU to build upon after the director’s departure. However, it wasn’t until a little orchestration from Snyder in 2021 that the cinematic universe’s true potential could be fully understood.
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by Zack Snyder Justice League was the first of three Justice League stories in development. The movie set up the worst possible scenario in the DC Universe that would be Darkseid taking over the world after Steppenwolf didn’t do it for him. The plot also foreshadows Superman succumbing to the Anti-Life Equation after the death of Lois Lane and the survival of the Justice League with some unlikely “allies” (including the Joker) trying to save the future of the dystopian apocalyptic world by trying to change the past.
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Henry Cavill Talks Superman’s Redemption Arc
In the GQ interview, Henry Cavill specifically outlined the steps he wanted to take in order to deliver the best Superman arc possible. It was made clear at the start that if Snyder wanted Superman to take the darker path, he first had to show that the character was as good as the “glimmer of hope” for the people. Only then would his corruption by Darkseid’s Anti-Life Equation be more tangential, which would then set the stage for Superman’s redemption arc.
“I was very keen to really flesh out the early stages of his Superman journey, first. We had Man of Steel and then we went a bit darker with Batman v Superman. What if he succumbed to the anti-life equation and become a bad Superman, I really wanted to make sure we saw the hero Superman and saw the true symbol of hope, the beacon of light, before we headed down the path to darkness and then redemption. It’s still something that I really want to flesh out.”
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The Justice League Snyder cut had well established the Knightmare timeline as the future of the DCEU. One of Cyborg’s visions showed Henry Cavill’s Superman holding the charred corpse of Lois Lane and Darkseid swaying him into his greatest moment of vulnerability. The many visions in the timeline also included one where the Man of Steel would capture and execute Batman. This arc would then go on to define what Cavill calls the “bad Superman” in Justice League 2. The only possible way to go from there would be to rewrite history by sending The Flash back in time (multiple times) until eventually the team gets their hero back and thus begins their eventual arc of redemption.
Source: GQ
