Before kicking-off RollingStone‘s Star Wars interview with J.J. Abrams, they briefly asked Abrams about the possibility of directing a Superman film, given the recent $250-500 million deal struck between WarnerMedia and his production company Bad Robot.
J.J. states they haven’t had any discussions concerning Superman or the DC lineup. Although, the outlet didn’t sound terribly convinced that was the case.
Abrams just struck a massive production deal with Disney rival WarnerMedia, which could get his hands on Superman, Batman, and the rest of the DC Comics pantheon — there are a notable number of Superman toys among the whimsical decorations downstairs. “We haven’t had those discussions yet,” Abrams says, not quite convincingly.
This idea that Abrams could be tackling Superman or something within the DC Comics library stems from a tease from Variety’s Justin Kroll on a recent podcast appearance, where he hinted that J.J. could be tackling something with “capes” in the near future.
KROLL: “I hope the new Warner Bros. deal leads to more stuff, maybe someone with a cape. We’ll see. That’s a hint.”
However, that could have been simply speculation given that J.J. has a knack for franchises with infusing new blood into Mission: Impossible, Star Trek, and Star Wars.
Along with the fact that Abrams had once penned a Superman film script that ultimately wasn’t made.
Another reason for this line of thinking could be due to Abrams’ Lost cohort Damien Lindelof is the currently behind HBO’s popular Watchmen series.
Meanwhile, Henry Cavill still seems up to return to the role of Clark Kent/Superman while promoting his upcoming Netflix series The Witcher (already getting a second season officially) spoke to our pals over at Men’s Health and revealed he is still keen about Kent.
CAVILL: “The cape is in the closet.”
“It’s still mine… I’ve not given up the role. There’s a lot I have to give for Superman yet. A lot of storytelling to do. A lot of real, true depths to the honesty of the character I want to get into. I want to reflect the comic books. That’s important to me. There’s a lot of justice to be done for Superman. The status is: You’ll see.”
However, the only issue at the moment is that Warner Bros. is currently occupied with their Supergirl feature film that is still seemingly looking for a director and lead actress. There is a good shot that Supergirl could end up the Kyptoian that the studio backs for the next couple of years.
Despite reports of Supergirl looking to shoot sometime next year, those chance are looking slim given the productions of The Batman and Black Adam taking place next year and there really hasn’t been any official/concrete movement on the female-centric superhero film besides a screenwriter.
There also had been chatter that Cavill and his reps didn’t exactly see eye-to-eye with the studio brass/producers over at Warner Bros. during his time there.
You have to keep in mind, just because Henry wants to keep playing Superman that doesn’t automatically mean he actually will as it’s not really up to him how the studio wants to move forward with the character (either reboot or recasting).
All you have to do is look at how Matt Reeves’ Batman film started out as a vehicle for Ben Affleck’s Bruce Wayne only to become a reboot with Robert Pattinson in the role.
There is a strong chance that Superman could go that route as well (maybe Supergirl is that reboot?).
We’ll have to wait and see what the ultimate plans are for both Supergirl and Superman are before getting too excited about Henry’s enthusiasm to return.
SOURCE: ROLLING STONE & MEN’S HEALTH
