UPDATE: The book that needs this Superman is already drawn. Per our insiders, The Dark Knight Returns is fully storyboarded and Snyder wants to adapt the graphic novel as is, like Watchmen.
Zack Snyder wants Henry Cavill back as Superman.
Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns has a second lead. Superman is in the book, and the book ends with him and Batman fighting in Crime Alley.
So after our exclusive that Snyder wants Ben Affleck as his Dark Knight Returns Batman, we asked our insiders the next obvious question: Cavill has to be the Superman in it, right?
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The answer: “Oh, yes, absolutely! Zack loves the guy and is very loyal to his people.”
Same rules as the Affleck report. This is what Snyder wants, and no offer can go out while Warner Bros. sits frozen until the Paramount deal closes.
But take stock of what just happened. Both leads of Batman v Superman are now named for the actual book, a decade later, at the ages the story is about.
The Batman v Superman Rematch, From The Actual Book
In Miller’s story, Superman is the one who never hung up the cape.
He kept working, quietly, for the government, while Bruce Wayne spent ten years retired. When Batman comes back, the two are on a collision course, and the book’s final act is the fight.
Snyder staged a version of that fight in 2016 with these two actors. Now, per our insiders, the project sitting ready with Jay Oliva, built for IMAX, is the book itself.
The last time Snyder put them on screen together, they were building a League. Miller’s book is where that friendship comes apart.
The Affleck piece laid out the Batman half: the actor cast because of Miller’s Batman, now 54 to the character’s 55. The Superman half is simpler. There is one Superman in Snyder’s world, and it has always been Cavill.
“Very Loyal To His People”
That second half of the quote is the story of how Cavill left, and why this matters.
In October 2022, days after his Black Adam cameo, Cavill announced he was back as Superman. Within weeks, James Gunn and Peter Safran took over DC Studios. By December, Cavill was announcing he would not be returning after all, and Gunn’s Superman went to a new actor.
Snyder’s rebuild, as our reporting has described it, runs on the opposite instinct.
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Oliva, his storyboard artist from Man of Steel through Justice League, is on The Dark Knight Returns. Larry Fong, his cinematographer, turned up on his Instagram story this month. Affleck is his Batman. And Cavill, per our insiders, is his Superman.
None of this should surprise CBN readers. Since October we have reported that the SnyderVerse return in play at a Paramount-owned Warner Bros. includes Cavill back as Superman. Now there is a specific movie attached to the name.
The Summer Of Cavill Posts
Snyder has spent the summer posting Cavill almost as often as he has posted Affleck.
He marked the Fourth of July with Cavill’s Superman, teased “hope rises” with the black suit, and posted a Man of Steel era throwback captioned “always a good day when this one shows up,” present tense, set to Smashing Pumpkins’ “Today.”
He scored his Frank Miller announcement to Justice League music. And on Friday, after our Affleck report, he posted himself and Affleck on the BvS set, scored to “We Do This Together”.
The Older Look Is The Point
Here’s the part fans spotted before we did.
The internet spent Saturday arguing about a photo of Cavill with grey in his beard and curls instead of the Superman coif, the working look from a Highlander shoot that has been rolling since January.
Now look at the role. Miller’s Bruce Wayne is 55. Miller’s Clark Kent is his contemporary, wearing the years lighter but wearing them, a company man with a jaw that has been through some things. Cavill at 43, grey coming in at the temples, reads like the character.
The same way Affleck aged into Miller’s Bruce, Cavill has aged into Miller’s Clark. That is not a problem for this movie. That is the casting.
The Schedule And The Freeze
Cavill is booked. He has been shooting Chad Stahelski’s Highlander since January, most recently in Hong Kong, where he was greeted as Superman, ahead of Amazon MGM’s 2027 release.
He also just went on record that he is still starring in Amazon’s Warhammer 40,000 series.
But The Dark Knight Returns cannot start before an owner can say yes.
Warner Bros. has agreed not to close the Paramount deal until a trial verdict, as late as June 2027, unless a settlement lands before Ellison’s October 1 deadline.
The freeze and Cavill’s calendar are running on similar clocks.
Snyder said on stage in July that The Dark Knight Returns happens “when they let us.” The “us” keeps getting more specific.
“Zack wants him but no offers made yet.” “Oh, yes, absolutely!” Batman and Superman, named. Both waiting on the court case to be over.
Matt McGloin is the editor-in-chief and publisher of Cosmic Book News, the independent entertainment news site he founded in 2008. He covers movies, comics, TV, video games and pop culture and has reported major industry scoops over the years, including revealing the Avengers: Endgame title ahead of its official announcement. Through Cosmic Book News, he helped Marvel Comics promote Guardians of the Galaxy and Nova through exclusive previews, artwork, and interviews, with the site also quoted in solicitations and on comic covers. He also reported on Marvel’s Daredevil: Born Again retooling before it was later confirmed by the trades.