Will Zack Snyder Return to the DCU Now That Henry Cavill is Back?
Appearance of Henry Cavill as Superman in the cameo at the end of Black Adam heralded his return to DCU.
There is information that a new Superman movie starring Cavill is currently at the stage of searching for scriptwriters (via THR). This raises another and, perhaps, more significant questions: does Cavill's return indicate incoming return of Zack Snyder to DCU?
Man of Steel, directed by Snyder, started the DCU all the way back in 2013, and while Snyder's movies have been controversial, his removal from the helm practically shattered DCU from a proper shared universe into a bunch of virtually unconnected movies, as we've reported before.
Because of his numerous conflicts with studio bosses, Snyder eventually had been purged in the middle of Justice League production. But DC Film, led by Walter Hamada and his team, the chief antagonists of Snyder, is now gone. Following the completion the Warner Bros. Discovery merger it has been rebranded as DC Studios in October 2022.
DC Studios will be led by James Gunn and Peter Safran, and they are already announcing changes, starting with renaming what was known as "DCEU (DC Extended Universe)" to simply DC Universe (DCU). Their obvious intent to signify a change in policies might well indicate that a path for return of Zack Snyder, and completion of the DCU movie arc that he initially planned, is open.
Indeed, there is evidence that he might be returning to direct Man of Steel 2 or however that new Superman movie is going to be named. When Henry Cavill recently appeared at a live taping of Josh Horowitz's Happy, Sad, Confused podcast, he talked about multiple things, including his return as Superman. During the podcast, Snyder had sent in a special video message for the Q&A session, which included the following words:
"I can't wait to work with you in the future and you are of course the greatest Superman ever."
However, even if Snyder and DC Studios are going to collaborate in the future, Snyder is busy right now, currently working on Rebel Moon for Netflix. Following that, he also has his Army of the Dead sequel, Planet of the Dead, for Netflix, which is already in development. While his return to DCU appears probable, fans of his superhero movies will have to wait for a few years.