When it comes to putting Superman on screen, only Christopher Reeves’ original outing in Richard Donner’s 1978 movie has delivered a universally loved result. One of the most recent actors to play the Man of Steel isHenry Cavill, who made his debut in Zack Snyder’s first DECU offering in 2013, and while Cavill was an incredibly popular addition to the roster of stars to have donned the cape, the movie didn’t receive unanimous praise from fans.
One ofMan of Steel’s divisive scenes saw Cavill’s Superman taking on Michael Shannon’s General Zod in a battle that caused mass destruction and led to the death of the movie’s villain. A decade later, the mixed and extreme feelings about the movie are still being aired, and the scene in which a parking lot was “unnecessarily” destroyed was the subject of fierce debate again on X. While fans argued over why Superman would allow a whole parking lot to be flattened, one of the movie’s creatives settled the issue of whether Cavill’s hero allowed people to die in the lot, or whether it was empty at the time of the battle. Confirming a detail not specifically addressed before,storyboarder Jay Olivasaid:
“I came up with that scene and had no bystanders anywhere shown and used and empty parking lot for said destruction. If you want to believe that there’s people in there then that’s on you but not what’s in the film or what was intended.”
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Man of Steel Was Revisited in The Flash.
While the universe being constructed by Zack Snyder a decade ago came to a very abrupt halt followinghis departure from the original shootfor Justice League, the legacy of Snyder’s starting point for the DCEU has been brought back into the spotlight as part of this summer’sThe Flash.
The time-travelling nature of the story contained with Ezra Miller’s solo superhero outing allowed the story to revisit a number of points in the DC franchise’s multiversal past. This included the return of Michael Keaton as Batman, a CGI-heavy montage of former DC stars, andThe Flashdipping intoMan of Steel’s story, right about the time that Superman and Zod were tearing strips out of each other.
Although there was no return for Henry Cavill in The Flash, mainly thanks to the complete mess that wasBlack Adam’s post-credits sceneand the many changes within Warner Bros., Michael Shannon did reprise his role as Zod in the movie. That itself became something of a debating point, with fans not seeming to be able to make up their minds whether they loved the fan service that this brought or hated it. The film itself started off with some very positive sound bites from its first screenings, but once the movie hit cinemas on general release, they took a hefty dive, similar to its box office.
Despite that, the love out there for Henry Cavill and his version of Superman has not diminished. While it is unlikely we will ever see him grace screens again in the famous cape,The Witcherstar’s place in the annals of DC past is secured alongside the likes of Christopher Reeves, Tom Welling and Brandon Routh.
