Although David Corenswet currently holds the mantle of cinematic Superman following his debut as the Man of Steel last year in the still-youthful DC Universe, it wasn’t that long ago that Henry Cavill was wearing the red cape. Cavill first appeared as Clark Kent/Kal-El in 2013’s Man of Steel and went on to reprise the character three more times (counting both versions of Justice League). Now a Hollywood producer has shared that during the heyday of Cavill’s time in the DC Extended Universe, he ran into the actor and heard him say “one of the coolest things I’ve ever heard anyone say ever.”
Alan Powell, the co-founder on Monarch Media, shared this story on his Instagram page, explaining how around the time that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was coming out, he was at a hotel where he ended up holding the door for a lot of people coming and going. Powell ended up standing there for a “good solid 60 seconds” until someone took over for him. The producer continued:
So I turn around, and dude, check this out, this is crazy, I turn around and I say, almost like instinctually, I was like, ‘Whoa, you’re Superman!’ And I swear to God, this is what he did. He looks at me and he kind of smiles and he goes, ‘Sometimes.’ And then he just walked inside. That was like the coolest line ever.
That definitely qualifies as a badass line to drop on someone when they recognize you for playing one of pop culture’s most famous superheroes. This encounter took place close to three years after Henry Cavill first played Superman, so between people recognizing him from Man of Steel and all the billboards and other advertisements for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, it would have been difficult not to notice Cavill nearby if your attention wasn’t otherwise occupied. The same would have gone for Ben Affleck, if not more so, as he had a much bigger profile than Cavill before becoming the DCEU’s Batman.
Alan Powell talked about his encounter with Henry Cavill around the same time that Zack Snyder, who directed Man of Steel, Batman v Superman and the original version of Justice League, shared a photo of the actor in the “original Superman suit,” i.e. the one Christopher Reeves wore in his film series. The last time we saw Cavill playing Superman was in the Black Adam post-credits scene, and originally the plan was for him to appear in more DC movies. However, when James Gunn and Peter Safran were hired to run DC Studios, it was decided to reboot the character again, bringing Cavill’s Superman tenure to an end.
While it remains to be seen if Henry Cavill could play a different character in the DCU, just like how Jason Momoa is now Lobo following his time as Aquaman, at least we’ll get to see him in all sorts of other movies coming up. He has the Highlander reboot, In the Grey, Enola Holmes 3 and the live-action Voltron all lined up, though none of them have release dates yet. And you can always revisit Cavill’s Superman appearances your HBO Max subscription while you cross your fingers hoping you’ll run into him someday like Alan Powell did.
