A reported negotiations impasse over a long-rumored Superman cameo in Shazam! ignited the firestorm on Wednesday about Henry Cavill’s apparent departure as the DC Extended Universe’s Man of Steel. While subsequent statements from the actor’s manager and from Warner Bros. did little to clarify the situation, at least on thing seems clear: Cavill’s Superman won’t appear alongside Zachary Levi’s Shazam in the upcoming film. However, we may now have an idea of what that planned role would have involved.
Following the initial report, TheWrap’s Umberto Gonzalez offered details details of Cavill’s scrapped appearance in director David F. Sandberg’s film, saying, “Spoiler alert, for what it’s worth the Superman cameo in Shazam! was supposed to be Clark at the end of the movie meeting with Billy Batson, the kid who [turns into] Shazam, and telling him ‘Hey, we’re gonna keep an eye on you.’ That kind of thing.”
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There’s long been speculation that Cavill’s Man of Steel would appear in Shazam!, or play a much larger role opposite Dwayne Johnson in Black Adam. The teaser trailer and early images for Shazam! established the film as existing in the same world as Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Wonder Woman and Justice League, and Jack Dylan Grazer’s Freddy Freeman as an avid collector of superhero memorabilia. A scene as described by Gonzalez would have underscored the film’s connections connections to the larger DCEU without necessarily requiring plot threads to intermingle.
It’s, of course, unknown whether Warner Bros. will abandon plans for a superhero cameo entirely, or turn to another member of the Justice League, like Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman, Jason Momoa’s Aquaman, Ezra Miller’s The Flash or Ray Fisher’s Cyborg.
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Arriving April 5, 2019, director David F. Sandberg’s Shazam! stars Asher Angel as Billy Batson, Zachary Levi as Shazam, Mark Strong as Dr. Thaddeus Sivana, Djimon Hounsou as an ancient wizard named Shazam, Grace Fulton as Mary Bromfield, Jack Dylan Grazer as Frederick “Freddy” Freeman, Ian Chen as Eugene Choi, Jovan Armand as Pedro Peña, Faithe Herman as Darla Dudley, Cooper Andrews as Victor Vásquez and Marta Milans as Rosa Vásquez.