James Gunn Addresses Apparent Age Discrepancies Between Batman And Superman In The Wake Of Claiming He Canned Henry Cavill Due To His Age

John F. Trent |

Feb 6, 2023

Henry Cavill as Superman in Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021), HBO Max

DC Studios CEO James Gunn attempted to address age discrepancies between Superman and Batman for his and Peter Safran’s vision of the DCU.

Gunn and hi s co-CEO Safran provided more details on the Superman film, titled Superman: Legacy at the end of January with Safran noting the film “is really the launch of the DCU” and “it focuses on Superman balancing his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing.”

Safran added, “Superman represents truth, justice and the American way. He is kindness in a world that thinks of kindness as old fashioned.”

“With our stories, we want to take it away from good guy vs. bad guy. There are really good—almost saintly—people and Superman is among them,” Gunn added.

Gunn concluded, “There are really terrible villains like Gorilla Grodd or the Joker. And then there’s everybody in between them, so there are all these shades of gray which allow us to tell complex stories.”

After providing details on Superman: Legacy, Gunn would also announce a film about the Batman family titled The Brave and the Bold.

Gunn revealed, “This is the introduction of the DCU’s Batman. It is not Robert Pattinson. It is not Ben Affleck. We’re working with Robert on The Batman – Part II with Matt Reeves, and we’re working with Ben Affleck, who has been a part of our team trying to bring things together and he really wants to direct one of our projects. We’re excited for him to do that.”

He continued, “This is a story of Damian Wayne, who’s Batman’s actual son that he didn’t know existed for the first eight to ten years of his life. He was raised as a little murderer and assassin. He’s my favorite Robin.”

“It’s based on the Grant Morrison comic run, which is one of my favorite Batman runs. We’re putting it all together right now,” Gunn relayed.

Safran added, “This is going to feature other members of the extended Bat-Family. Just because we feel like they’ve been left out of the Batman stories in the theater for far too long.”

Given this information there was concern that Batman would be much older than Superman in the DCU. Clearly, Batman has already had a kid and one expects that he’s spent years already with other members of the family who have graduated from Robins to their own personas such as Dick Grayson as Nightwing or Barbara Gordon as Batgirl.

Batman and Superman are usually depicted as contemporaries who alongside Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter lead the Justice League.

Gunn addressed these concerns during a meeting with select press outlets and according to Collider noted that the film is not about Superboy, it’s about Superman.

He also revealed that Superman’s “working. He’s a reporter. He’s at the Daily Planet. Again, we’re coming into a world where superheroes exist and have existed.”

Gunn then acknowledged, “So, does that mean Batman might be a couple years older than Superman? Yes, it could be.”

The DC Studios CEO previously indicated that Cavill was canned from his role as Superman because he was too old.

When questioned about why Cavill would be recast, Gunn wrote on Twitter, “As I said yesterday, it is very simple, he’s a different age.”

In response to another user, he wrote, “[Superman’s] not meeting the major characters for the first time, either. He’s merely younger.”

While announcing his DC Studios slate, he also told The Hollywood Reporter, “I like Henry, I think he’s a great guy. I think he’s getting dicked around by a lot of people, including the former regime at this company. But this Superman is not Henry, for a number of reasons.”

Gunn hasn’t elaborated on what those reasons are except for his age, and given that it appears Gunn is perfectly fine featuring an older Batman, it doesn’t really make sense why he would part ways with Cavill simply because of his age.

While Gunn reportedly denied that he’s not doing a film about Superboy, it’s quite possible he could be adapting Tom Taylor’s abysmal Superman: Son of Kal-El that was recently canned seemingly for its poor sales numbers.

In that series, Clark Kent’s son, Jonathan, is made gay and turned into a activist for every degenerate and hedonistic cause Taylor could drum out of his fingers.

Gunn’s DCU slate announcement confirmed that one of the leading figures for the destruction of DC Comics, Tom King, is one of the chief architects of the slate. It wouldn’t be a surprise that they brought in Tom Taylor to fundamentally destroy Superman on film as they have done in the comics.