Despite saying somewhat confidently that the cape was still his a few years ago, the truth coming to light is, before that anticipated cameo in Black Adam, Henry Cavill didn’t quite know when or if he’d ever play Superman again.
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Since he posted that upbeat video message on Instagram the actor has been less inhibited about what kept him from the role for so long as well as how he felt sitting on the sidelines.
He revealed to Deadline much of it was outside his control. “As an actor, you have to learn that there are things out of your control, no matter what you may think, no matter how your performance was, no matter what factor were not in your control in the first place, no matter how the audience feels,” Cavill said in a recent edition of the trade’s The Film That Lit My Fuse video series.
“It was something which I had to very gently hold onto in my heart because I didn’t know whether I would have the opportunity to play it again…” he added. “[But] the opportunity was very important to get again, and I’m very, very lucky and feel very privileged to have that opportunity now.”
The actor hopes to take that positivity, which drew him to the character in the first place, and reintroduce it into big-screen depictions of the Man of Steel. “There’s something so true and honest and hopeful, which is the best of all of us, and I love that,” Cavill said.
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“I think it’s the thing which we all truly yearn for, deep, deep down, which is goodness, and everyone else being good and good to one another, and helping one another. Even at our most cynical, I think that deep down, that’s what we want,” he continued.
This sentiment is consistent with remarks Cavill made earlier during a Happy Sad Confused radio interview. “The character means so much to me. It’s been five years now. I never gave up hope,” he said.
“It’s amazing to be here now talking about it again. There is such a bright future ahead for the character. I’m so excited to tell a story with an enormously joyful Superman,” Cavill added.
Recent reports indicate the tentatively titled Man of Steel 2 is in development but it doesn’t have a release date, writer, or director slated, so it is incumbent on Cavill to bring the joy he feels and wants to channel to his strongly rumored, though unverified, cameo in The Flash.
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