Most of DCU has been under tragic reconstruction since the April 2022 merger handed over the reins of the parent organization to David Zaslav. Man of Steel 2 is among the more recent projects under the new Warner Bros. umbrella that was critically received with positive audience response after the heartbreaking surgical slashing of the in-development and ongoing projects in the initial months.
However, now that the cat’s out of the bag and Henry Cavill is eager to don the red cape once more, the direction in which he’s looking to fly is something that has become a matter of contentious debate among the standing DC fandom.
Man of Steel 2 Intends to Erase Superman’s DCEU History
It has been the talk for several years that DCEU’s Flash has been gearing up for a Flashpoint storyline. It has been indicated as early as the SnyderVerse timeline that the events leading up to the Justice League film could be subjected to being reversed and the theory only took off with increasing clarity once Ezra Miller‘s The Flash was announced. No longer are Flashpoint and Knightmare possibilities in the DC Cinematic Universe, and even though the latter is merely lost to the wind, the former is now the hope for Warner Bros. to usher in a new DC era.
One of the major changes through Flashpoint that will reverberate among the fans is the erasure of Superman’s DCEU history. Deemed one of the most cinematically beautiful depictions of the origin of Superman, Zack Snyder‘s Man of Steel was controversial for more than a handful of reasons. But it was the bare-handed murder of General Zod that transgressed the expectations of what Superman represented to the global community — a beacon of hope and virtue.
The murder, no matter how necessary, took away something inherently good and replaced it with a corrupting grief that consumed Superman in the years to come. That arc was never fully explored due to Man of Steel directly leading on to the events of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. But DCU is now intent to change all of that and erase much of the corruption that made Henry Cavill‘s Superman a classically tragic hero.
Henry Cavill’s Man of Steel 2 Will Serve as a Reboot
According to an exclusive report by Giant Freaking Robot, the newly announced Man of Steel 2 will not be the sequel it was promised to be and instead serve as a reboot of the Superman franchise. Although DCEU had already established the origin of the comic-famed character, it is now very much in the cards for Superman to never face the events that built up to the climactic battle of the Kryptonians above Metropolis.
Also read: Henry Cavill Promises DCU Will Explore Superman to “Give the audience everything that they deserve”
This primarily violates the pre-existing story that defined the DCEU Superman’s potential and served as one of the most definitive moments of his life. It also serves as a complete disregard of the comic canon that witnessed the Man of Steel executing a calculated and cruel murder of the Kryptonian warriors Zod, Quex-Ul, and Zaora in the 1988 issue Superman #22 when the latter trio decimates the Pocket Universe Earth.
Man of Steel 2 will now be innately tied to the Andy Muschietti project, The Flash which through Flashpoint will be able to reverse much of the events of the SnyderVerse. An exploration of the events directly after Man of Steel will not be in DC’s strategy as far as the rumors are concerned. The continual narrative from Henry Cavill about a happier, lighter Superman storyline also then makes sense, considering the new direction in which James Gunn and Peter Safran are going with DCU.
The Flash premieres on June 23, 2023.
Source: Giant Freaking Robot
