“This is the first time we see Superman in truth”: Henry Cavill Admitted His Superman in Man of Steel is Superior to Even Christopher Reeve’s Version in 1 Area

Superman – the word not only evokes a sense of impassioned optimism but also signifies morality and hope in a world devoid of any. Zack Snyderʼs DC Extended Universe and his Superman portrayed by Henry Cavill was anything but optimistic and hopeful. However, there are many layers to a good story and the bleakness of Man of Steel is but one episode of a multi-chaptered epic.

With the amount of indignation surrounding Henry Cavillʼs Superman exit, the message sent from the fans was already clear. However, what Warner Bros. needed was a clean slate and a fresh start, bereft of the quandaries and plights of a broken Superman seeking his place in the world. The world, as it is, was already broken enough.

But in the eyes of Henry Cavill, the eternal nerd, his version of Superman was so much more than what the pages of an almost-century-old comic book had to offer.

Zack Snyderʼs Superman Takes a Detour from the Comics

An all-rounded superhero experience — that is what comics offer us. Through its glossy, color-infused pages, the readers get transported to worlds and universes never traveled before, sights and experiences never seen or had, and adventures one could only dream of. Escapism, albeit momentary, becomes a very real side effect of getting immersed in that world.

However, when all is said and done, reality feels like a dull, humorless existence compared to the bright-eyed, optimistic, and hopeful reality of Metropolis. With Superman watching over the city and its people, its atmosphere immediately morphs into a space that represents all that is good and right with the world. Superman himself becomes the beacon of hope, embodying courage and virtue in the face of extreme adversity.

That is the kind of superhero Zack Snyder was expected to portray when he first laid the foundations of DCEU. Instead, the fans were exposed to a plethora of conflicting emotions, moral dilemmas, existential crises, hopelessness, and corruption of the most gruesome sort. What the audience did not realize, however, was that only great tragedy can birth true heroes — as has been proven for centuries through Greek, Roman, and Shakespearean tragedies.

Henry Cavill, on the other hand, recognized the path he was meant to walk all along as Kal El, the Man of Tomorrow.

Henry Cavill Reiterates the Legacy of Superman

Despite all the blatant criticism and hatred that was effectively generated in the aftermath of Zack Snyder’s DCEU trifecta: Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Justice League, a vast majority of the fans still stood by the director’s vision for the world he wanted to create. His was a darker, grittier, and more mature version of the superhero epic — a version of reality more attuned to 21st-century society as compared to the 40s and 50s.

In such a reality, saving a cat from a tree was as redundant as plugging a hole in a sinking ship. The ruthless barbarity of this reality needed to see a Superman angry enough to drive a stake through an eighteen-wheeler as payback for men’s misogynistic, filthy ways. Or dance to the tune of billionaires who seek nothing but disruption and chaos for their own profit.

The message that Snyder wanted to send through Henry Cavill’s Superman was that even after suffering irreparable loss and incomprehensible injustice, a man so broken, alienated, and misunderstood by the world can still rise to the occasion and be the hero the people deserve.

Speaking about his arc in a Justice League DVD and Blu-Ray featurette, Cavill explained [via Yahoo Entertainment]:

In my opinion, this is the first time we see Superman in truth. We have seen the origin story of Superman. We have seen the downfall and doubt of Superman. And finally, with his rebirth, we see the true Superman — the Superman who is confident and sure and full of hope and joy.

Such an all-rounded can hardly be seen in other iterations of Superman, even in Richard Donnerʼs 1978 classic Superman: The Movie starring Christopher Reeve which redefined the entire superhero genre. The beacon of light version that is represented through Reeveʼs portrayal is true to the Man of Tomorrow and everything he stands for. But with evolving times comes the necessity for change, and with necessity comes reinvention.

A Superman who only stuck to his early 20th-century idealism – an era that not only needed hope but craved stability and virtue amid wars and threats of nuclear extinction can only go so far before coming off as tone-deaf in a politically aware reality of the postmodern 21st century.

Zack Snyderʼs DCEU trilogy is currently streaming on Max.