Henry Cavill’s return and immediate departure from the DCU has been just another strange chapter in the story of Warner Bros. Discovery’s overhaul of what should be their biggest franchise. A report by The Hollywood Reporter has now quoted one industry insider as saying what many have suspected for some time, that Cavill and his Superman Hokey-Cokey was all down to him being a “pawn” in Dwayne Johnson’s desire to make himself the center of the DC franchise.

Dwayne Johnson made it very clear that he was responsible for bringing back Henry Cavill’s Man of Steel for his Black Adam cameo appearance, and at the time, he boasted about going over the head of departing DC head Walter Hamada to make it happen. However, Black Adam failed to ignite the fuse in quite the way Johnson hoped, pulling in just $389 million and failing even to trouble the Top Ten movies of the year.

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According to the new report, an insider told the publication that Cavill had ended up being in the cross-fire of Johnson’s desires and the reality of the situation:

Additionally, Cavill never had a contract to make further appearances in the DCU but only had a verbal agreement that new projects would be created for him in the future. Cavill was paid $250,000 for his Superman cameos, even though it looks like his appearance in The Flash will no longer be happening, but it seems that is where his Superman story was always destined to end.

“In the end, he was a pawn in Dwayne’s failed attempt to control a piece of DC.”

How Has Dwayne Johnson Responded to Superman’s Cancelation?

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The short answer to that is, as far as Dwayne Johnson is concerned, business as usual, as he did not directly address the collapse of his Black Adam/Superman dream, but instead was alleged to have quietly unfollowed both Black Adam and Warner Bros. pages on Instagram. While the actor has refuted this, he has shifted his attention to bigging up his upcoming Apple TV festive movie Red One, suggesting that he is prepared to move on as though Black Adam never even existed. Even the movie’s arrival on HBO Max, which should have seen Johnson doing his usual thing, passed with complete radio silence despite the actor continuing to post on his social media accounts.

Now DCU fans are left waiting for more information on what exactly they will be getting from the DC franchise going forward. James Gunn has already teased some potential projects and confirmed that he is writing a new Superman movie that will focus on a younger version of the character. Gunn has also confirmed that a new version of Batman will also be a big part of the franchise, and there have been rumors around the likes of Jason Momoa and Gal Gadot’s futures, but nothing is yet set in stone. Where all of this leaves next year’s slate of movies like Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Flash, and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is also unclear, as right now it seems that the movies will be a strange, unsatisfactory conclusion to the DCEU as it was known.