MOVIE NEWS – The Man of Steel would have finally clashed with Darkseid if Zack Snyder’s DCEU had ended the way the director wanted.

Zack Snyder designed Superman to go through the hero’s rise, fall, and eventual redemption. However, as it turns out, Henry Cavill’s time as the Man of Steel has come to an end along with the now-defunct Snyderverse. But if the DCEU had continued, before James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DCU was announced, the Last Son of Krypton would have eventually confronted Darkseid and redeemed himself. In an interview with GQ, Snyder said:

“He was going to have to succumb to the Anti-life, be destroyed, turn the clock back, and then get his chance for this battle against Darkseid. If you will… that would have finished his trilogy of becoming this guardian and sort of return him to his humanity.”

Cavill’s iteration of the DC Comics character last appeared in a cameo at the end of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s Black Adam (2022).

After all, in their brief meeting of superpowers, Johnson and Cavill seem to have set up a future big-screen showdown between the Man of Steel and the champion of Kahndaq. But those hopes were almost as quickly consigned to the history books when Gunn announced in early 2023 that he would be leading a revamped DC universe. Cavill was eventually replaced by a new Superman, David Corenswet.

Could Zack Snyder’s murderous Man of Steel have blown the fuse?!

Not even the DCEU’s best superhero portrayal could save Henry Cavill’s version of Superman from annihilation. The DCU is preparing to introduce a new character to moviegoers in James Gunn’s 2025 Superman film. To be sure, there were some issues with Zack Snyder’s version of the DC Comics character.

One glaring red flag popped up at the end of Cavill’s first film, when Superman snaps General Zod’s (Michael Shannon) neck!

Anyone familiar with the source material knows that killing is not allowed for Kal-El. However, Snyder defended the decision in the same interview with GQ:

“He’s not going to stop. He wasn’t going to negotiate an outcome, so it was either Zod or us. And that was pretty much the game. There was no like middle ground. Zod said he would fight until either you kill me or I kill you […] If Superman can’t handle that position, then he’s fake, then he’s not… you got to like… he’s got to address the scenarios that come to him choose, as you can’t pick and choose when something is outside of your morality.”

While Superman killing Zod may not have doomed the character, the Snyderverse seemed to make the Man of Steel a maniac that the other heroes would eventually have to confront and fight to the death.

The loss of Lois Lane (Amy Adams) would have ultimately driven the hero into the bloodthirsty arms of Darkseid. Even killing off Aquaman (Jason Momoa) and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) was brought up in Zack Snyder’s Justice League.

Evil Superman, Ultraman, or as the fans want to call the renegade Clark Kent… what would have become of Cavill’s Man of Steel in the Snyder version, we will never know. Ultimately, Cavill’s most memorable Superman appearance in terms of storytelling came over a decade ago in Man of Steel (2013).

Source: YouTube