James Gunn Says it Was ‘Terrible’ Telling Henry Cavill He Was Replaced as Superman: ‘That Was Really Unfortunate’

James Gunn is opening up about letting Henry Cavill go from the DCU.

During a recent appearance on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, the “Superman” director explained that as his deal to take over DC Studios closed, it was announced that Cavill would reprise his role as the Man of Steel. However, according to Gunn, it was already on paper that he would helm a new Superman film with a new actor, which created an “unfair” situation for Cavill.

“The day our deal closed, all of a sudden, they were announcing that Henry was back,” Gunn said. “And I’m like, ‘What is going on?’ We know what the plan is. The plan was to come in and do ‘Superman.’ So it was really unfair to him and a total bummer.”

Gunn added that the miscommunication was due to a sector of the studio trying to “force” their own vision of DC, which was “never part of the equation.”

“That was really unfortunate,” Gunn continued. “So Peter and I the right thing to do was to sit down with and talk to him. And we sat down and we talked to him. He was an absolute gentleman, a great guy about it. He said, ‘The only thing I ask is that I’m able to reveal it myself as opposed to it coming from you guys.'”

When asked by host Josh Horowitz if it would be “too confusing” to cast Cavill in another DCU role, Gunn said, “Absolutely not.”

“I talked to him about it on that day,” Gunn added. “I would love to put Henry in something.”

While Cavill starred as the Man of Steel across three DC films from 2013 to 2017, David Corenswet took over the role for Gunn’s DCU debut feature “Superman,” which released July 11. Other cast members for that film include Nicholas Hoult (Lex Luthor), Rachel Brosnahan (Lois Lane), Skyler Gisondo (Jimmy Olsen), Anthony Carrigan (Metamorpho), Edi Gathegi (Mister Terrific), Nathan Fillon (Guy Gardner) and Isabela Merced (Hawkgirl).