DCEU Rumor About Henry Cavill's Superman Sequel Plans Proven False

In the eyes of many, the DCEU all went to pieces in the end. It sometimes seemed that no-one knew where it was going or what it was doing, and perhaps that's why there's so many rumors about where the franchise, especially the Superman side of things, would have ended up.

According to one rumor, director Michael Bay was originally supposed to direct a Man of Steel sequel for Warner Bros. The Wrap reported on the rumor first. They claimed that before James Gunn and Peter Safran took over DC Studios, "Warner Bros. Pictures chiefs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy briefly tried to get a standalone Henry Cavill-led Superman film going in 2022, with Michael Bay eyed to possibly direct, according to two insiders." Warner Bros. denies this claim utterly, telling both The Wrap and Cosmic Book News that there was no truth to the idea.

Bay would have been an odd choice, some might say, considering that he was responsible for the critically slammed Transfomers movies, the most recent of which, Transformers: The Last Knight, was a box office bomb. And some would also raise eyebrows at how Bay's bombastic directing style would have fit in with a Superman flick.

A Man of Steel sequel directed by Christopher McQuarrie is the concept that was actually floated. The director said on Happy Sad Confused (via Cosmic Book News) that he got as far as the ideas stage and he thought they were pretty good ideas. “The first five minutes of my Superman movie… imagine a [Pixar’s] Up sequence with no dialogue," he said. "After which you knew exactly what made Superman tick and exactly what Superman was most afraid of… it would have been epic. The scale of the movie would have been absolutely extraordinary.”

Superman is Being Rebooted Instead

Man of Steel 2 is never going to happen now - there's a new Superman in town. Newcomer David Corenswet is stepping into the shoes of the world's most iconic superhero for Superman, directed by James Gunn. Plot details are being kept tightly under wraps, but the movie will also feature Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor, Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern, Ed Gathegi as Mr Terrific, Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, and Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho. Plus, there's an adorable and very marketable dog, Krypto, along for the ride.

Superman is going to need to do very well financially to save the struggling fortunes of Warner Bros. According to The Wrap, it needs to make $700 million at least. If it can do that, maybe a sequel will happen - but chances are it won't involve Michael Bay.

Superman is coming to theaters July 11, 2025.