James Gunn says it was ‘terrible’ letting go of Henry Cavill ahead of new ‘Superman’

Before the ink dried on James Gunn‘s contract with DC Studios, his plans for relaunching the Superman franchise hit a snag: Henry Cavill had announced his return as the Man of Steel.

The director, though, had a different vision for Clark Kent’s future. Appearing on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Gunn recalled sitting down with Cavill to let him go.

Gunn shared that he had closed the deal to become the new head of DC Studios on the same day that Cavill said he was reprising the Superman role. Needless to say, the announcement came as a surprise to the Guardians of the Galaxy director.

“I’m like, ‘What is going on? We know what the plan is,'” Gunn told podcast host Josh Horowitz.

Gunn acknowledged that there was a leadership “vacuum” at DC Studios when he signed on to take charge of the division. As a result, wires were crossed and Cavill was unaware that Gunn would be going in a different direction with Superman.

“It was really unfair to him and was a total bummer,” he said.

For his part, Cavill was “an absolute gentleman” about the situation, Gunn noted. The actor’s only request was that he be allowed to share the update first, rather than have DC Studios break the news.

The iconic superhero role eventually went to David Corenswet, who beat out rumored frontrunners Jacob Elordi, Greyhound actor Tom Brittney, Andrew Richardson, and Lex Luthor himself, Nicholas Hoult, for the part. Corenswet even received some words of encouragement from Cavill when he was cast as the Last Son of Krypton, so it appears there are no hard feelings.

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Despite the unfortunate circumstances surrounding their meeting, Gunn is not shutting the door on incorporating Cavill into his new DCU.

“I would love to put Henry in something,” he said.

Listen to the entire episode of Happy Sad Confused with James Gunn below.

Superman is now playing in theaters.