We recently found out that Henry Cavill was in talks to reprise his role as Superman at the DCEU, but that his participation will initially be limited to cameos. Fans have been in overdrive on social media speculating on the nature of these appearances. David F. Sandberg, the director of Shazam! took the opportunity to retroactively insert Cavill into his film in a video he posted on Twitter.
The scene takes place at the end of the movie when Billy Batson arrives at his high school in his character Shazam to promote his stepbrother Freddy. In the original movie, Billy manages to recruit Superman to also sit with them and is seen carrying a lunch tray. Since Henry Cavill was not available at the time, the movie had to settle for a substitute in a Superman outfit who we can only see up to the neck.
In Sandberg’s reissue of the scene, since Superman is filmed from the neck down, the camera rises along with the neck as the Man of Steel theme begins to play. The camera continues to move upward to reveal an impossibly long neck, with Henry Cavill’s face fixed at the top.
Obviously, the David F. Sandberg video is intended to be a joke, though it might spark painful memories for some fans of the special effects team at Warner Bros. who found it appropriate to insert a horribly CGI-imposed upper lip on the face of Superman in Justice League to hide his mustache.
For now, this is the closest thing to new Superman content that fans are going to get in live-action movies, but it’s clear that Warner Bros. is serious about the character’s return for future movies. Cavill’s Witcher obligations mean that a full Superman movie might not be in the works right now, but he will most likely appear in cameos and supporting roles in other DCEU movies, similar to the role played by Bruce Banner / Hulk in the MCU.
I know a lot of you asked for this but I’m not so sure this is an improvement. But hey, at least you can stop messaging me about it now. pic.twitter.com/Y4BdiJ2MjE
— David F. Sandberg (@ponysmasher) May 29, 2020
