Henry Cavill is contracted to play Superman one more time following his appearance as the Man of Steel in director Zack Snyder’s Justice League. It’s not clear yet whether Cavill’s fourth (and final?) appearance as Kal-El would take place in another DC teamup adventure or in a solo Superman movie (one that, for lack of a better description, is being referred to as Man of Steel 2 for now), but the actor has expressed his hope that it will be in the latter.


Cavill first played the Last Son of Krypton in Snyder’s reboot of the Superman film franchise, Man of Steel, back in 2013. The actor then went on to reprise the role for Snyder’s followup in 2016, Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, in which Kal-El met his maker at the hands of the abomination Doomsday (itself, the mutated, resurrected corpse of Superman’s old nemesis General Zod). It’s not a spoiler at this stage to say that Superman returns to the land of the living in Justice League, though the subsequent discussion around his return has focused as much on Cavill’s awkwardly CGI-erased mustache in the film as the movie’s actual portrayal of a reborn.


Speaking with the LA Times, Cavill confirmed that he is under contract to play Superman one more time in the DC cinematic universe (or the DC Extended Universe, as it’s unofficially known) after Justice League. He also expressed his hope that his next appearance will come in the form of a Superman solo film that builds on the character’s literal and figurative rebirth during the events of Snyder’s movie:

“There’s a wonderful opportunity to tell the Superman story. Now there is a fantastic chance to show Superman in his full colors and tell a very complex, character-driven movie that is based on story and have that wonderful sensation of hope and happiness. A feel-good movie with lessons laced in there as well.”

Cavill is far from the first person associated with the DCEU to express their desire to see a more “feel-good” Superman movie featuring his iteration of the character. Kick-Ass and Kingsman director Matthew Vaughn has been in talks to helm a solo Superman film starring Cavill and has specified that if he were to sign on for such a project, it would put a “feel-good, heroic” spin on the Man of Steel.


Now that Justice League has debuted to mixed-to-negative reviews and the worst domestic opening weekend for a DCEU movie yet, the future of the franchise itself is very much up in the air. However, one route forward for DC and Warner Bros. Pictures could be to focus on solo superhero movies, starting with the release of James Wan’s already-completed Aquaman in 2018. That would allow the DCEU to build on the goodwill generated by Cavill’s performance in Justice League (all jokes about his wonky CGI-erased facial hair aside) by placing him front and center in a vehicle of his own for the final film in his original contract, rather than having him share the screen with others in Justice League 2.


DC film producer Charles Roven has confirmed that, at the moment, there is no script in place for Man of Steel 2 and that all talk of another Superman solo film is just that: talk. Nevertheless, the DC movie universe is at a crossroads in the wake of Justice League‘s underperformance, so now is the time for those still working on the franchise to make some big decisions about how to move forward from here.