f.“Gunn’s era officially ends — Henry Cavill returns as Superman, and the DC Universe is entering an unprecedented revolution!” Cavill’s unexpected comeback isn’t just a role—it marks the end of everything James Gunn built.f

“Gunn’s era officially ends — Henry Cavill returns as Superman, and the DC Universe is entering an unprecedented revolution!”

LOS ANGELES, December 10, 2025 – The Man of Steel is back, and he’s bringing a wrecking ball with him.

In a move that has detonated across Hollywood like a kryptonite bomb, multiple trusted sources inside Warner Bros.

Discovery and Netflix confirm tonight that Henry Cavill has signed a historic multi-picture deal to return as Superman, not in James Gunn’s rebooted DCU, but in an entirely separate, competing cinematic universe that will exist in parallel and is being fast-tracked for a 2027 release.

The Gunn-Saffron Chapter One slate, once hailed as the “new bible” of DC, has been quietly been placed into limbo. Insiders are calling it “the night the reboot died.”

The seismic shift began three weeks ago when Netflix, fresh from its controversial $18 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery’s filmed-entertainment assets, held a secret summit on its Los Gatos campus. Present were Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, former Warner Bros.

Pictures Group chairman Toby Emmerich (now running the merged studio), producer Charles Roven, and, in a moment that reportedly left attendees speechless, Henry Cavill himself, flanked by his longtime agents at WME and DOV Entertainment.

According to four individuals with direct knowledge of the meeting (all speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it), Sarandos opened with a single sentence: “We didn’t buy Warner Bros. to inherit someone else’s reboot.

We bought it to build the biggest superhero franchise on the planet, and that starts with the one face the audience never stopped asking for.”

Within 72 hours, James Gunn and Peter Safran were informed that their 10-year DCU roadmap, including the already-filming Superman (July 11, 2025) starring David Corenswet, would be reclassified as an “Elseworlds” project retroactively.

The new mainline continuity, internally codenamed “DC Infinite,” will launch with Man of Steel 2, directed by Christopher McQuarrie (Top Gun: Maverick, Mission: Impossible), written by McQuarrie and Drew Goddard, and produced by Cavill himself through his Prometheus Entertainment banner alongside Bad Robot and Atlas Entertainment.

Cavill’s deal is staggering even by Marvel standards: a nine-figure payday across three guaranteed Superman solo films, cameo obligations in at least five other DC Infinite titles, a producing fee on every film that features the character, and, most explosively, an ironclad creative veto over any storyline involving Superman’s death or permanent replacement.

One executive familiar with the contract described it as “the kind of control Christopher Nolan had on Batman, but on steroids.”

But the real earthquake is structural. Netflix is not merely making another Superman movie; they are launching a full rival universe designed to coexist with, and ultimately eclipse, the Gunn-Saffron continuity. Already attached:

– Matthew Vaughn (Kingsman) is in final negotiations to direct Batman: Year One starring a yet-to-be-cast 30-something Bruce Wayne. – Patty Jenkins is returning to helm Wonder Woman 3 with Gal Gadot locked for two additional films.

– Zack Snyder, in what sources call “a peace-offering nobody saw coming,” has been handed the keys to a Justice League Dark film focusing on John Constantine, Zatanna, and Swamp Thing.

– A Green Lantern Corps series, budgeted at $220 million for eight episodes, will serve as the streaming backbone of the universe.

All of these projects will be released day-and-date in theaters and on Netflix for Premium-tier subscribers, a distribution model that effectively ends the traditional 45-day theatrical window and gives Netflix unprecedented leverage over exhibition chains.

The humiliation for Gunn and Safran is brutal but carefully orchestrated. Their Superman will still open on July 11, 2025, but marketing materials are being hastily re-cut to emphasize the “Elseworlds” branding.

Creature Commandos and the rest of Chapter One will continue, but every future announcement will carry the small but lethal subtitle “A DC Elseworlds Story.” In private, one DC veteran likened it to “being told your ex’s side piece while she marries the guy she always wanted.”

Cavill himself broke his silence tonight in a 90-second Instagram video that already has 47 million views. Standing on the balcony of his London flat wearing the black-and-silver “Rebirth” suit glimpsed in leaked set photos, he said only: “I never hung up the cape.

You just stopped believing I’d come back. Believe again.” The clip ends with the classic John Williams theme swelling as he leaps into the night sky. Fans are calling it the single greatest piece of marketing in superhero history.

The fallout is only beginning. AMC, Regal, and Cinemark stocks dropped between 6–9 % in after-hours trading on fears of collapsing exclusivity windows. Disney CEO Bob Iger reportedly convened an emergency board meeting.

And James Gunn, who has remained publicly graceful, posted a single broken-heart emoji on Threads before deactivating his account.

Perhaps the most telling detail comes from a handwritten note Sarandos sent to every Netflix employee this morning, leaked to Variety minutes ago: “We didn’t spend eighteen billion dollars to play in someone else’s sandbox. Tonight we start building the biggest castle the world has ever seen.

And it starts with the Man of Steel the audience never stopped loving.”

Whether you loved or hated the Snyder era, one thing is undeniable: the war for the soul of DC just went nuclear.”

The revolution begins in 2027.  And Henry Cavill, the Superman they told us was finished forever, is the general leading the charge.

Buckle up. The sky isn’t just red tonight; it’s bleeding hope, fury, and revenge.