Fans Are Now Calling For James Gunn's Head Following News Of Henry Cavill's Superman Exit
When the news first dropped that director James Gunn and producer Peter Safran would take charge of the DC film universe under relatively recent Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, implied was the fact that the duo would attempt to steer the DC film franchise in something of a new direction following an entirely mixed reception to the project in its current incarnation. In one major and perhaps surprising move under their stewardship, longtime DC Superman actor Henry Cavill revealed that he's Superman no longer — though a new "Superman" movie is planned, and Gunn intends to maintain a working relationship with Cavill moving forward nonetheless.
Now that Cavill is a free agent so to speak, fans of other major movie franchises have begun to propose ideas for his next big role. For instance, some want Cavill to join the MCU, given his superhero experience and, presumably, his superhero movie-ready physique. Meanwhile, others think Cavill is a good fit for James Bond, especially with the role's current vacancy in mind. Of course, Cavill may instead separate himself from franchise films entirely, with his "Superman" exit following his departure from Netflix's steadily growing "Witcher" series.
Whatever his future may be, plenty of fans are, unsurprisingly, unhappy about Cavill's departure. In fact, some are going so far as to call for Gunn's head over the decision.
Some DCEU fans are already hoping for James Gunn to be fired over the loss of Henry Cavill
Soon after Henry Cavill's departure from the DC film universe broke, users on Twitter began to share their disappointment with James Gunn specifically over the news under the hashtag #FireJamesGunn.
For instance, user @SnyderQueen_ — who its worth noting references Zack Snyder's DC films in both her username and bio — shared a screenshot of Cavill's Instagram post confirming his departure with the caption "#FireJamesGunn pass it on." This received more than 1,500 likes and over 600 retweets.
Meanwhile, in another post utilizing the hashtag, user @TheRealBGregz argued that this news is particularly disappointing given both Cavill's apparent interest in remaining Superman, and the fact that "Black Adam" seemed to tease a future Cavill Superman storyline upon its release about a month and a half prior. User @BoredBharatWasi even described Superman as a highlight of "Black Adam," hence their disappointment about the Cavill news and use of the anti-Gunn hashtag. The hashtag has generated plenty of discussion beyond just these posts too, to the extent that the conversation has reached at least one additional platform.
A petition calling for Henry Cavill to retain his job over James Gunn is now circulating
Eventually, discussion of James Gunn's firing over his decision to proceed without Henry Cavill reached enough of a critical mass that someone started a Change.org petition for the cause. This petition names Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav as its intended audience, urging him to rehire Cavill and fire Gunn, arguing that Cavill is a bona fide movie star and capable of generating more revenue than Gunn can as one of DC's leads.
As of this article's writing, the petition has garnered somewhere in the ballpark of 450 signatures, just short of a 500 signature threshold Change.org promises will earn the petition additional promotion. While such a petition is unlikely to influence Zaslav or affect Cavill's career, the amount of signatures it ultimately receives can nevertheless serve as a measure of the degree to which those upset about Cavill's firing think that Gunn's job should be impacted by this decision.
Of course, these sentiments aren't reflective of DC film fans as a whole, but are, nevertheless, in steady circulation following the Cavill news. Gunn and Peter Safran are still at the start of their DC journey, so once the DC film universe has time to develop under their guidance, such sentiments very well could change.