A couple of months back it was rumoured that Christopher Nolan was set to produce a potential Justice League / World’s Finest movie, which would have seen Christian Bale donning the cape and cowl once more to team up with Henry Cavill, star of the upcoming Superman reboot Man of Steel. While the initial report turned out to be little more than wild, inaccurate speculation, Henry Cavill has now offered a few thoughts about the possibility of the Man of Steel and the Dark Knight appearing together on the big screen.
“I think it would be really interesting with the age-old Batman / Superman conflict because they are two different sides of the same coin and their methods are entirely different,” said Cavill during an interview with SFX. “And I think it would actually make for an interesting story as to why, first of all, they were going head to head and how. I think that would make a great story. Who knows, I’m sure there’s all sorts of ideas being thrown around at Warner Bros. right now.”
Should Warner Bros. ever decide to move forward with a Batman / Superman team-up, it wouldn’t be the first time that the studio has attempted to get a World’s Finest movie off the ground. Back in 2002, director Wolfgang Petersen (The Perfect Storm) signed on to direct Batman vs Superman from a script by Andrew Kevin Walker (Se7en), which was intended to hit cinemas in 2004. However the project fell apart when Petersen vacated the director’s chair in favour of Troy, with then WB President and CCO Alan Horn opting instead to relaunch both characters individually, leading to Nolan’s Batman Begins and the ultimately aborted Superman: Flyby from director Brett Ratner (X-Men: The Last Stand) and screenwriter J.J. Abrams (Star Trek Into Darkness). If you’re interested, you can read more about the aborted Batman vs Superman movie here.
As it stands at the moment, it appears unlikely that we’ll hear anything about Warner Bros.’ DC plans post-Man of Steel until director Zack Snyder’s reboot hits cinemas on June 14th, and it wouldn’t be too much of a surprise if the studio held off on any announcement until the San Diego Comic Con in July. Assuming Man of Steel is a success, of course… which only a fool would bet against at this point.
Originally published May 23, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
