A viral post from Netflix featuring Henry Cavill's Superman return in Black Adam has sparked hopes for another comeback amid reports that Warner Bros. Discovery is up for sale. After 2017's Justice League debacle that saw original director Zack Snyder replaced with The Avengers filmmaker Joss Whedon to make major changes to the movie, leading to a widely panned release, Henry Cavill's Superman sat on the sidelines at DC for five years. Even when Zack Snyder's Justice League was finally greenlit for HBO Max and held reshoots in September 2020, Cavill wasn't among the actors who returned to film new scenes.
To the surprise of many, it was Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson who sought to end that five-year absence, bringing Cavill back to film a new post-credit scene for Black Adam just one month before the movie's release in September 2022. That scene was meant to tease a face-off between Black Adam and Superman, but those plans were thrown aside when James Gunn was hired to reboot the DCEU and later announced Pearl actor David Corenswet as Cavill's replacement.
As an online campaign continues from some vocal fans to bring back Henry Cavill's Superman and "#RestoreTheSnyderVerse," Netflix France has celebrated the DCEU hero's return in Black Adam with a new post on X.
The popular streamer shared shots of Cavill's Superman and Johnson's Black Adam from the post-credit scene and posed the question, "1 vs 1, who wins?" while promoting the movie's availability on Netflix in France.
Recently, there have been reports that Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns DC Studios, is being considered for sale, with Netflix, Paramount Skydance, and Comcast among the companies supposedly bidding.
Currently, according to Bloomberg, Paramount Skydance has seemingly made the only formal offer for Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), with the DC Studios-owner declining a bid at $20 a share that was considered "too low."
WBD later confirmed in a press release that it has received "unsolicited interest" from "multiple parties" to acquire the company. The company's board of directors has "initiated a review of strategic alternatives to maximize shareholder value," effectively declaring that it is up for sale (via The Hollywood Reporter).
There is no telling what an acquisition could mean for DC's future, but this news is likely to excite a certain group of fans, as the "SellSnyderVerseToNetflix" hashtag has been circulating on social media for several years.
Netflix France's latest post comes just days after Zack Snyder took to Instagram to declare, "Henry Cavill is Superman," alongside a behind-the-scenes shot seemingly taken in 2014 during production on Batman v Superman.
A Potential WBD Sale Probably Won't 'RestoreTheSnyderVerse'
Warner Bros. Discovery is in the earliest days of a potential acquisition, and even if the Hollywood giant is sold to a bidder such as Netflix, Paramount Skydance, or Comcast, there probably won't be a full-blown takeover for some time.
Netflix's celebration of Henry Cavill's Superman may initially seem to give hope that, if it came out victorious in the WBD bidding wars, then it would look to "RestoreTheSnyderVerse" and pick up where Zack Snyder's Justice League and Black Adam left off... But that probably isn't the case.
For one, the post came from an international Netflix social media account, and probably didn't receive any consideration from any key decision makers. Instead, Netflix was likely looking to capitalize on online trends surrounding Cavill's Superman to promote Black Adam's availability on the platform.
Regardless, it's too soon to tell what a change in leadership at WBD as a whole would mean for DC Studios. Much of that ought to depend on how James Gunn's DCU performs over the coming years, as a new buyer seems unlikely to mess with a successful franchise or an experienced filmmaker in the superhero game.
Meanwhile, Zack Snyder has been tied up at Netflix for several years, developing his Army of the Dead and Rebel Moon franchise for the streamer. Unfortunately, neither looks to be moving forward with future sequels, and Snyder has turned his attention to war drama The Last Photograph and UFC flick Brawler.
