Who could forget the headless Man of Steel cameo happening in the post-credits scene of the first Shazam! film? It was the early days in which Henry Cavill was still set to play Superman in the DCU, in which his appearance at the school cafeteria confirmed the connection of the film to the progressing DCU.
However, one thing that had been bothering DC fans all these years is the fact that Cavill’s face was not exactly shown on screen, which negates his appearance of being the Man of Steel altogether. Shazam! Fury of the Gods director David F. Sandberg sheds light on the reason behind the headless cameo happening in the first film.
“Yeah. No, it was there from the beginning. I mean, the funny thing was, in the first movie, we were gonna have Henry [Cavill] show up as Superman.” Sandberg said in a recent interview with Collider, “Then, when we were shooting that scene, they were like, ‘Well, Henry is not gonna make it on this day, so we’ll shoot it with a stand-in and then we’ll have to pick up his coverage later on.’ It’s like, ‘Okay…’”
Sandberg continued, “So, we shot it like that, and then the Henry thing fell apart, and we couldn’t do it. So we had to just use the stand-in footage, and that’s why it ends before you see his face.”
MORE SHAZAM! NEWS: Shazam! Fury of the Gods Reportedly Gets Early Digital Release
Henry Cavill’s untimely DCU exit remains a mystery, even now that James Gunn has hired a new “younger” Superman actor to play in his Superman: Legacy. However, given the nature of Shazam’s comedic timing, the headless Man of Steel still made the scene funnier than it was initially planned.
Although you can’t deny that a complete look at Henry Cavill appearing as Superman in their school would have been more iconic and definitely would have secured the connection within the DCU. At the very least, Gal Gadot did return as Wonder Woman in the Shazam! sequel.
You can now catch Shazam! Fury of the Gods out in cinemas worldwide.
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