Henry Cavill is not closing the door on Superman. Asked in a new interview whether he would ever wear the cape again — perhaps even as an older, elder-statesman version of the hero, in the mold of Kingdom Come — Cavill answered by reaching back to a classic animated movie and quoting the pigeon who sang to Fievel.
"Look, there's lots of fantastic storylines. There's always a lot of opportunity," Cavill told Inverse. "As the pigeon sang to Fievel in An American Tail, 'never say never.' And I buy into that. I've had such a wonderful time playing Superman in the past. I would never say never now."
The interview was not a DC press event at all. Cavill sat down with Inverse to talk about Mustache Protocol, an '80s-inspired video game he built with Googlebook that turns the famous Justice League mustache saga into its plot, with players setting out to stop rogue CGI artists from erasing the world's mustaches — and Google donating $11 to Movember for every play.
Cavill explained that leaning into the joke was the whole point. "Obviously that very strong meme going around of me, both mustachioed and mustache-less," he said of the game's inspiration, adding, "I wanted to lean as much as possible into poking fun at me."
Superman Still Flies at Home
The conversation also turned to how the role follows Cavill home now that he is a father. "Sometimes people send my daughter Superman stuff as a joke. Just the other day, we opened this Superman toy, and she looked at it and said, 'It's Dada!' She's only 2 years and 4 months, so no idea how she knows that's me; what kind of cosmic connection that was. But it really touched my heart in a special way, because obviously playing Superman was such an honor."
He contrasted the moment with years of meeting young fans. "I've met so many young people throughout my tenure [as Superman], and it was always very touching to be able to be Superman for them and have parents handing them over and saying, 'It's Superman.' But when it was with my own daughter — and she still doesn't know who Superman is — that moment brought it to such a wonderful point. It really brought it home to me, and it really, really, really warmed my heart. I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have that opportunity and to have had that experience of her looking at that Superman toy."
Cavill first played the Man of Steel in 2013's Man of Steel, Zack Snyder's film that launched DC's first attempt at a connected cinematic universe. He returned for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League, and after years of sequel talk that never produced a film, he briefly reappeared in a Black Adam cameo that was meant to relaunch his Superman — a comeback that was announced, then quietly shelved when the studio changed direction.
His comments land at a moment of unusual openness for DC. James Gunn and Peter Safran stepped down as DC Studios co-heads earlier this month, and while David Corenswet remains the current Superman and is set to return in Man of Tomorrow in the summer of 2027, Cavill's answer makes clear that, whatever shape DC takes next, at least one former Man of Steel would pick up the phone.
