Zack Snyder marked the Christmas holiday with a special gift to fans in the form of photos of Henry Cavill wearing Christopher Reeve’s original Superman suit. The images are what Snyder showed to Warner Bros. executives when he was trying to cast Cavill as Clark Kent/Superman in his new DC Universe, which kicked off with 2013’s “Man of Steel.”

“Henry Cavill. The original Superman suit. This photo. It was undeniable,” Snyder wrote in one caption, while adding in another: “With the last image I shared, and this one, we showed WB [and] everyone agreed: Henry Cavill was Superman. That’s where the journey began.”

Cavill played Superman across three movies in Snyder’s DC Universe: “Man of Steel,” “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” and “Justice League.” Then things got complicated. After a five-year hiatus that left fans wondering about Cavill’s Superman future, he popped up as the Man of Steel in the post-credits scene of 2022’s “Black Adam.” Cavill’s reappearance coincided with reports that a standalone Superman sequel for him was finally in development with the studio soliciting pitches from writers. The post-credits scene teased the DC Universe would then be heading toward a battle between Cavill’s Superman and Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam.

“I am back as Superman,” Cavill wrote in an Instagram post at the time. “Thank you for your support and thank you for your patience. I promise it will be rewarded.”

Two days later, Cavill spoke publicly for the first time about his Superman return during a live recording of the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast at 92NY in New York City and said: “There is such a bright future ahead for the character. I’m so excited to tell a story with an enormously joyful Superman.”

Cavill’s return was not long for this world, however. Just a day after the announcement, news broke that James Gunn and Peter Safran were taking over DC Studios and launching a new DC Universe. This would effectively end Snyder’s DC Universe, in which Cavill had been front and center. Gunn said on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast earlier this year that an “unfair” situation was created when his deal to take over DC Studios closed just as Cavill was announcing his return. Gunn had planned on rebooting Superman from the start, which he successfully did this summer with his David Corenswet-starring “Superman.”

“The day our [DC] deal closed, all of a sudden, they were announcing that Henry was back,” Gunn said. “And I’m like, ‘What is going on?’ We know what the plan is. The plan was to come in and do ‘Superman.’ So it was really unfair to him and a total bummer… That was really unfortunate. So Peter and I [thought] the right thing to do was to sit down with [Cavill] and talk to him. And we sat down and we talked to him. He was an absolute gentleman, a great guy about it. He said, ‘The only thing I ask is that I’m able to reveal it myself as opposed to it coming from you guys.’”

Through all of the presumable drama, Gunn and Snyder stayed in touch. Gunn revealed on X shortly after taking over DC Studios that he had touched base with Snyder and there were no hard feelings between them. Gunn told Fandango earlier this yea that he even consulted with Snyder when it came to designing the new Superman suit and whether to add the red trunks.

“One of the biggest questions was, ‘Were we gonna have trunks, or were we gonna not have trunks?’” Gunn said. “I talked to Zack Snyder, who was like, ‘I tried a billion different versions with the trunks, and at the end of the day, I tried it, but I just couldn’t get there.’ And I was feeling exactly the same way. … Theoretically, I liked the idea of trunks because it’s the Superman I grew up with.”

Gunn’s DC Universe continues in summer 2026 with “Supergirl” and then the “Superman” sequel film “Man of Tomorrow.”