After amazing audiences with his performance in the DCU as Superman, Henry Cavill has recently exited the superhero genre with James Gunn's creative takeover. While he is set to participate in a fantastical war epic based on Warhammer 40K, many wonder if Cavill will return to the superhero genre.
Here, we will look at the roles that Cavill could play if he joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). We'll briefly describe the characters and provide allusions to Cavill's prior work. Looking at Cavill as a Marvel hero, antihero, or villain, we'll see all the different paths Henry Cavill could take to join a whole new world of heroes.
Hyperion
Let's get the easiest one out of the way. Hyperion is a member of the Squadron Supreme, the Marvel counterpart to the Justice League. Which indeed means that Hyperion is the Marvel counterpart to Superman, the role Henry Cavill is most linked to. Hyperion comes from an alien race known as the Eternals and has superhuman strength, durability, speed, and the ability to fly. Much like his DC counterpart, he is weakened when exposed to a radiated chemical, in this case, argonite. If the MCU decided to poke fun at their distinguished competition, hiring the former Justice League actors to make up the Squadron Supreme would undoubtedly make for a fun Easter egg.
Ben Urich
While we look at characters that Henry Cavill has played, his time as Superman gave him little room to look into the Clark Kent journalistic reporter persona. This could be redeemed if the MCU decided to have Henry Cavill take on the role of the Daily Bugle reporter, Ben Urich. Urich was last seen in the Netflix show Daredevil, working as a mentor to Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll). While Vondie Curtis-Hall played a great business veteran, if the MCU wanted to go in a different direction, we could see Cavill working in the prime of his journalistic career, still taking significant risks and ingraining himself with the street heroes of New York.
Colossus
There will always be room for big bruisers in the MCU, and with the X-Men slowly being integrated, there is a bevy of characters that could potentially be recast. Piotr Rasputin is a Russian mutant that gained the power to change his entire body into steel, thus taking the term "Man of Steel" quite literally. With fans clamoring for The New Mutants (2020) cast to return to the big screen, some would love to see Colossus reunited with his sister, Magik (Anya Taylor-Joy). Seeing how well Cavill would play off of Taylor-Joy and watching the gruff demeanor play off of the other heroes in the strong ensemble would be pretty impressive.
Sebastian Shaw
If we're talking about adding Henry Cavill into the world of mutants, no rule says he has to be an X-Men. He could find himself aligned with the Brotherhood or the Hellfire Club as Sebastian Shaw, a mutant that has the power to take any kinetic force and use it as his own powerful energy blasts.
While Shaw's powers are intimidating, his mind is the most powerful tool in Shaw's arsenal. Shaw's intelligence, ambition, and cunning have led him to become a billionaire from a young age. Becoming the CEO of his own company and quickly climbing the ranks of the Hellfire Club (a club that has also hosted Howard Stark as a member), Shaw has all the political power he needs to cause trouble for any mutants in the future.
Corsair
But one of the most likely characters fans would love to see Henry Cavill play is that of Corsair, the space-faring adventurer and father to X-Men Cyclops and Havok. Corsair is not a mutant, but he was abducted by the Shi'ar, an alien race that had sent a scout ship to Earth. After witnessing his wife's murder, he would escape the Shi'ar alongside fellow prisoners, joining to form the Starjammers, a rebel force against the Shi'ar Empire.
In such a role, Cavill could be an ordinary man fighting for what's right. While Corsair is separated from all he knows, he still takes up arms for the cause of protecting the galaxy from tyranny. Cavill also wouldn't have to worry about having to CGI his facial hair out of the picture for this role.
Deathlok
The concept of Deathlok has already been introduced in the MCU. In Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Mike Petersen (J. August Richards) would receive many cybernetic upgrades, effectively becoming a cyborg working for Phil Coulson and his team. HYDRA would kidnap Petersen and, using what they learned of his advancements, began work on Project Deathlok.
If the MCU only wanted Cavill to make a guest star appearance on one of their Disney Plus programs, he could appear as one of the latest results of the Deathlok program. Working against the new generation of heroes, Deathlok can prove to be a crucial threat and could open the door for a cameo from former agents such as Daisy Johnson (Chloe Bennet) and Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen).
Doc Sampson
Doc Sampson's powers would prove to have origins both in the realms of science and religion, with his increased strength and durability coming from the excess gamma radiation of the Hulk, but (much like his namesake) this power would initially grow and wane with the length of his hair.
The character of Sampson would prove not just a powerful ally, but a great friend, acting as a psychiatrist for Bruce Banner and other members of the Hulk family of heroes. Henry Cavill has experience in roles of great intelligence, his most prominent being his time as Sherlock Holmes in the Enola Holmes franchise.
Genis-Vell
With all the excitement surrounding the upcoming MCU film The Marvels (2023), many are looking to the source material to learn more about the Marvel line of heroes. And one role that is prime for Henry Cavill to play in this lineage is Genis-Vell, the biological son of Captain Mar-Vell. Due to the nature of his birth, Genis-Vell never met his father.
Genis-Vell would often find himself attracted to Earth, eventually becoming linked with Earthling Rick Jones, leading to the two being able to swap places with the activation of the Nega-Bands. This fish-out-of-water storyline would work well if Genis-Vell were to meet up with Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), or Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani).
Captain Britain
Something that can't be argued is that when you're as great an actor as Henry Cavill, sometimes all you have to do is declare your intent. And Henry Cavill has made it clear that he would love to play Captain Britain more than any other character in the MCU. Brian Braddock was a lonely youth after his family fell out of favor with the higher class, yet he remained too proud to socialize with the lower class.
Braddock would one day be approached to become the realm's protector, choosing between the amulet of right or the sword of might. While Braddock remained proud, he had faced many hardships in life and selected the amulet, believing he could find a better way to protect his country than with pure might. The fact that Captain Britain contains many powers similar to Superman makes the transition easier for Cavill. And with the teased debut of The Black Knight (Kit Harington) in Eternals (2021), Europe may be receiving its own superhero team soon.
Comments
Post a Comment