Zack Snyder shares test photos of Henry Cavill in Christopher Reeve's Superman suit: 'It was undeniable'
- - Zack Snyder shares test photos of Henry Cavill in Christopher Reeve's Superman suit: 'It was undeniable'
Sydney BucksbaumDecember 27, 2025 at 12:14 AM
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Warner Bros.; Clay Enos/Warner Bros.
Christopher Reeve and Henry Cavill as Superman
It's a bird! It's a plane! It's… Henry Cavill wearing Christopher Reeve's original Superman suit.
Justice League director Zack Snyder has shared two early test photos of Cavill in the iconic cape and spandex that solidified the actor's run as the Man of the Steel.
"Henry Cavill. The original Superman suit," Snyder captioned an Instagram photo Thursday. "This photo. It was undeniable."
While sharing another, more close-up shot, Snyder added, "With the last image I shared, and this one we showed WB, everyone agreed: Henry Cavill was Superman. That’s where the journey began."
Warner Bros.
Henry Cavill in 'Man of Steel'
This isn't the first time Snyder has offered a glimpse of Cavill in Reeve's original suit. In 2017, the filmmaker posted a behind-the-scenes shot of Cavill in the costume sitting in a makeup chair on set. However, these new photos are more in character and out in the world, showing Cavill in all his Superman glory.
"First test with Henry," Snyder wrote in the caption of the first photo posted to his Vero account in 2017, of which a blurry version emerged online three years prior. "I knew right away he was my Superman."
Silver Screen Collection/Getty
Christopher Reeve in 'Superman'
As Snyder explained during a 2016 interview, "We didn't have the suit made when Henry was auditioning, so he wore the original Christopher Reeve suit. He put it on and when he came out of the trailer, everyone was like, 'Dang, you’re Superman!'"
Cavill recalled feeling imposter syndrome in that moment when speaking to Entertainment Weekly in 2011. "All I could think was, 'Oh, God, they're going to look at me and go, 'He's not Superman. Not a chance,''" Cavill said. "The actor inside me was going, 'You're not ready! You're not ready!'"
But Snyder revealed that "no one laughed" when Cavill first walked out wearing that suit.
"Other actors put that suit on and it's a joke, even if they're great actors," Snyder added. "Henry put it on, and he exuded this kind of crazy-calm confidence that just made me go, 'Wow. Okay, this is Superman.'"
Reeve played Superman across four films between 1978 and 1987, paving the way for Cavill to debut as the beloved superhero (with his own modernized suit) in 2013's Man of Steel. Cavill continued wearing the cape in Snyder's follow-ups Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and Justice League (2017), and also made a cameo in 2022's Black Adam.
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Despite a promise of more to come as Superman, plans for Cavill to return to the character were scrapped after James Gunn and Peter Safran rebooted the onscreen DC Universe. David Corenswet took over the role, beginning in this year's Superman, opposite Nicholas Hoult and Rachel Brosnahan.
"It was really unfair to him and was a total bummer," Gunn previously said of the way Cavill found out about the recasting.
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
