When you talk about comic accuracy, there won’t be a better looking Superman and Batman in live action than Henry Cavill and Ben Affleck.

Should Henry Cavill and Ben Affleck make full returns to the DCEU, it will be for significantly more than minor roles. The status of Henry Cavill’s Superman and Ben Affleck’s Batman (whom the DCEU semi-retains) have been question marks worthy of the Riddler since the 2017 release of Justice League. Affleck outright resigned as Batman before returning in a growing number of supporting roles after Justice League‘s Snyder Cut was announced. Meanwhile, Henry Cavill and Warner Bros failing to reach a new agreement has left him capeless for years with obscured Superman cameos taking his place.

There are growing signs that the situation could soon change for both of them. Affleck having filmed new scenes for Zack Snyder’s Justice League and his roles in The Flash and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom might suggest that he could again wield his Batarangs as the DCEU’s Batman. Additionally, talk is becoming increasingly omnipresent of an apparently possible Henry Cavill Superman comeback, potentially starting with a cameo in Black Adam opposite Dwayne Johnson’s anti-hero, but Cavill, Affleck, or both returning has bigger implications than it seems.

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With literally years of rumors and uncertainty hovering over whether Cavill or Affleck would ever portray Superman or Batman again, that is a franchise stalemate that simply cannot be repeated should they return. Cavill and Affleck signing on for future appearances could only happen with clearly defined plans for each of their futures in their individual roles beyond simple one-off cameos. That largely relates to how their returns as the Man of Steel and the Dark Knight would solve so many DCEU problems the moment of their returns being hypothetically confirmed.

Cavill & Affleck’s Returns Would Fix The DCEU’s Uncertain Future

The damage Justice League did to the DCEU remains a black eye on the entire franchise, and while the Snyder Cut reversed much of that harm in redemptively showing Zack Snyder’s intended Justice League’s formation, the lack of clarity from Warner Bros. on much of the DCEU’s future still lingers. The announcement of Henry Cavill and Ben Affleck returning as the DCEU’s Superman and Batman would provide a degree of assurance that DC fans and general audiences have lacked for years for the franchise’s future, in part because of the level of certainty such a return would require internally at Warner Bros. Discovery.

Superman and Batman being so central to DC’s brand identity cannot leave either on the sideline or only dropping in for the occasional cameo (Robert Pattinson’s up-and-coming Batman being a different off-world story in Matt Reeves’s Batman universe). The actors and WB Discovery being in complete agreement on their futures in these roles would have to be of paramount importance. Should the news come of Cavill and Affleck returning once more, fans and audiences can rest assured that details would have been thoroughly ironed out simply out of necessity.

What Cavill and Affleck’s comebacks could look like is another matter all together. A World’s Finest team-up or Cavill’s Superman finally trading blows with Black Adam are scenarios of relatively equal plausibility as Cavill headlining a Man of Steel 2 or Affleck’s Batman vs. Deathstroke movie being theoretically brought to fruition. Still, Cavill and Affleck‘s long absences solidify that there would be big plans for the potential return of each.