DC Studios, home to Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman, is currently weathering some seismic changes under new leadership, most recently axing
Batgirl and
grinding Wonder Woman 3 to a halt. Among the studio’s most controversial recent moves is last week’s
announcement that Henry Cavill won’t be returning as the franchise’s Superman—even after Cavill said in October that he’s leaving Netflix’s
The Witcher,
supposedly to focus on playing Superman. Hmm!
Anonymous insiders are now claiming that Cavill is actually departing the
Superman and
Witcher franchises due to the actor’s alleged workplace misogyny. Per the popular—and oft prophetic—gossip account Deuxmoi, last week, a source said that while filming Seasons 2 and 3 of
The Witcher, “something shifted, and [Cavill] became really impossible for women to work with, which is always a big problem, but even worse here because the showrunner is a woman.”
According to Deuxmoi’s
podcast, the source said, “He would try to overrule her and try to get changes made last minute across the board without her knowledge, which, if you know anything about showrunning, is completely fucked.” As a result of Cavill’s behavior, the source said that “female writers and directors” on
The Witcher were “suddenly completely ignored on set, unable to do their jobs,” and “every department head was complaining.” The source was clear that Cavill didn’t engage in any sexual misconduct, but his behavior was “disrespectful and toxic all the same.”
Here’s where it gets even more interesting. Cavill is
known for his penchant for (addiction to??) video games, and, look, as a Candy Crush champion myself, I get it. But according to Deuxmoi’s source—and
loads of internet speculation—Cavill was essentially
red-pilled by
classic gamer misogyny, or at least his workplace behavior reflected this. Per Deuxmoi’s source:
“[Cavill is] deeply addicted to video games, to the point where it was like working with any other addict. He was distracted, he was late, he was obsessive. And a lot of people think that the misogyny came from gamer world. Video game bro language is not how you talk to coworkers. And he wouldn’t stop.”
Instead of cooperating with the show’s women leaders and set workers, the insider claims Cavill “formed a weird alliance with one writer who was also a gamer.” This writer “eventually got fired after multiple HR complaints were made.” After that writer’s departure, Deuxmoi’s source claims Cavill “did anything he could to hold up production and cause problems.” These antics ultimately led to Cavill’s departure:
“Eventually top brass at Netflix was tired of him costing them money with delays [and] HR investigations. The showrunner was asked to construct a potential exit for him. Netflix reached out to him personally, and he was given one final warning, and violated that warning with an email he sent to the entire writing staff, right after that meeting. That was it.”
The source didn’t specify the contents of Cavill’s alleged email, but apparently, it wasn’t great!
According to Deuxmoi, the insider said “someone on the show” compared Cavill’s gamer bro radicalization to “watching someone get brainwashed by QAnon.” They explained, “His whole personality shifted. Eventually his disrespect escalated.” This “disrespect” led to Cavill rewriting scenes without alerting other actors until moments before the scenes were shot. “He decided that he didn’t want any romantic scenes at all. No kissing, no shirtless scenes,” Deuxmoi continued. Additionally, Cavill “wanted complete control of storylines,” but, obviously, as this isn’t an actor’s job, he “really had no idea of the limitations of TV, structure, budget, etc.”
Representatives for Cavill did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Jezebel. Nor did spokespeople for Netflix and DC Studios.
If you’re not fully inclined to believe an anonymous gossip account, I get it. But there’s a pretty extensive paper trail of less-than-feminist comments and behavior from Cavill. Relevant to allegations of workplace sexism, in 2015, Cavill
disclosed to
Men’s Fitness that he once became, err, over-excited while filming a sex scene for
The Tudors in the 2000s: “A girl had to be on top of me, she had spectacular breasts, and I hadn’t rearranged my stuff into a harmless position. She’s basically rubbing herself all over me and, um, it got a bit hard,” he explained. (Once again,
thank god for intimacy coordinators.)
In a 2018
interview with
GQ Australia, Cavill suggested MeToo ruined dating. “There’s something wonderful about a man chasing a woman. … I think a woman should be wooed and chased, but maybe I’m old-fashioned for thinking that,” he said. As a result of MeToo, Cavill continued, “It’s very difficult to do that if there are certain rules in place. … ‘Well, I don’t want to go up and talk to her, because I’m going to be called a rapist or something.’”
“So you’re like, ‘Forget it, I’m going to call an ex-girlfriend instead, then just go back to a relationship which never really worked,’ but it’s way safer than casting myself into the fires of hell, because … if I go and flirt with someone, then who knows what’s going to happen?” he explained. The actor sure sounded upset about suddenly being compelled to consider how his words and behaviors might cause women around him to feel.
Cavill also caught heat for dating a 19-year-old in 2016 when he was 33, and justifying the relationship (as older men so often do) by
claiming the college student was simply mature for her age.
All of that said, I’m not disinclined to believe rumors that the man isn’t exactly a feminist. And while Cavill’s departure as Superman is upsetting for plenty of DC fans, I’m not mad—in the same way that Chris Evans embodied Captain America, I’d love for us to have a Superman who is, actually, a super man.