Cavill Replacement? Fans Harass Wolfgang Novogratz, Causing Him to Leave Instagram
Just couple of months ago, a lot of fans strongly expected Henry Cavill's return as Superman. But the shakeup of DC Studios under the leadership of Peter Safran and James Gunn went into a very different direction.
By the end of December of 2022, we got confirmations that DCEU, now DCU, is heading for what amounts a full reboot, including a new Superman movie, written by James Gunn himself. And that movie would definitely use a new actor, instead of Henry Cavill.
Of course, fans of Henry Cavill, and also fans of Zack Snyder, who hoped that their favorite director would return to DCU after Cavill, were not amused by this development. And "not amused" is putting it mildly.
For example, when rumors of Wolfgang Novogratz being picked as the new actor for Superman appeared, he was harassed by toxic fans to the point where he was forced to delete his Instagram, or at least that was stated to be the most likely reason for said deletion.
While one should not readily trust explanations prefaced by words "most likely", it is unclear what else could have forced Novogratz to do so.
And while the term "toxic" nowadays is typically used on the Internet to brand anyone with whom the poster has a disagreement, this, if true, is one of the cases when behavior of people involved can be called toxic without exaggeration. And it was caused by mere rumors. One wonders what is going to happen after a new Superman is indeed announced.
Then again, such behavior, if perhaps not as extreme, is not especially new on the Internet.
Any new actor cast as a legacy character is more likely than not to catch flak from the fanbase. Cavill himself (as well as Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, etc) suffered from this in the past, when first cast for the role. But in this case moods might be especially toxic and bitter because of the above-mentioned reboot.
Reviving a dormant property with a new cast is one thing, replacing it with a new version, involving a new cast, is another. The new DCU will have to work extra hard to quell bitterness in certain sections of the fanbase.