James Gunn shoots down popular Superman casting rumour

Jacob Elordi has not been cast as the next Superman – not yet anyway.

The Euphoria star has been the rumoured frontrunner to take on the red cape after it was announced that Henry Cavill would not be returning in the role, despite being told by DC Studios to “announce his return in October”.

On Twitter, DC head director James Gunn responded to a fan mock-up of Elordi in Superman’s costume with the caption: “Jacob Elordi is rumoured to be @JamesGunn's Superman for the #DCU. Thoughts?”

In his reply, Gunn wrote: “My thoughts are no one has been cast as Superman yet. Casting, as is almost always the case with me, will happen after the script is finished or close to finished, and it isn’t.”

He continued: “We’ll announce a few things in not too long, but the casting of Superman won’t be one of them.”

Last month, Gunn confronted the “unkind” backlash from fans after the announcement that Cavill had been axed from the role.

He wrote that when he and co-CEO Peter Safran took the “job as heads of DC Studios”, they “were aware” there would be a “certain minority of people online that could be, well, uproarious & unkind, to say the least”.

“We were aware there would be a period of turbulence when we took this gig, & we knew we would sometimes have to make difficult & not-so-obvious choices, especially in the wake of the fractious nature of what came before us,” Gunn added.

“No one loves to be harassed or called names – but, to be frank, we’ve been through significantly worse. Disrespectful outcry will never, ever affect our actions.”

He explained their “choices” are made “based upon what we believe is best for the story & best for the DC characters who have been around for nearly 85 years”.

Gunn previously issued a warning to the “fractious” DC fanbase after they responded in anger to the cancellation of Wonder Woman 3.