Fans have been eager for a “Superman” update after news broke last week that Henry Cavill would no longer be playing the superhero on the big screen.
A Sept. 12 report in The Hollywood Reporter said Cavill ― who most recently starred as Superman in last year’s “Justice League” ― would be parting ways with Warner Bros. after contract negotiations involving his future appearances as the character broke down.
Since then, lists of stars who could step into the role have included Armie Hammer, Michael B. Jordan and Henry Golding. If actor Colton Haynes had his way, Warner Bros. would opt to take a queer-inclusive approach by casting Matt Bomer as the Man of Steel.
The “Teen Wolf” and “Arrow” star made the suggestion on Twitter Sept. 14.
And “Superman” and Bomer fans seemed to get on board with the idea. As of Monday afternoon, more than 10,000 people had liked the tweet.
Turns out that Haynes and Bomer have quite a bit in common. Not only are they two of Hollywood’s most outspoken gay actors, but they’re also favorites of Hollywood writer-producer Ryan Murphy. Haynes worked with Murphy on “Scream Queens” and “American Horror Story: Cult,” and Bomer starred in the HBO adaptation of “The Normal Heart” and “American Horror Story: Hotel” as well as a 2012 episode of “Glee” for Murphy.
Queer superheroes have appeared in a number of popular TV series, including “Black Lightning” and “The Flash,” but their presence has been noticeably absent from the big screen. This month actor Kit Harington called out Marvel for not casting out, gay actors to populate its ever-expanding universe.
“There’s a big problem with masculinity and homosexuality that they can’t somehow go hand in hand,” he told Variety. “That we can’t have someone in a Marvel movie who’s gay in real life and plays some superhero. I mean, when is that going to happen?”
If Bomer does get cast as Superman, it wouldn’t be his first time as Kal-El. He voiced the Man of Steel in 2013’s animated “Superman: Unbound.”
He even donned the famous red cape for a series of Japanese Prius commercials in 2009:
Also, in a 2015 interview on Josh Horowitz’s “Happy, Sad, Confused” podcast, the “White Collar” star said he had been in the running for the role of Clark Kent in a now defunct 2003 project called “Superman: Flyby.”
“It was a month of, ‘OK, it looks like this is going to happen,’ and then it slowly fell apart,” he said at the time. Still, he had “zero regrets” that the project failed to materialize, adding, “I feel like I’ve gotten to do such a rich array of roles and so many different things and I haven’t been locked too into one [role].”