James Gunn has spoken candidly about the difficult decision to part ways with Henry Cavill as Superman, calling the situation “really unfair” and “a total bummer.”

Appearing on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, the Superman director revealed the awkward timing around the transition at DC Studios.

While it was publicly announced that Cavill would return as the Man of Steel, Gunn said the plan had already been finalised behind the scenes to reboot the character with a new actor, reports Variety.

“The day our deal closed, all of a sudden, they were announcing that Henry was back,” Gunn recalled. “And I’m like, ‘What is going on?’ We know what the plan is. The plan was to come in and do Superman. So it was really unfair to him and a total bummer.”

Gunn suggested the confusion stemmed from factions within the studio trying to “force” a different direction.

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“That was really unfortunate,” he said. “So Peter and I [thought] the right thing to do was to sit down with [Cavill] and talk to him. And we sat down and we talked to him. He was an absolute gentleman, a great guy about it. He said, ‘The only thing I ask is that I’m able to reveal it myself as opposed to it coming from you guys.’”

When asked by host Josh Horowitz if Cavill might be cast in a different DCU role, Gunn replied, “Absolutely not,” indicating it wouldn’t be confusing at all. “I talked to him about it on that day. I would love to put Henry in something.”

Cavill starred as Superman in three DC films between 2013 and 2017. David Corenswet has since taken over the role in Gunn’s DCU debut film Superman, which released on July 11.

The cast also includes Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, and Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen, among others.