Fans call for Henry Cavill’s return as Superman with a world-wide trend

It has been nearly four years since we’ve last seen Henry Cavill as Superman, and almost eight since his own solo film. On Thursday, Jan. 7 had #HenryCavillSuperman trending across the net in an effort to get the English actor back on the big screen as the Man of Steel.

The movement was guided by a group of fans over social media. Said fans, and their consecutive individual accounts, organized the hashtag call to action through a series of posts, videos and by announcing a “Man of Steel” watch party (which coincided with the event). Thousands of fans had the hashtag trending on the selected day. Stars and filmmakers also joined the movement. The trend saw around 74,000 tweets.

Steven Marshall, a 35-year old bank administrator and podcaster from Leeds England, helped start the “we want a new Superman movie” campaign earlier this year. The Superman campaign had the request for a new film trending (#HenryCavillSuperman) planet wide.

“I have to admit to having some pre game nerves thinking we weren’t gonna trend like last time,” Marshall said. “There were people using the wrong hashtags which got me worried but after about an hour I saw us trending & I thought well at least were on the map haha.”

According to Marshall, the trend began slowing at around 40,000 but jumpstarted after Director Zack Snyder chimed in with his own Tweet, featuring one of the very first pictures of Henry Cavill as Superman.

Marshall speculated on whether or not he should postpone the event after the insurrection at Capitol Hill in Washington DC the day before but decided to go through with the campaign after some careful consideration.

“After talking with a member of the team I realized that the world really could use a little hope right now,” Marshall said. “Plus if we stopped the things that bring us joy every time something bad happens you’d never do anything. I really hope that it was a positive thing for the fans to see.”

Hope is exactly what the movement brought as the hashtag ranked amongst a series of others depicting the events, and the aftermath, of Wednesday’s pro-Trump lead Capitol Hill riot.

According to Marshall, the “Henry Cavill Superman” campaign team has grown since the first event that had the same hashtag trending last year.

“We Want Superman in Brazil and I ran the first hashtag campaign,” Marshall said. “But on this one I also had support from orgullofanatico from Argentina, SymphonyCarmen from Spain, my buddy Tra-El in the US, I_AM24435448 aka JAG Knight and Luke Bugg ‘The the Geek of Steel,’ both from the U.K.” (All names are social media handles)

Together the team covered much of the planet and reached a larger audience accordingly. Marshall was especially grateful to all those who participated in the virtual event.

“I just want to thank everyone who got involved and I hope that it makes WB realise how much we want Superman back,” Marshall said.

The Superman Campaign will return sometime this spring.