With the announcement of Zack Snyder's Justice League debuting next year and the recent news that Henry Cavill will be returning to the DCEU as Superman, fans have been building theories and speculations about where the character will be taken in future movies. One such fan, iruzim, took to Instagram to reimagine Cavill as a grittier version of Superman after coming back from the dead.

Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice ended with the death of Superman, and Justice League was meant to announce his triumphant resurrection. Many fans hoped the resurrection arc would take inspiration from the comics, where Superman comes back from the dead with longer hair and a beard, encased within an all-black Kryptonian regeneration suit.

Instead, 2017's Justice League showed us a Superman who comes back from the dead without a shirt but wearing regular pants, is disoriented for a while, and then becomes his regular cheerful self. Many fans thought this brief arc shortchanged the character, especially when it was revealed that Zack Snyder's original cut had a much longer arc, where Superman visits his fortress of solitude and dons the black regeneration armor.

Now, fans are hoping the black suit Superman debuts in Zack Snyder's Justice League next year, and the scruffy, bearded look wouldn't go amiss either. The upcoming feature is said to be four hours long. Plenty of extra time for Snyder to include all the elements in the movie that he had planned which were ultimately cut, including the introduction of several characters like Darkseid, Atom, and the Martian Manhunter.

Even though the release of the Snyder Cut is seen as a victory, the film might ultimately leave us with more questions than answers, since it was meant to be the first part of a trilogy, and Snyder only has permission to make the first film in the planned series. Upon returning from the dead, Superman was meant to be brainwashed into becoming Darkseid's new general who conquers Earth, forcing the other heroes to band together and save the day in later movies.

All we can do is wait and see if Snyder will attempt to wrap up a trilogy's worth of storytelling in a single four-hour movie, or if the story will be left with an open ending. It is also unknown at this time whether the cast of the movie will be returning to film any additional scenes to take the movie a new direction.

Meanwhile, rumors of Cavill returning to the DCEU has fans speculating which movie will be his first stop, said to be in the form of a brief cameo. The sequel to Shazam seems like a natural choice, considering the first film was originally supposed to have a Cavill cameo before they were forced to use a body double. Aquaman 2 is also a reasonable bet, as is the standalone Black Adam feature that has been in development for over a decade. Wherever Superman does end up showing up, let's hope he looks as badass as in the fan art.