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After Henry Cavill’s departure from the eponymous series The Witcher as well as the Superman franchise, the actor is back in the game with the release of his film The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Directed by Guy Ritchie, known for films like Snatch, Sherlock Holmes and The Gentlemen, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is an action comedy inspired by true events.

Indeed, Guy Ritchie was inspired by the Special Operation Executive, also called Churchill’s Secret Army, since it was the former British Prime Minister who created this organization during the Second World War. His mission: to attack the Nazis in espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance missions using unconventional combat techniques.

In this film, this team is made up of gangsters and mavericks, played by Henry Cavill, Alan Ritchson, Hero Fiennes Tiffin and Alex Pettyfer to name just a few. A role that the former actor from The Witcher loved playing, taking more pleasure in this burlesque character who evolves with humor in this film.

The film, which was released in American theaters in April 2024, is now expected to arrive on the Prime Video platform by the end of July, as reported by Allociné.

Was Henry Cavill the best Superman? Here’s our subjective ranking

The decision to choose the little-known David Corenswent for the role of Superman in the new film prepared by James Gunn and Peter Safron received a lot of attention among viewers. Although the controversy is not surprising, especially since the current actor seemed ready to reprise his role, it should be remembered that the choice of the actor to play the newcomer from the planet Krypton has always aroused great emotions.

Selecting an actor to play the role of a visitor from the planet Krypton has always been associated with the same problem. His role had to be an unknown actor, in such a way that the audience did not look at him as an artist associated with other roles, but simply saw him as Superman. Hundreds of actors auditioned for Richard Donner’s first film. “We even tested my first ex-wife’s dentist,” confesses one of the producers of the 1978 film in the documentary “Look, Up in the Sky! The Amazing Story of Superman.”

In subsequent years, the hero was also played by actors who were associated with this one, great role. With the exception of Henry Cavill, known for various incarnations in recent years. Perhaps this is the reason for the desire to go in a different direction in James Gunn’s currently prepared film, which is to premiere in 2025. When creating this ranking (from worst to best), we took into account seven actors, omitting, among others, Nicolas Cage, who had a short cameo in this role in the film “The Flash”.

Brandon Routh

In search of an actor for the leading role in Bryan Singer’s film, thousands of candidates were auditioned. Jim Caviezel was reportedly interested in playing the character, but Singer himself insisted on hiring an actor not widely known yet, whose posture would refer to the classic creation of the character, played by Christopher Reeve, which also emphasized the fact that Routh was exactly the same age as his predecessor on the day of the film’s premiere. However, the show turned out to be a huge financial failure and the planned sequel was never made.

Tyler Hoechlin

The American was first cast as Superman in the CW series “Supergirl” in 2016, and five years later the first episode of the series “Superman & Lois” appeared, which eventually had four seasons. It was originally supposed to be continued, but due to budget cuts caused by the writers’ and actors’ strike, which reduced not only the writing team but also the cast, it was ended with four seasons. The highly idiosyncratic combination of a superhero series and a family film was met with mixed reception, as was the dour, statuesque Superman played by Hoechlin.

Tom Welling

Not everyone liked the series “Smallville”, however, from the very beginning it was aimed at young people and it is difficult to criticize it for that reason. It was similar with the role of Tom Welling, who played the teenage Clark Kent and, like the next one on the list, Kirk Alyn, today he is almost exclusively associated with this role. No wonder, since he played in as many as 217 episodes of this production.

Kirk Alyn

Born in 1910, Alyn played the superhero in a 15-episode series produced by Columbia Pictures, as well as in the later sequel “Atom Man vs Superman” from 1950. Unlike many later creations, Alyn’s character takes care of the appropriate disguise, becoming Clark Kent, making it difficult to recognize him as Superman. The dream role turned out to be something of a golden cage for the actor himself, because after the production ended, he had great difficulty finding a place for himself in the film market of that time, finding employment mainly in other productions based on comics.

Dean Cain

Chubby Dean Cain is another actor associated today basically exclusively with the role of Superman. It so happened that the actor played the character of the visitor from Krypton in all 88 episodes of “New Adventures of Superman”, also shown here, on Polsat. Playing alongside Teri Hatcher, playing Lois Lane and Lane Smith, playing Perry White. The actor perfectly fit the very fairy-tale, not to say childishly naive plot of the subsequent episodes, focusing most often on the character of Clark Kent, who fit quite well into the climate of television in the mid-90s, but as we know, not without a specific charm.

George Reeves

Reeves was a popular actor in his day, who had managed to appear in the classic “Gone with the Wind” among others. In the early 1950s he was offered the role of Superman, which he initially rejected, like most actors at the time not taking television seriously, but eventually agreed to it. However, he was not too bothered by it, sometimes calling the hero’s costume a “monkey suit”, complaining that the productions in which he played did not have adult fans. His death in 1959 is still shrouded in mystery, as it is not known whether he committed suicide or was murdered. Interestingly, in Allen Coulter’s 2006 film “Hollywoodland”, he is played by Ben Affleck.

Christopher Reeve

Reeve is another actor who is still identified with one role, but who managed to play Superman in several film productions that were very popular at the time. He was hired for this role in the year of his acting debut in the memorable disaster film “Neptune’s Tragedy”, in which Charlton Heston starred. The first installment of the adventures of the visitor from the planet Krypton, based on the screenplay by Mario Puzo, brought a huge profit from ticket sales (300 million dollars) and secured him the status of a megastar. In later installments, he was able to approach his role ironically, even if the pastiche in “Superman III” went way too far. Unfortunately, in 1995, while riding a horse, he suffered a broken spine, which led to paralysis and became part of an exceptionally pompous media story about the curse that began to weigh on Superman productions. In later years, he became an informal ambassador for the disabled, and died in 2004 at the age of 52.

Henry Cavill

Viewers were surprised to hear that the Briton would not be playing a Kryptonian in any more films, this time being prepared by James Gunn and Peter Safron. It is no coincidence that they say he was born for this role. Like no one else, he can play the complexity of the Superman/Clark duality, even though he himself is a nerd trapped in Chad’s body. Interestingly, although virtually none of the superhero productions he has starred in have received high ratings, no one had any complaints about him, which is slowly becoming the norm in his case, considering how the series “The Witcher” is also received. After resigning from the two aforementioned roles, Cavill now faces new challenges: a performance in Guy Ritchie’s new film, as well as the revival of Connor MacLeod in the new installment of “Highlander,” directed by Chad Stahelski.