Will Smith Poses With ‘Batman v Superman’ Stars Ben Affleck & Henry Cavill

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice stars Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill were joined on the black carpet at the film’s premiere by Will Smith.

Will Smith, Ben Affleck & Henry Cavill

Smith made a surprise appearance at the New York City premiere of Batman v Superman, which stars Affleck as Batman and Cavill reprising the role of Superman. While Smith doesn’t appear in DC Film’s Batman v Superman, he does appear in the studio’s upcoming villain-centered flick Suicide Squad as Deadshot

While it’s unknown if DC Films will put out a movie featuring Batman, Superman and Deadshot in the future, the studio has announced a Justice League movie, which will reunite Affleck and Cavill. It will also feature a slew of other comic book characters, including Jason Mamoa‘s Aquaman/ Arthur Curry – which is who Cavill is most exited to worth with.

“I’m looking forward to expanding on the DC Cinematic Universe and finally getting a chance to open up that world,” Cavill said at the Batman v Superman premiere. “There’s a thousand and one rich stories in there and I’m looking forward to interacting with Aquaman, especially.”

Ahead of the premiere, Cavill expressed his desire to continue playing Superman for years to come, provided that the scripts continue to delve into the more complicated aspects of his character.

“It’s a character that I love playing and will hopefully play for many more years, but only if I’m also exploring the depths of the complexities of this character as time goes on, because that’s something that I am really keen to do,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald. “Things right now are messy in the world, to say the least, and I think people enjoy escaping from that with the fantasy that there is a hero that can save the day, and is it Batman or Superman, or neither of them?”

Affleck, who is playing Batman for the first time in Dawn of Justice, shares Cavill’s belief that superhero movies are still a major draw due to society’s desire to see a savior of sorts.

“There is an aspect of helplessness that people relate to, the idea that the world is terribly scary with the spread of terrorism and the dangers of today’s technology,” he says. “So I think these films are about wish fulfillment, providing us with a fantasy world to escape into and to make us feel safe.”

Asked on the red carpet about whether or not his youngest child, 4-year-old son Samuel, will be allowed to watch the movie, Affleck was dubious about whether or not he’d be able to realize that it wasn’t really his dad taking a beating from Superman.

“I don’t know if he would be scared seeing me, like, if he would think it was really me getting thrown around and crashed and hurt. I don’t know if he could know the difference. So, we’ll see. I’ll warm him up,” Affleck told E! News. “In time. When he learns to differentiate between the fact that it’s not, that I’m not getting beat up on camera.”

Batman v Superman​ hits theaters Friday March 25. ​Suicide Squad​ will premiere August 5.