Henry Cavill twice tested for the role of Superman before he got it. Back in 2004 at the age of 21 or so, he was up for the role in McG’s “Superman: Flyby” (which was subsequently scrapped and re-tooled into Bryan Singer’s “Superman Returns”).

Photos of that costume test leaked out a few years ago and showed Cavill in a high sheen armoured version of the costume that seemed to be made of some kind of rubber/vinyl composite.

Cut to seven years later, in eary 2011, Cavill tested and won the role for Zack Snyder’s “Man of Steel”. But before he could close the deal, Snyder conducted one test to make sure Cavill was right – he put him in Christopher Reeve’s old Superman costume.

At the time Snyder told EW: “If you can put on that suit and pull it off, that’s an awesome achievement. Henry walked out and no one laughed. Other actors put that suit on and it’s a joke, even if they’re great actors. Henry put it on, and he exuded this kind of crazy-calm confidence that just made me go, ‘Wow. OK, this is Superman’.”

Today, Snyder has used his Vero account to share one of the photos he snapped of Cavill in the Reeve costume from that day six years ago and you can see it below.

Cavill reprises his role in this November’s “Justice League” which Snyder is directing. Actor Ciaran Hinds takes on the role of the film’s lead villain Steppenwolf and spoke to Independent UK this week about his character saying: “He’s old, tired, still trying to get out of his own enslavement to Darkseid, [but] he has to keep on this line to try and take over worlds.”