Dean Cain is not a fan of the direction Hollywood is taking Superman. The actor, who played the superhero on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman from 1993 to 1997, said he is concerned about James Gunn‘s vision for the character.
“How woke is Hollywood going to make this character?” he said in a video interview with TMZ. “How much is Disney going to change their Snow White? Why are they going to change these characters [to] exist for the times? For Superman, it was ‘truth, justice, and the American way.’ Well, they dropped that… They came up with ‘truth, justice, and a better tomorrow.’ Changing beloved characters I don’t think is a great idea.”
He added, “The ‘American way’ is immigrant friendly, tremendously immigrant friendly. But there are rules. You can’t come in saying, ‘I want to get rid of all the rules in America, because I want it to be more like Somalia.’ Well that doesn’t work, because you had to leave Somalia to come here… There have to be limits, because we cant have everybody in the United States. We can’t have everybody, society will fail. So there have to be limits.”
Gunn recently told the Sunday Times, “Superman is the story of America. An immigrant that came from other places and populated the country, but for me, it is mostly a story that says basic human kindness is a value and is something we have lost.” The interview resulted in a backlash from the far-right, anti-immigrant MAGA set, which apparently includes Cain.
“It’s being portrayed as a real negative thing that we want people to follow our immigration laws, which is insane to me,” Cain said. “I feel we are in a bad situation here now because it’s being stoked by politicians and by NGOs that have a political agenda. And I think bringing Superman into it, I think that was a mistake by James Gunn to say it’s an immigrant thing, and I think its going to hurt the numbers on the movie.”
Cain added that initially he “was excited for the film” because it seemed to have a sense of humor that previous Superman movies have lacked.
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“I’m rooting for it to be a success, but I don’t like that last political comment,” the actor said. “And I saw Sean Gunn say something about it too, and I know Sean, I like Sean, it’s his brother but I just don’t know that it’s going to be the right. It’s not going to take it like Snow White, but I don’t think its gonna help the numbers. People really need to be educated on this immigration situation because we are the most immigrant friendly country by far on this planet.”
Gunn and other members of the Superman cast were asked about the uproar at the Superman premiere in Hollywood Monday night, July 7. Gunn laughed off a question from a Variety reporter, saying, “I think this movie is for everyone. I don’t have anything to say to anybody. I’m not here to judge people. I think this is a movie about kindness, and I think that’s something everyone can relate to.”
Sean Gunn, the director’s brother, who plays the villain Maxwell Lord, also got a chuckle out of the red carpet question, but did offer a more blunt response. “My reaction to [the backlash] is that it is exactly what the movie is about. We support our people, you know? We love our immigrants,” he said. “Yes, Superman is an immigrant, and yes, the people that we support in this country are immigrants. And if you don’t like that, you’re not American. People who say no to immigrants are against the American way.”
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Nathan Fillion, who plays Guy Gardner/Green Lantern, gave the heartiest laugh and the quippiest response, saying, “Aw, somebody needs a hug. It’s just a movie guys.”
Gunn’s Superman, which stars David Corenswet, is in theaters July 11. Rolling Stone commended the film in a review, writing, “It’s faint praise, even in the post-MCU era of the genre, to say that Superman is a solid superhero film; the caveat is hiding in plain sight. What Gunn has pulled off is something more complicated, more interesting, and far tougher: He’s given us a Superman movie that actually feels like a living, breathing comic book.”
