Dean Cain was one of the previous live-action actors to portray Superman, specifically appearing in the ABC series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman from 1993 to 1997. Now, decades later, James Gunn is reinventing the character for the all-new DCU movie Superman now in theaters, and Dean Cain is rather unhappy about comments from Gunn that the character is an “immigrant.”
Immigration has become a popular political topic as of late, so Gunn having used the word prompted all sorts of discussions and backlash, and now an actual Superman actor is throwing in his own two cents. Cain spoke with TMZ, and as shared via Variety, he’s rather unhappy with Gunn’s comments that Superman – an alien from another planet – is an immigrant. Likewise, he’s expressed his disappointment with Superman’s motto being changed, specifically the reference to the “American way.”
Here’s what Cain shared, first complaining that the character is becoming too “woke” as a result of these changes:
“How woke is Hollywood going to make this character?” Cain said. “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. If you want to create a new character go ahead and do that.”
He continued to discuss his frustrations with changing the character while bringing up real-world complaints regarding immigration:
“Superman has always stood for ‘truth, justice and the American way,’ and the ‘American way’ is immigrant friendly, tremendously immigrant friendly,” Cain continued. “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.”
Cain further called Gunn’s usage of the word “immigrant” a “mistake” that he believes will hurt the film’s performance as a result. However, he’s still excited to see the movie himself and he hopes that it will be successful.
“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 it’s going to hurt the numbers on the movie. I was excited for the film. I am excited to see what it is… I’m rooting for it to be a success, but I don’t like that last political comment.”
It’s definitely an interesting perspective, especially from someone who previously portrayed the character prior to David Corenswet. Of course, Gunn himself has been adamant that his goal with Superman is to create a movie that offers a look at basic human kindness more than any kind of political agenda.
Superman is now playing in theaters. Stay tuned to ScreenGeek for any additional updates regarding the first film in the DC Universe as we have them.