This weekend marks the cinematic release of DC’s Superman reboot starring David Corenswet, taking up the cape after Henry Cavill.
Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn has helmed the new blockbuster, but is receiving backlash over his comments on the film being about immigration.
Speaking with The Times in an article titled ‘Some people will take offence at my new Superman’, the DCU boss said the film “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.”
Gunn continued: “Yes, it plays differently,” Gunn said. “But it’s about human kindness and obviously there will be jerks out there who are just not kind and will take it as offensive just because it is about kindness. But screw them.” Now, 90s TV Superman star Dean Cain has hit back at the director in a new interview.
The Trump-supporting conservative told TMZ: “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…. How woke is Hollywood going to make this character? How much is Disney going to change their Snow White? Why are they going to change these characters [to] exist for the times?”
Cain added that Superman’s motto used to be “truth, justice and the American way” which is “immigrant-friendly”, but added that “there are rules”. He clarified: “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.”
Superman is out now in cinemas.