Superman is one of the most iconic — and most popular — superheroes of all time, but the newest movie featuring the Man of Steel has received some backlash ahead of its release on Friday.
After the film’s director, James Gunn, said that “Superman” is about “an immigrant that came from other places” and “basic human kindness,” adding that the movie was “about politics” and “about morality.”
The movie has since faced criticism from some conservative commentators, and even one of Utah’s congressional representatives.
This isn’t the first time that the story of Superman — an alien superhero who came to Earth from the planet Krypton — has turned political.
What’s the ‘Superman’ controversy about?
The new “Superman” film, starring David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan, comes to theaters this weekend and is expected to be a blockbuster hit this summer, with a projected box office opening of around $130 million, according to Variety.
Gunn, who directed Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” trilogy and is currently the head of DC Studios, discussed the upcoming movie in an interview with the U.K. paper The Times last week.
“I mean, Superman is the story of America,” Gunn told The Times. “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.”
When The Times asked whether the movie might be perceived differently in a blue state, such as New York (on which the fictional Metropolis is based), or a red state, such as Kansas, where the character of Clark Kent grew up, Gunn said he thought it would.
“Yes, it plays differently,” he 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.”
Gunn’s comments come at a time when immigration is a hot-button issue in the U.S., and a number of conservative commentators weighed in on what Gunn had to say.
Conservatives also expressed frustration with the politicization of movies by progressives in Hollywood, including Rep. Burgess Owens.
“Marxists in Hollywood keep ignoring the ABCs of capitalism. Read the room - America is fed up with arrogance, indoctrination, and anti-American propaganda,” Owens posted on X on Monday. “I won’t be watching, not even for free!”
A Fox News chyron read “Superwoke” during one of the outlet’s segments about “Superman,” and Kellyanne Conway said on Fox that people “don’t go to the movie theater to be lectured to and to have somebody throw their ideology onto us,” Forbes reported.
Meanwhile, Fox News host Jesse Watters said that Superman’s cape now reads “MS-13,” and conservative commentator Ben Shapiro claimed that the new film is trying to “separate Superman off from America,” per Forbes.
In response to the controversy, Gunn told Variety on Monday, “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.”
Is Superman an immigrant?
Superman has had a connection to immigrants from the beginning.
The superhero’s creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, were both the children of Jewish immigrants to the United States, from Lithuania and Ukraine, respectively, according to an article published by the Library of Congress.
The first “Superman” comic book was published in 1938. As Jewish men, Shuster and Siegel were “keenly aware of rising antisemitism and Nazi oppression, as well as the despair of a people saddled with economic depression, looking for someone to save them,“ wrote New York Times critic Alissa Wilkinson. “Superman took on corrupt politicians, unscrupulous businessmen and substandard housing conditions. And he was staunchly antifascist,” taking on Hitler himself in one 1940 story.
DC Comics has referred to Superman as a “refugee” in the past, even sharing a PSA for World Refugee Day in 2019.
“The Man Of Steel’s story is the ultimate example of a refugee who makes his new home better,” DC wrote at the time.
As far as what message the new “Superman” film is trying to share, Gunn said a large part of it has to do with “goodness.”
“This Superman does seem to come at a particular time when people are feeling a loss of hope in other people’s goodness,” he told The Times. “I’m telling a story about a guy who is uniquely good, and that feels needed now because there is a meanness that has emerged due to cultural figures being mean online.”
Gunn has also spoken in the past about why he believes Superman might be uniquely suited to this time.
“People are looking for heroes right now,” Gunn said in February, per The Hollywood Reporter. “They are looking for values of goodness, looking for people who are good and decent human beings. And Superman is that.”