Dean Cain, who played the Man of Steel in the 1990s TV series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, has claimed the new Superman movie directed by James Gunn is “woke”.
Cain, a vocal supporter of Donald Trump, was speaking to TMZ and said: “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 was responding to comments by Gunn published on Friday in the Times, in which the director said: “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.”
Cain added: “We know Superman is an immigrant – he’s a freaking alien … 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 can’t have everybody in the United States. We can’t have everybody, society will fail. So there have to be limits.”
Superman has become the focus of criticism from some rightwing commentators, including Fox News’ host Jesse Watters, who suggested that Superman “fights for truth, justice, and your preferred pronouns” and that gang moniker MS-13 was “superimposed” on his cape.
At the film’s premiere on Monday, Gunn sought to defuse any controversy saying: “I think this is a movie about kindness and I think that’s something everyone can relate to.”
Gunn’s actor brother Sean, who appears in Superman as billionaire Maxwell Lord, addressed the issue directly, saying: “It is exactly what the movie is about. We support our people, you know? We love our immigrants. 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.”
