Did you know that NBA icon and massive tipper Shaquille O’Neal is a Superman fan? From having the Man of Steel’s ’S’ shield tattooed on his arm because he was nicknamed Superman out on the court, to playing supporting Superman character John Henry Irons in Steel (even though that ended up not being tied to the comics), the basketball player goes way back with the Kryptonian superhero. So while I’m sure fans of Shaq get frazzled when they see him out in the world, it’s nice to hear he nerded out on a similar level while visiting the set of the 2025 movie release Superman.
CinemaBlend learned that Shaq stopped by the Fortress of Solitude setup while speaking with the Superman production designer, Beth Mickle. She took him on a tour around Superman’s Arctic getaway personally, as this was the place where “VIP guests” and friends and family would be taken as the DCU’s first theatrical installment was filming. Mickle recalled to us:
I will say, only because this was just like the best day of my life, .Shaquille O'Neal came for a tour, and I got to take him around the set. It was just us, and then two of the art directors hanging in the wings. I got to walk him around, and got to show him how we do the foam carving for the stone, and explained how we built the crystals. He asked if he could touch one, I was like, ‘Of course!’ We went around, and knocked on a bunch of those things, and a bunch of the crystals.
Since Shaquille O’Neal was born in 1972, it’s a good bet he saw the Christopher Reeve Superman movies in his younger years, and the Fortress of Solitude was an especially integral location in the 1978 flick that made us believe a man could fly. So it’s completely understandable he’d be wowed by the Fortress of Solitude set and want to touch one of its trademark crystals. Even if someone who wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about Superman got to see the Fortress firsthand, it can still be admired purely as a technical achievement.
As it turns out, Shaquille O’Neal wasn’t the only notable individual who visited the Superman set on that particular day of filming, which was already special to Beth Mickle for more personal reasons. She laid out:
He couldn't have been lovelier, but it was also just really nice to see that even Shaq, one of the greatest of the greats of all time, was a little dazzled by some scenery. That felt really good. And then later that day, the writer Amor Towles, of A Gentleman in Moscow, also came to set and got to go see it. … It was my husband's birthday, April 2nd. I was like, ‘This is the best day of my life. Like, there is not a better day than April 2nd, 2024.’
This big day for Beth Mickle came a little over a month into Superman’s principal photography, and cameras stopped rolling on July 30, 2024. In addition to the aforementioned Steel, Shaq also has DC cred from voicing himself in an episode of Static Shock, which was set in the DC Animated Universe. Since James Gunn is plotting an entire Superman saga for the DCU, maybe it can be arranged for Shaq to cameo in one of these upcoming DC movies.
For now, Superman can purchased digitally as its theatrical run starts to wind down. After meeting Milly Alcock’s Kara Zor-El at the end of this movie, we’ll see Kal-El’s cousin take center stage when Supergirl comes out on June 26, 2026. Meanwhile, Shaquille O’Neal remains one of the former athletes who’ve gone into broadcasting, and can be seen co-hosting Inside the NBA on TNT.
