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One of the actors who once wore the iconic Superman cape has joined the growing chorus of critics slamming the new DC superhero reboot as a painfully woke reimagining.
The latest Superman — starring David Corenswet as the Man of Steel and Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane — is directed by James Gunn, who kicked off the backlash himself by calling the film an immigration allegory.
Skepticism surfaced early, as this film marks the third Superman reboot in less than 20 years, following Brandon Routh’s 2006 Superman Returns and Henry Cavill’s roles in 2013’s Man of Steel and 2017’s Justice League.
The initial round of reviews hasn’t done the movie any favors either, with critics largely unimpressed.
Now Dean Cain — the ’90s Superman from Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman alongside Teri Hatcher — has weighed in, challenging Tinseltown’s new direction for the character.
‘How woke is Hollywood going to make this character?’ Cain told TMZ.
Dean Cain joined the growing chorus of critics slamming the new DC superhero reboot as a painfully woke reimagining; (seen in 2023)
The latest Superman — starring David Corenswet (pictured) as the Man of Steel and Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane — is directed by James Gunn , who kicked off the backlash himself by calling the film an immigration allegory
Now Dean — the ’90s Superman from Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman alongside Teri Hatcher — has weighed in, challenging Tinseltown’s new direction for the character
Cain didn’t hold back, bringing up the backlash to Rachel Zegler’s Snow White reboot as another example of what he sees as Hollywood rewriting iconic characters to fit modern narratives.
‘How much is Disney going to change their Snow White? Why are they going to change these characters to exist for the times?’ he asked.
The 58-year-old actor also took aim at reports that the upcoming Superman film has swapped out the hero’s classic motto — ‘truth, justice, and the American way’ — in favor of the phrase ‘truth, justice, and the human way’ in its product marketing.
‘For Superman, it was “truth, justice in the American way.” Well, they dropped that … I don’t think is a great idea. I think if you want to create a new character, go ahead and do that. But for me, Superman has always stood for “truth, justice, and the American way,”’ Cain said.
He didn’t stop there. Cain launched into a fiery critique of the film’s political undertones, offering a personal take on immigration and national values.
‘And the American way is 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 wanted to be more like Somalia.” Well, that doesn’t work, because you had to leave Somalia to come here — so it doesn’t make any sense.
‘If people are coming for economic opportunity, let’s take a look at your government and why you don’t have that economic opportunity … And there have to be limits, because we can’t have everybody here in the United States … our society will fail.’
Cain also scoffed at director Gunn’s efforts to reframe Superman’s identity through a modern lens, adding, ‘We know Superman is an immigrant — he’s a freaking alien.’
‘How woke is Hollywood going to make this character?’ Cain told TMZ
The 58-year-old actor also took aim at reports that the upcoming Superman film has swapped out the hero’s classic motto — ‘truth, justice, and the American way’ — in favor of the phrase ‘truth, justice, and the human way’ in its product marketing; (seen with Teri Hatcher as Lois Lane)
His remarks were in direct response to Gunn’s own viral interview with The Times UK, where the director described the upcoming film’s deeper themes.
‘I mean, Superman is the story of America,’ Gunn said. ‘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 acknowledged that the story might strike a political chord, but made it clear he wasn’t concerned.
‘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.
‘But screw them … This Superman does seem to come at a particular time when people are feeling a loss of hope in other people’s goodness. 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.’
He added, ‘And, no, I don’t make films to change the world, but if a few people could be just a bit nicer after this it would make me happy.’
While Gunn’s vision aims to usher in a bold new era for the Superman franchise — one that began with Christopher Reeve’s iconic debut in Richard Donner’s beloved 1978 film Superman: The Movie — a wave of early reviews suggest not everyone is ready to embrace this reboot.
A particularly brutal takedown came from the Daily Beast, which posted its review five days ahead of the official press embargo.
Cain launched into a fiery critique of the film’s political undertones, offering a personal take on immigration and national values. (Rachel Brosnahan pictured as reporter Lois Lane)
Cain also scoffed at director Gunn’s efforts to reframe Superman’s identity through a modern lens, adding, ‘We know Superman is an immigrant — he’s a freaking alien; ( Nicholas Hoult’s portrayal of nemesis Lex Luthor)
The critique has since been scrubbed from the site, but not before slamming the film as ‘the Final Nail in the Grave for the Superhero Genre.’
Among the publication’s chief complaints: a muddled, humorless script, flimsy character arcs, and a storyline packed with ‘fanciful nonsense that soon renders the entire affair superficial and silly.’
The Times didn’t hold back either, handing Gunn’s film a dismal two-star review and calling it a ‘migraine of a movie,’ though the paper did find a bright spot in its lead actor.
‘David Corenswet is serviceable as Hollywood’s latest Man of Steel,’ wrote critic Kevin Maher, ‘but director James Gunn has turned the ninth big-screen film into an indigestible mush.’
Maher added another jab at the filmmaker, saying: ‘Gunn approaches the nerdosphere’s most celebrated property like a giddy amnesiac who has missed the precipitous rise and fall of multi-character Marvel superhero movies and is instead stuck somewhere in the early 2010s.’
The Guardian echoed those sentiments, also giving the film two stars and dubbing it a ‘dim reboot.’
Critic Peter Bradshaw wrote: ‘The Man of Steel – played with square-faced soullessness by David Corenswet – has an uninteresting crisis of confidence in Gunn’s cluttered, pointless franchise restarter.’
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