Superman arrived on Earth a refugee from a dying world, adopted by farmers in the American heartland. But as the Man of Steel lands in theaters with a new reboot this weekend, some conservative critics are taking issue with the superhero saga being framed as an immigrant's story.
The outrage, primarily from right-wing commentators, began percolating in the last week, before many had even seen the film. The criticism centers around recent comments made by director James Gunn, who underscored how Superman’s immigrant identity is weaved into the film’s storyline.
“I mean, Superman is the story of America,” Gunn told The Times of London newspaper in an interview published last week. “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 has since repeated similar refrains during the film’s press tour, fueling sentiments from critics who say he has unnecessarily politicized the superhero.
Superhero comics have historically not shied away from political themes — Captain America, for example, famously punched Adolf Hitler on a 1941 comic cover, and Superman fought the Ku Klux Klan in a 1946 radio broadcast.
But the new “Superman” installment, which is being released by Warner Bros., has become the latest superhero film to become a political flashpoint for commentators who have long publicly blasted Hollywood for its perceived liberalism.
Earlier this year, some fans threatened to boycott “Captain America: Brave New World” over comments made by Anthony Mackie, the first Black man to play Captain America, about the superhero’s identity.
After Gunn’s recent comments, the popular X account “End Wokeness” stated in a post, “Hollywood literally never learns.” And in a Monday segment, Fox News labeled the movie “Superwoke.” The segment’s banner read: “Iconic hero movie to embrace pro-immigrant themes.”
“You know what it says on his cape? MS-13,” Fox News host Jessie Watters joked, referring to the international criminal gang that President Donald Trump’s administration claims it is targeting in its immigration raids.
Another Fox host, Greg Gutfeld, accused Gunn of trying to create a “moat of woke, enlightened opinion around him” after having been “canceled” and fired from Disney as a result of resurfaced tweets containing pedophilia jokes.
Fox News contributor Kellyanne Conway, a former Trump aide, similarly took issue with “Superman,” citing a recent CBS News' "Sunday Morning" interview with star David Corenswet in which the actor didn’t mention the word “American” when referring to Superman’s slogan of “truth, justice and the American way.”
“I can’t believe that we’ve come down to that,” Conway said. “We don’t go to the movie theater to be lectured to and to have somebody throw their ideology onto us,” she said on air, speculating whether the film would “be successful.”
Representatives for Corenswet did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The new film, which also stars Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor, has been certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes as early ratings rolled in.
It’s a pivotal release for Warner Bros., as it comes after news that its parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, is planning to split into two public companies. The studio has a lot riding financially on “Superman,” which reportedly had a $363.8 million budget. The studio is also operating in a supercharged political environment as Trump pressures media organizations to acquiesce to his demands, accusing them of political bias.
A representative for Warner Bros. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the Times interview, Gunn admitted that the film is about politics, but added that it’s also "about human kindness."
“This Superman does seem to come at a particular time when people are feeling a loss of hope in other people’s goodness,” Gunn added. “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.”
Fans such as Jack Deegan, who runs a YouTube channel about comic books and their film adaptations, said that the political elements of Superman’s story have been clear from the beginning: He’s an alien who grew up in Kansas as a refugee after entering the United States illegally.
“It’s such a core, foundational element of his character that I feel like you would have to be reading it completely incorrectly to miss the point of who Superman is that much, to not even notice the fact that he has all of these themes tied into his origin story,” Deegan said.
Online, fans of the superhero also expressed incredulity that critics didn’t already know he was an immigrant. Many noted that Superman has always been political, and that the comic series was also created by sons of Jewish immigrants in 1938 — as Hitler’s Nazi Germany was persecuting Jews.
Deegan said it’s “bizarre” to see the controversy that’s emerged around Superman’s supposedly “woke” politics when the character has long been described in comics as a “champion of the oppressed,” often fighting against corruption and for the working class. His primary archnemesis is Lex Luthor, a billionaire obsessed with power.
Deegan noted that many past adaptations of the DC Comics superhero have explored political themes. In 1987’s “Superman IV: The Quest for Peace,” the hero took on nuclear proliferation, for instance. Some included storylines that involve Superman’s immigration status as a direct plot point.
The TV series “Smallville,” which aired from 2001 to 2011 on WB and then CW, focuses on the teenage Clark Kent (Tom Welling) in his fictional hometown. In the ninth episode of the sixth season, Clark rescues another undocumented immigrant, Javier, from police.
“Was it legal when you forged my adoption papers?” Clark responds when his mother refuses to illegally harbor Javier in a clip that has been recirculated across social media. “I’m an illegal immigrant, Mom. You’ve been harboring me for over 17 years.”
In one issue of the original Superman comic series, Superman defends a group of undocumented immigrants from a hate crime when a man opens fire on them, accusing them of stealing his job. And in the recent comic adaptation “Absolute Superman,” Superman’s immigrant experience is central to the story as he lives among other immigrant workers, stateless.
At the film’s red carpet premiere in Los Angeles on Monday, Gunn responded to the mounting backlash from right-wing commentators, telling Variety that he doesn’t have “anything to say to anybody” spreading negativity around the film.
Nathan Fillion, who plays the Green Lantern in Gunn’s “Superman,” also laughed when asked for his response by Variety.
“Aw, somebody needs a hug,” Fillion told the publication. “It’s just a movie, guys. It’s just a movie.”
James Gunn’s brother Sean Gunn, who plays the supervillain business magnate Maxwell Lord, said that Superman's being an immigrant “is exactly what the movie is about, I think: That 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, then you’re not American,” Gunn told Variety at the premiere. “People who say no to immigrants are against the American way. They’re against what the American Dream is all about.”
