The new “Superman” movie is facing a steady wave of criticism from the right after the film’s director called out a political message he hopes viewers will take away from his reboot of the legendary DC Comics character.
Star filmmaker James Gunn, who led the “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchise and is now trying to recharge the DC brand, angered some conservatives with comments made to British newspaper The Times calling Superman “an immigrant that came from other places and populated the country.”
Asked about viewers who might find a portrayal of the character Superman as an immigrant to be offensive, “Screw them,” Gunn said.
“Superman is the story of America,” the director insisted.
Gunn’s comments, and the backlash they’ve caused, have thrown an already buzzing hype machine for the new “Superman” movie into overdrive — and cast a brighter spotlight on its box office success this weekend at a crucial time for the DC Universe franchise and movie making business more generally.
“There’s the school of thought that any buzz is good buzz. Not that a brand like Superman needs any more awareness, but something like this certainly gets that social discourse going,” said Shawn Robbins, founder and owner of movie analytics website Box Office Theory. “That being said, in today’s world, social media drives such intense opinions on all sides of an issue. And the crossover between pop culture and politics has really never been more present.”
The fervor around the new “Superman” film has been intense on the right, with a growing number of social media posts, podcast episodes and Fox News segments dedicated to pouncing on Gunn’s comments this week.
Many pundits and critics of mainstream filmmaking have pointed to Gunn’s stated vision of Superman as an immigrant as an example of Hollywood’s left-leaning bias and unnecessary political commentary.
“We don’t go to the movie theater to be lectured to and have someone throw their ideology on to us,” remarked leading Republican operative Kellyanne Conway during an episode of Fox’s table talk program “The Five” this week. “I wonder if it will be successful.”
Actor Dean Cain, who portrayed Superman in the ’90s, blasted Gunn’s comments during an interview with TMZ, calling it a “mistake” to politicize the iconic comic book hero.
“For James Gunn to say it’s an immigrant thing … I think it’s going to hurt the numbers on the movie,” Cain said.
“Who needs kryptonite when the reviews are this bad?” read a headline this week published by the right-leaning Daily Mail. “Woke Superman reboot is savaged in brutal early review as hard-to-please critics brand new movie a ‘convoluted mess’”
Disney has been targeted in the past by the right for some of its films.
It took heat this year over a recent live-action reboot of “Snow White,” which tapped a Latina, Rachel Zegler, to play the iconic princess. Zegler also took a hit over critical comments of traditional portrayals of “Snow White.”
As far back as 2011, Pixar’s “Cars 2” faced pushback in the right-leaning press after the animated film’s director called out a hidden message casting the oil industry as “the bad guy” in the film.
In the case of the upcoming “Superman” movie, critics say Gunn’s comments risk alienating a large swath of his potential audience at a time of heightened political sensitivity and endless headlines about immigration specifically.
Border security is the central issue to President Trump and his MAGA movement, and the Republican has sought to impose the largest deportation in U.S. history. Earlier this summer, cars were lit afire by protesters in Los Angeles angered over raids by Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“When it comes to these big budget movies, you need every fanny in the seat, you just do,” said Christian Toto, who hosts the conservative “Hollywood in Toto” podcast. “The fact that he went this direction with it was pretty surprising given everything that’s at stake here. He’s not going to get any more viewers saying this, and he might chase some people away.”
Even before Gunn’s comments, the box office success of “Superman” was a point of pressure for Warner Bros. Discovery, the massive media conglomerate that owns the DC Comics brand and a company that sank more than $200 million into a reboot of arguably its most iconic character.
Gunn in 2022 replaced Zack Snyder as creative head of the DC Universe. Snyder was widely seen by industry observers and film critics as having a darker, more conservative or traditional vision for its characters.
Adding to the pressure for DC is the sustained success of its largest rival Marvel, which has raked in billions with blockbusters including “The Avengers” and “Spiderman” films, all of which have set new records at the box office.
Many observers point to the tapping of the Marvel-veteran Gunn to lead its DC efforts as a major bet that his more in-your-face, socially conscious take on the universe’s storylines will pay off with modern consumers and years-long fans alike.
“Marvel has had some serious success in being able to penetrate the culture in a way DC has not,” said Bob Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. “This is a really, really important film for DC and for its future. There’s a lot riding on this being a giant blockbuster. So if you’ve got people like Jesse Watters and Kellyanne Conway talking about this, that has to make some people [at the studio] at least a little nervous.”
Others argue Gunn’s commentary could be a calculated move, one that could pay off as one of the biggest films of the summer gets ready to hit theatres nationwide.
“This sort of pre-backlash has really become part of the major intrigue heading into this premiere,” said Steve Granelli, an expert on film and pop culture at Northeastern University’s College of Arts, Media and Design. “Gunn is not the type of person to take these sorts of criticisms without a response. This is his vision. He’s very aware of the discourse around this film, probably to the betterment of the overall conversation.”
