ABC/Warner Bros.
James Gunn’s new Superman film has finally hit theaters and its thematic message has caused the online faux-outrage grift machine to shift into overdrive. Former Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman star Dean Cain even took a swing at the attention-seeking rage-bait only to be made to look a hypocritical fool.
According to the likes of Cain and Ben Shapiro and Clay Travis and Jesse Waters, the new Superman movie is too “woke,” which is a word that’s lost any tangible meaning. Fox News has been calling the film “SuperWoke”, while Watters was quoted as saying: “You know what it says on his cape? MS-13.”
Take Travis, for example, who said he’d be skipping the film after Gunn described the story as being about “immigrants that come from other places.” The character, Travis argued, should be “apolitical.”
I’m going to skip seeing Superman now. Director is an absolute moron to say this publicly the week before release. America is desperate for apolitical entertainment and Hollywood is unable to deliver it. https://t.co/SjKZ7KGgLI
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) July 6, 2025
Reminder: Superman is literally an alien in a foreign land that was created by TWO JEWS AT THE DAWN OF WORLD WAR II specifically to give people hope and to create a character that stood up for the powerless. His very origin is and always will be inherently political. Asking the Man of Steel to not be a tale about a stranger in a strange land is like making marinara sauce with ketchup — it misses the entire point of the tomato.
Ben Shapiro — who also now believes the Epstein case is of “pretty close to zero priority” to the American people — unsurprisingly didn’t like the film either.
Not. Good. Review coming soon pic.twitter.com/Ax1gRaEvRl
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) July 11, 2025
This brings us to Dean Cain, who levied similarly contextless criticisms against the film, which has a 95% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and is tracking to make over $150 million DOMESTICALLY at the box office during its opening weekend, seemingly dispelling the “go woke, go broke” narrative.
“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 said to TMZ.
“I think bringing Superman into it… I think that was a mistake by James Gunn to say it’s an immigrant thing, and I think it’s going to hurt the numbers on the movie. I was excited for the film. I am excited to see what it is… I’m rooting for it to be a success, but I don’t like that last political comment.”
Cain’s comments, however, have been undercut by a clip from his very own series, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman , that tackle the direct topic that Gunn has been criticized for highlighting — the implications of Superman being a literal alien/immigrant.
https://t.co/SB8fCOc565 pic.twitter.com/I1BQS9CcaA
— ً (@izzietayIor) July 10, 2025
On Thursday night, Superman racked up $21 million in previews, which is the best of Gunn’s career and the biggest of the year so far — a year that has seen Lilo & Stitch and A Minecraft Movie fall just short of $1 billion at the global box office, meaning Superman could be the first this year to do so.