If you’ve been hanging around social media for long enough this summer, you’ve probably heard that the new “Superman” movie is supposed to be insufferably woke.
While nowadays you have to be on the lookout for virtually every superhero movie pushing some sort of agenda, I was slightly hopefully for the latest reboot. It’s directed by James Gunn, best known for his “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies — films which didn’t bother with hammering the audience over the head with the creators’ politics.
However, if you’ve been listening to conservative radio or podcasts or conservative-leaning media over the past few days, you know that Gunn — along with several members of the cast — seem to have made comments that the latest “Superman” reboot is basically an anti-Trump, pro-immigration allegory.
The New York Post’s headline said it all: “‘Superman’ director faces backlash for calling the Man of Steel an ‘immigrant’: ‘Superwoke.’” Well, that sounds pretty bad. Which, for all I know, it might end up being. However, one important piece of context is missing here: This was a context-denuded comment he made to the real problem here, a reporter from Variety whose core competency is as a culture-war pot-stirrer as a red-carpet interviewer who has has been using various IPs to make points for some time.
If you’re unfamiliar with Marc Malkin of Variety, you may remember a fusillade of interviews for the Marvel Cinematic Universe spinoff “Agatha All Along” in which he tried to get the cast members to say that it was the “gayest Marvel project yet.”
Aubrey Plaza responds to #AgathaAllAlong being called the “gayest Marvel project yet”
“It better be, cause that’s what I signed up for!”pic.twitter.com/vMJZ5u8i7B
— 💭 (@agathariothink) September 17, 2024
Now, “Agatha All Along” was not exactly a Christian conservative’s cup of tea nor was it anything you should let your teenage kid watch, although I will admit that what I saw of it indicated that it was hardly a superhero version of “Queer Eye” with an original soundtrack by the Pet Shop Boys. A lot of people bought into the “gayest project” ever talk, alas — including, uh, me. Mistakes were made.
I’m not going to point out everyone who’s fallen for the pseudo-controversy involving Malkin and “Superman,” but as conservative-leaning fandom site That Park Place noted, this guy basically gave every member of the cast he could get a soundbite from a hefty slice of bait. And James Gunn, in all fairness, didn’t really bite.
Do you plan on seeing “Superman” in theaters?
So, when Malkin said that the new film is “an immigrant story, it’s a political movie, MAGA today is going nuts,” Gunn clarified that this was in no way a statement about them when asked what he “had to say to MAGA.”
“I don’t have anything. I think this movie is for everyone,” Gunn said, laughing. “I don’t have anything to say to anybody. I’m not here to judge people. I think this is a movie about kindness, and I think that’s something everyone can relate to.”
James Gunn responds to MAGA backlash over calling #Superman an immigrant: “I think this movie is about kindness, which everyone can relate to.” pic.twitter.com/kUdzJleUsT
— Variety (@Variety) July 8, 2025
Now, to be fair, Gunn did say in an interview that “‘Superman’ is the story of America … an immigrant that came from other places and populated the country … it is mostly a story that says basic human kindness is a value and is something we have lost,” per the New York Post.
But that says nothing in particular about MAGA. Firstly, in case you’re unfamiliar with the Superman backstory, he emigrated to Earth from the planet Krypton in a spacecraft — which, correct me if I’m wrong, but we didn’t really have any set guidelines for interstellar beings arriving in space capsules back in the 1930s. (It’s also worth noting that, under almost any circumstance, having your planet destroyed very legitimately qualifies you for refugee status.)
As for the idea that Superman represents the immigrant experience, that’s one interpretation of the comic — that the character was an inspiration to the legal (can I repeat, legal) immigrant communities trying to assimilate in the first half of the 20th century. This isn’t about him plowing into the border wall in the El Paso sector faster than a speeding bullet to let a caravan of Venezuelan migrants in. Just saying.
Unfortunately for those who were looking at these comments askance, there were people who took the low-quality bait. For instance, James’ brother Sean Gunn, who plays villain Maxwell Lord in the film. Aside from that, this is a man whose career highlights include being Kirk on “Gilmore Girls” and also Kirk on the Netflix “Gilmore Girls” miniseries and also in the viral TikTok clip of him dancing from an early episode of “Gilmore Girls” in character as Kirk. He’s got range, I tell you what.
Anyhow, he said, “My reaction to [the backlash] is that it is exactly what the movie is about” and those who “say no to immigrants are against the American way,” although after some significant leading from Malkin:
Sean Gunn on the MAGA backlash to Superman being called an immigrant: “People who say no to immigrants are against the American way.” pic.twitter.com/XgivaD34PE
— Variety (@Variety) July 8, 2025
And here’s Nathan Fillion, also in the picture, saying, “Somebody needs a hug,” when asked about those recreant MAGA types.
Nathan Fillion on MAGA backlash to James Gunn calling Superman an immigrant: “Somebody needs a hug. It’s just a movie guys.” pic.twitter.com/MzVNZMKZ72
— Variety (@Variety) July 8, 2025
But the problem is that they’re not the only ones taking the bait. Other conservatives are, as well — people you and I respect. And what the left is doing is cutting up what they say about the movie — which, I cannot iterate enough, has not been released yet — and turning their comments into viral clips showing how cray-zee MAGA is.
Kellyanne on Superman: We don’t go to the movie theater to be lectured to—
Watters: You know what it says on his cape? MS13 pic.twitter.com/F1PBPeE9nf
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 7, 2025
Malkin’s preposterous red-carpet questions, of course, get no attention from this part of the social media sphere.
Now, does Gunn’s “Superman” make Pixar’s “Elio” look like a Clint Eastwood movie? We don’t know the answer to that yet. For all we know, this ends up being a disaster … or, it takes the same approach as his “Guardians” movies and is fairly tolerable by Hollywood standards.
That being said, here’s a word of advice before you hit send on that X post: Wait until the movie comes out. This is one quote from an interview that was pulled way out of context by a notorious culture-war controversialist who wanted to go viral. He got his wish, and the movie doesn’t open until Friday. If you’re going to boycott anyone before then, boycott Malkin. Heaven knows that after a career of red-carpet hackery that proves you don’t hate the establishment media enough, he deserves whatever he has coming to him.
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