Of all the dumb shi** going on right now. This has to be the Dumbest
Superman’s An Immigrant? Director James Gunn Faces Right-Wing Backlash For Claim
Topline
The upcoming “Superman” film faces some early turbulence from right-wing commentators after director James Gunn compared the superhero film to an immigrant story—referencing the character’s displacement from his home planet to Kansas—prompting Fox News to quickly label the film “Superwoke.”
Key Facts
Gunn, writer-director of “Superman” and co-CEO of DC Studios, told
The Sunday Times over the weekend the superhero movie is “the story of America,” stating it is about “an immigrant that came from other places” and how “basic human kindness is a value and is something we have lost.”
Gunn’s comments were swiftly criticized by right-wing commentators, including Kellyanne Conway, who said in a
Fox News segment Monday people “don’t go to the movie theater to be lectured to and to have somebody throw their ideology onto us.”
Fox News host Jesse Watters joked Superman’s cape reads “MS-13,” the name of an international gang designated by the United States as a foreign terrorist organization, and he questioned whether Superman is “from Uganda” and whether there’s a “love scene with Batman and Robin.”
During the Fox News segment, a chyron on the screen read: “Superwoke.”
Other right-wing commentators, like Ben Shapiro, Tim Pool and widely followed right-wing X accounts like End Wokeness, piled onto the criticism in social media posts and YouTube videos, making “Superman” the latest movie deemed “woke” to be targeted by conservative critics.
Chief Critics
Shapiro, in a video posted to his YouTube channel, accused the cast and crew of making an “attempt to separate Superman off from America,” alleging Gunn likened the character to an “illegal immigrant.” Shapiro said Superman is an “immigrant who assimilates to American values” and compared him unfavorably to Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, whom he accused of having a “deep hatred” for the United States, citing a years-old
tweet Mamdani posted giving the middle finger to a statue of Christopher Columbus. Pool, in his YouTube video, said: “The issue is not, ‘Superman is an immigrant.’ The issue is illegal immigration,” but questioned whether Superman, who was sent to Earth as a baby, would’ve been entitled to birthright citizenship.