Nicolas Cage in the “Superman Lives” costume and Ezra Miller as Barry Allen in “The Flash.” TDOSLWH/Warner Bros. Pictures
Warning: Minor spoilers ahead for “The Flash,” which is in theaters now.
“The Flash” features several DC-related cameos toward the end of the movie.
One surprising cameo stars Nicolas Cage as Superman.
When director Andy Muschietti surprisingly let slip that Nicolas Cage will appear in “The Flash” as Superman, DC Comics fans were understandably eager, and curious. Just how would the 59-year-old actor finally get to don the cape and tights on the big screen?
Well, the wait is over. “The Flash” is in theaters, so you can finally see SuperCage in action. But if you’re a little flummoxed as to why Nicolas Cage is playing Superman — well, there’s a long, and rich, history behind the cameo.
Let us break it down…
“The Flash” includes a smorgasbord of cameos at the end of the film.
Christopher Reeve in Richard Donner’s “Superman.” Warner Bros. Pictures
Toward the end of the movie, the main version of Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) is locked in a deadly fight with General Zod (Michael Shannon) and the Kryptonians alongside the alternate Barry from the new timeline (let’s call him Barry Two).
But because Barry Two has only just figured out his speedster power, he gets cocky with the ability to turn back time, because he’s determined not to let anybody die — including Batman (Michael Keaton) and Supergirl (Sasha Calle).
While Barry Two keeps rolling back time, it becomes evident that he’s getting more twisted with each journey, eventually becoming the menacing Dark Flash that pops up occasionally throughout the film. The villain is warped after seeing people die millions of times, in millions of timelines, throughout the multiverse.
The Barrys are shown a number of different worlds in the multiverse, which are all home to heroes from previous DC movies and TV shows. They include George Reeves’ Superman from the 1950s TV show, Christopher Reeve’s Superman, Helen Slater’s Supergirl, Teddy Sears’ Jay Garrick/Hunter Zolomon from “The Flash” TV series, and Adam West’s Batman.
But the most crowd-pleasing cameo of all has to be Nicolas Cage as Superman.
Nicolas Cage’s Superman fights a giant spider — which was in the original plan for “Superman Lives.”
Tim Burgard’s sketch of the giant spider for “Superman Lives” as seen in “The Death of Superman Lives: What Happened?” TDOSLWH/Tim Burgard/Warner Bros. Pictures
Yes, Nicolas Cage really does appear in “The Flash” as Superman battling a giant spider with his heat vision.
In the scene, Superman is swarmed by a horde of mini spiders, before incinerating them with his powers and killing the giant arachnid. It’s only then that he notices the multiverse opening up in a portal in the sky…
The actor was actually meant to star in his own Superman movie back in the 1990s — titled “Superman Lives” — which was going to be helmed by “Batman” director, Tim Burton.
As per Jon Schnepp’s 2015 documentary “The Death of ‘Superman Lives’: What Happened?” the film was going to be based on “The Death of Superman” storyline from the comic books.
The studio went through numerous scripts by the likes of Wesley Strick, Dan Gilroy, and Kevin Smith, but one of the main driving forces behind the film was producer Jon Peters.
Peters was adamant that the big finale should be something other than Superman fighting yet another costumed supervillain. Instead, he imagined something more horrific: a monstrous giant spider.
Speaking to Schnepp about his plan for the film, Peters called it the “Thanagarian Snare Beast,” before adding: “I stole it from Jules Verne’s ‘20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.’ This giant squid that tries to swallow up this submarine. So Superman would fight every tentacle— getting closer and closer to this beak — until he killed it. It would’ve made an amazing sequence! Amazing!”
Storyboard artist Tim Burgard drew sketches for the spider, which were featured in the documentary, and they showed how big the beast was meant to be. It looks like something right out of a “Godzilla” movie.
Burgard explained that the spider would spit out mini creatures for Superman to fight, saying: “All these little face-hugger mini spiders are coming down and covering Superman. He’s not going up against a supervillain, he’s going against the Alien, or the Predator, or something that will try and kill him and maybe eat him or lay eggs in his eyeballs! That to me is super cool because it takes it to a different level that we haven’t seen before.”
It’s clear that Andy Muschietti and writer Christina Hodson wanted to finally bring that whole sequence to life in “The Flash,” mini spiders and all.
Why didn’t “Superman Lives” make it to the big screen?
Nicolas Cage in the “Superman Lives” costume. TDOSLWH/Warner Bros. Pictures
Once director Tim Burton signed on, and Nicolas Cage had been cast in the lead role, Warner Bros. eyed a 1998 release for “Superman Lives,” but it was canceled only a few weeks before the cameras were meant to start rolling.
It got as far as Cage trying on different costumes, as well as sets being built. But the project quickly started sinking when Burton left to go work on 1999’s “Sleepy Hollow” instead, though Jon Peters was insistent that the studio go ahead with the DC movie.
“Superman Lives” was officially canceled in 2000, after a handful of financial flops like “Batman & Robin” and Tim Burton’s “Mars Attacks”.
Speaking at the Miami Film Festival in March 2023, Cage recalled: “They were scared at the studio because of ‘Mars Attacks.’ Warner Bros. had lost a lot of money on the movie. These movies that are really weird, that challenge and break ground, they piss a lot of people off.”
“I think they got cold feet. They’d spent a lot of money already building the sets and the costume and what have you. But you never know. I don’t mean to be cryptic Cage, but you never know,” he added.
While Cage’s cameo in “The Flash” satiates the desire to see his Superman in action, DC Studios’ cochairman James Gunn is currently in the process of casting a new actor to play the titular hero for “Superman: Legacy.”
