James Gunn's 2025 Superman is embroiled in controversy, with claims it mirrors the Israel-Palestine conflict. Fans and critics are divided, debating whether its fictional conflict intentionally allegorizes the real-world situation.
Here's what Gunn had to say.
Does the War in Superman Have Real-World Connections with the Israel-Palestine Conflict?
Instead of dealing with the typical monsters in the DCU flick, Superman had a real-world problem.
Nicholas Hoult's Lex Luther sparked a foreign war between two fictional countries, in which Big Blue is forced to come in between the global conflict of Bovaria, the aggressor nation, from attacking its neighbor, Jarhanpur.
Considering the ongoing real-life conflict between Israel and Palestine, could it be that Superman is meant to intentionally mirror it on the big screens? Well, not exactly.
According to a report by Variety, the filmmaking timeline doesn't align with it: "Gunn turned in his script in May 2023, months before the current Israel-Gaza conflict escalated."
Not to mention, Gunn himself clarified this a few days before its release in an interview with The Times of London, "When I wrote this, the Middle Eastern conflict wasn't happening."
Gunn added that the script for the film "doesn't have anything to do with it" as the Man of Steel's newest rendition covers "an invasion by a much more powerful country run by a despot into a country" that has "problematic political history" yet "has totally no defense against the other."
Gunn concluded, "It really is fictional."
How is the Superman Movie Timely in Today's Era?
As it so happens, that is not the only controversial take fans ended up having about Superman.
Another was when James Gunn's brother, Sean, described Superman as an "immigrant" and those who refuse to support such in this country are "not American."
Well, that ruffled quite a lot of feathers, including former Superman actor Dean Cain, who told TMZ that Gunn "made a mistake", calling it 'Disney woke', "How woke is Hollywood going to make this character?"
Aside from the controversies Superman faced, the movie itself showed its timely humor, what with Lex programming literal monkeys trolling the internet, specifically Big Blue, in their attempt to weigh him down despite the good he's doing for the world.
Let's not forget how much the DC flick highlighted the importance of journalism amid the worldwide crisis and its success at bringing old and new fans back to the theaters to witness a comic-book-accurate super coming alive on the big screens.
For now, you can watch Big Blue in theaters near you while it's still playing.
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