Nicolas Cage as Superman in Superman Lives ( Photo Credit – Wikimedia )
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Nicolas Cage as Superman? Yep, it happened—well, kind of. DC fans watching The Flash got a wild multiverse cameo of Cage battling a massive alien spider as Clark Kent himself. But here’s the twist: Cage’s Superman dream wasn’t just a random CGI throw-in. It was a callback to Hollywood’s most prominent “what-if” stories.
In the late ‘90s, Cage was set to wear the red cape in Superman Lives, a Tim Burton-led reboot that could’ve redefined the Man of Steel. The movie had Cage rocking samurai-style long hair as a darker, emo-ish Superman. Think moody, broody, and not your classic Clark Kent. Kevin Smith wrote the script, Jon Peters produced, and Burton was fresh off Batman and Batman Returns. Everything seemed primed for a super comeback—until it wasn’t.
The movie was supposed to pit Superman against Brainiac, Lex Luthor, and Doomsday. But after Burton’s Mars Attacks! Bombed at the box office, Warner Bros. panicked and shelved the project. According to Cage, the studio feared anything “weird” or groundbreaking. “They got cold feet,” he told Variety.
The final nail? A cringe-worthy Polaroid of Cage in a prototype Superman suit leaked. Fans weren’t buying it, and the backlash only cemented the movie’s fate. Holly Payne, who worked on the tell-all doc The Death of Superman Lives: What Happened? said the photo didn’t do Cage justice. “And no one had seen the art, except for one horrible Polaroid of Nicolas Cage, exhausted, taken during a costume test,” she admitted.
Burton, though, was all in. He thought Cage was the perfect guy to bring depth to Superman. “With Nic, you could see the change from Clark to Superman,” Burton told Howard Stern. But sadly, that vision never made it to the big screen.
Fast-forward to The Flash and Cage finally got his moment in the cape, complete with a showdown against a giant alien spider—an Easter egg for hardcore Superman Lives fans. Director Andy Muschietti called Cage “absolutely wonderful” and said he dove headfirst into the cameo.
And let’s not forget: Cage is a die-hard Superman fan in real life. He even named his son Kal-El. Talk about dedication. This Flash cameo wasn’t his first time as Superman; he voiced the character in 2018’s Teen Titans Go! To the Movies.
While Superman Lives never took flight, Cage’s multiverse moment gave fans a taste of what could’ve been. And honestly? Only Cage could turn a scrapped project into a legendary full-circle moment. Iconic, as always.
