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Superman’s latest reboot isn’t just a movie — it’s a political lecture wrapped in spandex, raising questions about Hollywood’s priorities and what audiences really want from their heroes.

The upcoming Superman reboot isn’t a superhero movie so much as a political message wrapped in spandex.

How else are we should we regard it?

Director James Gunn told Variety Magazine that the franchise’s latest instalment would be a story about… immigration.

One imagines the only thing faster than a speeding bullet will be audiences sprinting away from the box office.

What’s that sound you hear?

It’s the mass exodus of moviegoers racing off to re-watch Top Gun: Maverick for the fifteenth time. Just to remember what joy felt like.

Superman, who used to soar above Metropolis to fight evil, is now apparently an undocumented alien struggling to… get a driver’s license in California without offending anyone’s lived experience.

Forget Lex Luthor — his new nemesis is ICE.

Yes, the Man of Steel is back. But this time, he’s traded Truth, Justice, and the American Way for border policy, victimhood, and a smug lecture on why you’re a terrible person if you just wanted to watch him punch bad guys.

The Politics of Superman

Naturally, the film will feature “moral” and “political” elements. Because what movie goers desperately need is a three hour lecture.

And anyway, it’s been at least a month since the last billion-dollar franchise collapsed under the weight of its own progressive sermon.

Remember The Marvels? Neither does anyone else. Lightyear fizzled. Eternals tanked. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Whoknowswhat spent more time lecturing than adventuring and promptly got buried under its own sanctimony.

You’d think the industry would connect the dots between a politicised script and an empty box office, but no. Self-awareness, like plot coherence, is optional these days.

When Gunn was asked what he would say to people who might prefer their superhero movies with less political moralising and more action, he replied: “Screw them.”

Excellent strategy. Nothing sells a $200m blockbuster quite like the director telling half the audience to get stuffed before they’ve bought a ticket.

When audiences say, “We don’t want this,” Hollywood bravely responds with, “Shut up, bigots.”

Hollywood’s motto? If at first you don’t succeed, triple down and insult the audience. Worked wonders for Bud Light and Target, didn’t it?

I suppose that Superman is — technically — an immigrant.

But so is Paddington Bear. And yet nobody is proposing to turn Paddington 4 into a parable about Brexit and white supremacy. At least not yet.

Superman didn’t fly to Earth demanding reparations and a safe space. He wasn’t fleeing persecution only to denounce the values of his adopted home. And he didn’t arrive in America to spend all his time protesting under a foreign flag before taking refuge in a Democrat-run sanctuary city.

Superman v The Narrative

Superman was the ultimate assimilation success story.

Raised in Smallville, he wore red, white and blue. He loved America with the kind of shameless devotion that would get him cancelled today. He didn’t resent his new home; he protected it. And he wasn’t angry about where he landed; he was grateful.

But in Tinseltown’s worldview, immigrants are permanent victims, and America is an oppressive construct.

This is precisely why modern Hollywood hates Superman.

Superman once stood for Truth, Justice, and the American Way. But those are now considered hate speech at most California brunches.

“Truth” is a social construct. “Justice” depends on your skin tone. And “The American Way” is something Hollywood writers apologise for before ordering oat milk lattes.

In today’s Hollywood, loving America is a character flaw.

Which is why this Superman, we’re told, will struggle morally and politically — not against intergalactic tyrants or world-ending threats — but against xenophobia, systemic oppression, and probably a metaphorical wall built by General Zod.

This isn’t a movie; it’s a TED Talk in a cape. And we all know where this leads: the cinematic graveyard of woke reboots.

But the Hollywood brain trust never learns. They’re convinced the only reason Batgirl was canned, Snow White was delayed, and The Flash face-planted was because the audience were backwards and not nearly as emotionally evolved as the people who wrote Fast & Furious 14: Electric Prius Drift.

Superman Still Loves America

People don’t hate politics in film, but they do hate being beaten over the head with it by narcissists who confuse ideology with art.

It’s not that audiences want Superman to be apolitical — they just want him to stop sounding like a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion officer with heat vision.

Gunn might fancy himself as a bold storyteller, but what he’s really doing is vandalising cultural icons to impress his Hollywood studio mates.

Superman isn’t a political metaphor. He’s a symbol of hope, of moral clarity, of the belief that power, when guided by virtue, can do good.

But that version of Superman looks to be dead, buried under a pile of focus group-approved dialogue and DEI committee notes.

So what should we expect from the new incarnation of Superman?

Probably two hours of Superman apologising for having muscles, questioning his privilege, and holding a press conference to condemn nationalism while fighting a metaphorical villain named Captain Patriarchy.

Meanwhile, Hollywood executives will sit back and act all confused when the film tanks. They’ll be genuinely perplexed as to why Americans didn’t show up for a movie that treated their values like a villain’s origin story.

Because — brace yourself — Superman still loves America.

But Hollywood? Hollywood hates America. And they hate you for loving it.

So, when Gunn’s superhero therapy session arrives in cinemas, save yourself the money.

Buy a hot dog, wave a flag, and rewatch Superman (1978) — a time in history when superheroes fought for their country, not against it.

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Republished with thanks to The James Macpherson Report. Subscribe to his Substack here for daily witty commentary. Image courtesy of Pixabay.