The team behind “Superman” is responding to the backlash after director James Gunn said the DC tentpole is the story of “an immigrant that came from other places.”

When asked about the reaction to his comments, James Gunn explained that the movie is for “everyone” and that he doesn’t have “anything to say to anybody” spreading negativity around “Superman.”

“I’m not here to judge people,” he told Variety at Monday night’s “Superman” premiere at Hollywood’s TCL Chinese Theatre. “I think this is a movie about kindness and I think that’s something everyone can relate to.”

  • Awesomo85@sh.itjust.works
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    34 minutes ago

    DCU heads in their best J. Jonah Jameson voice:

    FIND ME A SINGLE TWEET THAT MAKES A CONTROVERSY OF THIS MOVIE!! WE NEED FREE PUBLICITY DAMMIT!!! IT WORKED FOR DISNEY, IT WILL WORK FOR US!! GET ME THOSE PICTURES THAT TWEET!!!

  • YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today
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    23 minutes ago

    They really do live in their own little bubble huh? Like dude is a literal alien, and they think he is a home grown hero.

  • blattrules@lemmy.world
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    1 hour ago

    Did they forget they were mad at James Gunn for comments he made about Trump in 2018? It’s not like they were going to see this movie anyway since they don’t like any form of entertainment that’s not explicitly pandering to them.

  • oni ᓚᘏᗢ@lemmy.world
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    1 hour ago

    “SuperMan is an immigrant” I thought that was an alien. In which world we do live where is worst being an immigrant than an alien.

  • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    MAGA Outrage Over Director Saying Superman Is an Immigrant

    (We’re about a decade too late, and our engorged trolls are now our leaders, but still…)

  • Leraje@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    4 hours ago

    How can you not know Superman’s origin story? Apart from the comics its been retold in every major movie version too. He literally is and always was (weird retcons aside) an immigrant.

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      I’m pretty sure I knew through popcultural osmosis before I ever saw any of the films

      Some people weirdly don’t connect fictional scenarios to real life analogues though. Like in the Oz books, a princess is kidnapped and forced to grow up as a boy. Some people don’t see that as a transgender character because it’s a fantasy scenario. Some people don’t see Superman as an immigrant because their brains just don’t connect a science fiction situation with an alien to immigration

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        21 minutes ago

        I’ve found that people who don’t understand or enjoy media literacy or criticism also don’t tend to understand the concept of an analogy, and don’t want to either. Superman represents the “American Way” and can’t be an immigrant and the idea that America is a nation of immigrants is not relevant in any way. Only the old statements from Bridget from Guilty Gear count and not any of the new ones that confirm she’s trans. Naoto from Persona 4 and some similar stories like hers in other games can’t be a commentary on social pressures around restrictive gender roles, dysphoria, and performativity simply because she ultimately still identifies as a cis woman. You can explain the nuances until you’re out of breath, they will never accept the nuances.

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          8 minutes ago

          There was a post a while ago where someone was explaining that Star Wars was an allegory for the Vietnam war, and the next guy was all “well that’s not true, unless the Empire is supposed to be America!”

          Like they’re so close to getting it, but their brain swats it away before it can become a fully formed thought.

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          Many of them are focusing very very hard on selectively ignoring the text of the religion they claim to follow. Subtext might as well not exist.

    • JcbAzPx@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      One of DC’s many reboots in the comics had his spaceship be a birthing pod so that he could be ‘born’ in America to get around him being an illegal alien.

      Definitely one of the wierder retcons.

  • jsomae@lemmy.ml
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    2 hours ago

    I’m looking forward to when “MAGA” becomes derogatory like they somehow did with “woke.”

    • frog_brawler@lemmy.world
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      You can be the change you want to see. Start using it as a pejorative.

      “What, are you MAGA?”

      “I got a MAGA type explanation in response to my question.”

      “It’s clear that MAGA is in charge over there.”

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        54 seconds ago

        Your usage doesn’t seem derogatory without context. I could see a MAGA person saying those things without negativity. It might help to look how woke got transformed. Perhaps it was paired with negative terms like “get this woke shit out of my face.”

  • ThrowawayOnLemmy@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    I mean… He’s literally an alien that came here illegally.

    Is MAGA stupid? Don’t answer that, it was rhetorical.

    • Devolution@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      Asmongold. Enough said. Also, most conservative men are opposed to bathing. Something something washing assholes is gay.

      They are stupid, useless, and gross.

      • rustyfish@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        You mean the guy who lives like a pig and has cockroaches climbing on his shirt while live streaming his newest rage fit should not be listened to?

        Seriously, what is wrong with his viewers? The content is shit brought to them by someone living in his own literal shit.

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        I don’t understand why anybody watches a dude who lives in filth and go, “Ah yeah this guy has good opinions on things!”

    • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      Well he’s an Alien who is an American citizen more than likely.

      Foundlings aren’t directly mentioned in the laws but if a child is found in the U.S. and you can’t find the parents, it is assumed to have been born here. And thereby a citizen by the 14th Amendment.

      Unless someone could prove who his parents were and where they were born, until that time I don’t think they would have grounds to revoke the citizenship

        • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          So you believe some people who found a baby in the middle of no where and decided to raise/adopt him picked up a hologram made of alien tech unlike anything seen on earth before and were going to bring that to the government to say we know who his parents are? Kid would go to a gov facility for infinite tests and the Kent’s would be institutionalized or disappeared because everyone would have thought they were nuts in the psych ward. No way they’d know the kid was going to fly, shoot laser beams and be impervious to weapons.

          • FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca
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            I’m saying that when he’s an adult, his origin is provable. In some of the films, Lex Luthor finds the proof

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      Technically he was “born” in the US in most versions going back a few decades. His pod was retconned from one they put a whole living baby into in earlier stories, to an artificial womb “birthing matrix” that combined DNA. Was even a storyline that dealt with if he was eligible to be President based on that (may have even been the reason for the retcon, can’t remember). So he’d be an “anchor baby” to use their racist term, and someone Donald wants to invalidate an amendment with an executive order for

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    7 hours ago

    I hate the director for deciding to associate a fictional character with societal issues.

    Has there been any movie where fictional characters aren’t associated with societal issues? I ask because I’m pretty sure every single movie does this.

    Edit: OP Deleted their comment.

    • octopus_ink@slrpnk.net
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      Show me a piece of fiction which has nothing to say about societal issues and I’ll show you a fucking boring piece of fiction.

      • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
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        Show me a piece of fiction which has nothing to say about societal issues and I’ll show you an author or reader who doesn’t understand literature.

        I don’t think it’s even possible for a participant in society to write something that has nothing to do with society. We are all affected by our environments. Fish might not notice the ocean, but it doesn’t mean that they could write something that doesn’t involve the ocean, to really stretch a metaphor.

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            That’s fair, and also why I hedged about participants in society, because maybe ChatGPT could? But I don’t think ChatGPT can really write fiction, for the same reason my cat sitting on a keyboard can’t write fiction- the end product has nothing to do with intention or communication

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        6 hours ago

        They claim that they don’t want movies talking about politics, but I bet they’d have no issue if the movie was anti-immigration

        • doomcanoe@sh.itjust.works
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          people who say they don’t like politics in videogames actually like politics even more, they just wish they were seeing different politics

          -HBomberguy in his Fallout New Vegas video

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      Network anchor Kellyanne Conway said of the film, “We don’t go to the movie theater to be lectured to and to have somebody throw their ideology onto us.” Jesse Watters added, “You know what it says on his cape? MS13.”

      MAGA is so fucked up it’s impossible to tell if they’re serious or not.

      • PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.works
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        Then don’t fucking go and see it, Kellyanne. Problem solved.

        I bet you didn’t mind being preached to for ‘God’s Not Dead’ 1-4 or whatever. Or ‘Sound of Freedom’. Or whatever Ben Shapiro’s dumb school shooting movie was called.

        Fuck off with your hypocritical bullshit.

    • Asafum@feddit.nl
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      Apparently it’s “fuck your feelings (only mine matter because I’m special.)”

  • Devolution@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    Lex Luthor: Make America Great Again! Krypton has not sent us their best or finest. Kryptonians are all rapists and drug dealers. Also, I am looking at stripping Bruce Wayne and Diana Prince of their citizenship because they say mean things about me.

  • FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca
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    Do the people complaining about it know anything about Superman? If you didn’t think Man of Steel had commentary about immigration, you either didn’t watch it or you’re an idiot. I wish there was some way we could enforce a rule that you have to know something about the franchise you’re commenting on.