Nicolas Cage Bemoans Superman Cameo in The Flash: "I Didn't Do Any of That"

You'll believe a man can fly... unless you're Nicolas Cage. That's because the actor, who finally brought his 1990s Superman to screen in The Flash, says he didn't film the action sequence where his mulleted Man of Steel fights a giant spider more than 25 years after he was set to star in Tim Burton's Superman Lives. Cage was physically present on set for his cameo in the climax of The Flash, where super speedster Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) sees worlds collide — literally — from inside the Chronobowl. Digitally recreated DC superheroes from across the multiverse stand and stare at the collisions, including classic versions of Superman (Christopher Reeve and George Reeves), Supergirl (Helen Slater), Batman (Adam West), and the Jay Garrick Flash. 

According to Cage in a new interview for his upcoming A24 film Dream Scenario, "stop and stare" is what his Superman was supposed to do.

"First and foremost, I was on set," Cage told Yahoo Movies. "They did put a lot of time into building the suit … and I think [Andy Muschietti] is a terrific director, he is a great guy and a great director, and I loved his two It movies. ... What I was supposed to do was literally just be standing in an alternate dimension, if you will, and witnessing the destruction of the universe. Kal-El was bearing witness [to] the end of a universe, and you can imagine with that short amount of time that I had, what that would mean in terms of what I can convey. I had no dialogue [so had to] convey with my eyes the emotion. So that's what I did. I was on set for maybe three hours."

While Cage did suit up for the sequence inspired by writer Kevin Smith's unused Superman Lives script and producer Jon Peters' concept of Cage's Superman battling a "Thanagarian Snare Beast," the actor was surprised to see his digitally de-aged Superman apparently manipulated by CGI.

"When I went to the picture, it was me fighting a giant spider. I did not do that. That was not what I did. I don't think it was [created by] AI. I know Tim [Burton] is upset about AI, as I am. It was CGI, OK, so that they could de-age me, and I'm fighting a spider. I didn't do any of that, so I don't know what happened there," Cage said. He then referenced recent comments by Burton, in which the Batman '89 and Batman Returns director criticized artificial intelligence and studios' ability to "culturally misappropriate" a filmmaker's work.

"I get where Tim's coming from. I know what he means. I would be very unhappy if people were taking my art … and appropriating them. I get it. I mean, I'm with him in that regard," Cage said. "AI is a nightmare to me. It's inhumane. You can't get more inhumane than artificial intelligence."

Cage continued, "But I don't think it [was] AI [in The Flash]. I just think that they did something with it, and again, it's out of my control. I literally went to shoot a scene for maybe an hour in the suit, looking at the destruction of a universe and trying to convey the feelings of loss and sadness and terror in my eyes. That's all I did."

A well-known comic book fan, Cage previously said he was "satisfied" with his Superman cameo in The Flash and that his take on the Kryptonian Kal-El was inspired by his 1998 supernatural romantic drama City of Angels. Cage told Yahoo he "feel[s] good" that a piece of Superman Lives lived on in The Flash, which "gave that beautiful suit that Colleen Atwood designed a chance to be seen, and I was happy about that because she put a heck of a lot of thought into that series."

The Flash is now streaming on Max.