Warning: The following article contains spoilers for The Flash movie.
There’s one cameo in The Flash director Kevin Smith was excited to see: Nic Cage.
“I finally got to see Nic Cage be Superman,” he told Rolling Stone. “It has been an absolute delight for me.”
Smith famously penned the script for Superman Lives, the canceled Superman movie starring Cage that never quite made it into production. Now, the cameo appearance in The Flash has brought everything full circle.
“It’s mind-melting,” he explained. “One of the first things I thought when I saw it at the premiere is, ‘Goddammit, [the giant spider] would have worked.’ As much as I used to make fun of Jon Peters, that looked badass.”
After the success of Tim Burton’s Batman movies, Smith was hired by Warner Bros. to create his very own Superman movie, called Superman Lives. It was the ‘90s and Nic Cage was everywhere, so it was no surprise to see him approached for the role of the Man of Steel.
One thing was surprising, however: the giant spider producer Jon Peters insisted on adding to the movie. Smith famously hated the spider, railing against the script changes. Now? He admits it wasn’t so bad. “You know what? He wasn’t wrong,” he said. “Like, it totally could have panned out.”
Originally, Peters eyed Sean Penn for the role of Superman in the defunct superhero movie, but it was Smith who convinced him to turn his attention toward Cage.
“He had just seen Dead Man Walking, and he goes, ‘Look at [Sean Penn’s] eyes in that movie. He’s got the eyes of a violent animal, a caged killer,’” said Smith. “And I was like, ‘Bro, it’s Superman!’ So he’s like, ‘Who do you see?’ I always loved Nic Cage, so I was like, ‘Nic Cage loves Superman. He talks about knowing the comics real well. You guys should go after Nic Cage.’ And so, when Tim Burton got hired, and suddenly they were going with Nic Cage, I was like, wow, I had an idea and somebody took it seriously. So, there’s some sense of weird closure to everything in seeing that moment in The Flash.”
Cage appears in a multiversal moment towards the end of the film when multiple realities collide within the Chronobowl. His weirdly CGI appearance was a hit for die-hard DC fans, but Smith thinks there’s still room to put Cage front and center in his own Superman movie.
“If I’m Warner Bros., I’m going, like, ‘f**k it. There’s a multiverse, man. Let’s give Nic Cage a Superman movie,’ ” he said. “You don’t have to be the only Superman, but why not? We’ve got multiple Batmans. I mean, sh*t, it would be one of the most interesting Superman flicks ever made. With all due respect to James Gunn and Superman Legacy, like, you’re talking about one of the greatest American actors alive. I still would back that play 100 percent.”
Check out who else can be found in The Flash with our full breakdown of those cameos.
IGN’s review of The Flash gave it 7/10 and said: “The Flash is an ambitious superhero movie that largely pulls off its tale of two worlds, two Flashes, and two Batmans. The superhero fan service is strong with this one – perhaps too strong at times – but it never fully overshadows Barry Allen’s genuinely tragic and heartfelt story of grief.”
Want to read more about The Flash? Check out how The Flash’s ending sets up a new DCU as well as all the details about The Flash’s alternate endings.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
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