Movies

Nicolas Cage on his Superman cameo in The Flash: 'Glad I didn't blink'

Though "quick," Cage still found the cameo to be "satisfying."

Published on July 28, 2023 03:56PM EDT

Nicolas Cage is finally talking about his cameo as Superman in The Flash.

In the '90s, Cage, a well-known comic book fan, had been set to play the Kryptonian superhero in Superman Lives, a film directed by Tim Burton and written by Kevin Smith. It never manifested (though it was explored in a 2015 documentary), but its myth has persevered throughout the years, culminating with Cage appearing in The Flash in the same costume he was meant to wear in Superman Lives.

"Well, I was glad I didn't blink," he told USA Today in a new interview. "For me, it was the feeling of being actualized. Even that look for that particular character, finally seeing it on screen, was satisfying. But as I said, it's quick."

Nicolas Cage's Superman, as seen in the documentary 'The Death of Superman Lives: What Happened?'. YouTube

Cage wasn't the only surprise cameo at the end of The Flash. During the film's climax, The Flash (Ezra Miller) enters the Chronobowl and stumbles across several colliding universes — there, he sees Christopher Reeve's Superman, Helen Slater's Supergirl, Adam West's Batman, and George Reeve's Superman.

"Part of the idea of the multiverse is presenting these worlds as living together and real," The Flash director Andy Muschietti told EW. "So the fact that [Superman Lives] wasn't made, doesn't mean that that doesn't exist somewhere in the multiverse. That was my grease from the beginning of this."

Producer Barbara Muschietti added that several others were considered for the sequence, including Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman, Marlon Brando as Jor-El (from the 1978 Superman), and Cesar Romero as the Joker (from the West-led Batman show). "We were all gobsmacked," she said of the moment when Cage's name was brought up. "We were like, 'We have to get him!' Immediately we called his agents."

Nicolas Cage. Michael Kovac/Getty Images

The scrapped Superman Lives would have found Superman taking on a trio of DC villains: Lex Luthor, Brainiac, and Doomsday.

"If you really wanted to know what I was going to do with that character, look at my performance in City of Angels," Cage told USA Today. "I was supposed [to play] Clark Kent after that (in Superman Lives), and I was already developing this alien otherness playing this angel. That is a perfect example of the tonality you would've gotten for Kal-El and for Clark Kent: Clark would've been a little more amusing but Kal-El (had) the sensitivity and the goodness and the vulnerability and all those feelings that were kind of angelic and also terrifying."

Cage told Variety in March that his version of the Last Son of Krypton would have been a "sort of emo Superman."

"They wanted Renny Harlin to do the movie," he said. "I said, this has to be Tim Burton. I called Tim and said, 'Would you do this?' Tim didn't cast me, I cast Tim, and Tim said yes. I loved what he did with Michael [Keaton] and Batman, and I was a big fan."

As for why it never happened, Cage says Mars Attacks might have played a role. "I thought Mars Attacks was just a fantastic, groundbreaking movie. [Tim Burton is] a groundbreaker! But they were scared at the studio because of Mars Attacks. Warner Brothers had lost a lot of money on the movie. These movies that are really weird, that challenge and break ground, they piss a lot of people off. I think they got cold feet."

Burton also criticized the heavy interference from the studio for the demise of Superman Lives. "These studios become big corporations, and you're having to design these characters for Happy Meals before you design it for the film," Burton told Howard Stern in 1999.

Superman didn't return to cinemas until Brandon Routh portrayed the superhero in 2006's Superman Returns.

Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.