Overview

"Superman Is An Immigrant" Controversy refers to memes and discussions about a statement made by Hollywood director James Gunn ahead of the release of his 2025 film Superman, in which he referred to the DC Comics hero as an immigrant. The statement was perceived by some as woke and drew backlash from many conservative internet users and Fox News correspondents like Kellyanne Conway, who described the film as "Superwoke." A screenshot of a Fox News segment also began making the rounds online, with internet users editing actor Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor into the image to reimagine it as a broadcast from the film.

Background

James Gunn's Superman, directed and written by him, stars actor David Corenswet as Clark Kent, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor. The film, which is set to release worldwide on July 11th, 2025,^[1] follows Superman reconciling his Kryptonian heritage with his life on Earth.

In a July 5th, 2025, interview with the Sunday Times,^[2] titled "James Gunn: Some people will take offence at my new Superman," Gunn said, "Superman is the story of America. An immigrant that came from other places and populated the country." Gunn continued, "It's about human kindness and, obviously, there will be jerks out there who are just not kind and will take it as offensive just because it is about kindness. But screw them."

Developments

On July 7th, 2025, X^[3] user @Acyn tweeted a Fox News segment in which political consultant and pollster Kellyanne Conway and anchor Jesse Waters discuss Gunn's statements and the new Superman film, with Kellyanne saying, "We don’t go to the movie theater to be lectured to," and Watters saying, "You know what it says on his cape? MS-13." The post gathered over 1.3 million views and 4,000 likes in two days.

The segment was reposted to Reddit's /r/PublicFreakout^[11] subreddit by Redditor u/CorleoneBaloney on July 8th, where it gathered over 8,000 upvotes in a day.

On July 7th, 2025, a Variety reporter asked James Gunn's brother, Sean Gunn, for his reaction the the "MAGA backlash" against Superman being called an immigrant. Sean Gunn replied, "People who say no to immigrants are against the American way." The post on X^[10] gathered over 15,000 likes in two days.

Online Reactions

On July 6th, 2025, X^[5] user @EndWokeness tweeted in response to James Gunn calling Superman an "immigrant," writing, "Hollywood literally never learns." The post gathered over 14,000 likes in three days.

Also on July 6th, X^[6] user @captaincupkicks posted a meme in response to James Gunn being criticized by the right for calling Superman an immigrant. The tweet read, "The worst people you know are upset about this because they completely missed the point of Superman, despite how being an immigrant is such a fundamental part of his character." The post gathered over 25,000 likes in three days.

On July 7th, 2025, former Blizzard employee and anti-woke poster Grummz posted a tweet on X^[9] criticizing James Gunn for describing Superman as an immigrant, writing, "Ah yes, the 'made it political to own the chuds' strategy. / Let's see how it plays out," receiving over 268,000 views and 4,900 likes in two days.

That same day, X^[4] user @614saint_ posted a tweet that read, "at the gym right now & they have fox news calling superman 'superwoke' playing on three separate tvs." X user @big_business_ quoted the post with a clip of the aforementioned Fox News segment, gathering over 45,000 likes in two days.

Also on July 7th, 2025, X^[8] user and Forbes writer Paul Tassi (@PaulTassi) tweeted a clip from the Fox News "Superwoke" segment about James Gunn calling Superman an immigrant, writing, "This looks like a fictional news broadcast I would expect to see within the Superman movie itself," receiving over 5.4 million views and 93,000 likes in two days.

Later that day, X^[7] user @BrosephSZN quoted a screenshot of Kellyanne Conway criticising James Gunn's comments describing Superman as an immigrant, writing, "first person to edit Hoult Lex Luthor in this is dropping a guaranteed 50k likes." X user @GUNNSHOTSFIRED quoted the post with an edit showing a screaming Dan Hentschel instead, gathering over 45,000 likes in a day.

On July 9th, 2025, YouTuber^[12] Critikal (penguinz0) uploaded a video titled "Superman Drama is Getting Crazy" about the controversy, receiving over 80,000 views and 6,600 likes in 20 minutes.

Search Interest

External References