When James Gunn announced that his Superman movie would be an ‘immigrant story,’ like most of the rest of the Internet, I was immediately skeptical. When his brother Sean said that if you didn’t like it, you were ‘un-American,’ I went from skeptical to actively rooting for the movie to fail.
There are many theories as to why these two would try to sabotage their upcoming movie, like so many Disney stars and filmmakers have done before them. Some suggested that they knew that the movie was bad, so they were trying to build a wall of woke protection around them when it inevitably disappointed at the box office. Others suggested a more obvious motive. Despite hundreds of millions in marketing budget, there was no buzz leading up to its release earlier this month, so the Gunns were going with the concept of ‘no publicity is bad publicity.’
Ironically, however, the movie is a total failure not because of what we would traditionally call ‘wokeness.’ There are no significant gender or race swaps. None of the characters are made trans or gay for no discernible reasons. There’s no critical race theory or gender ideology.
Nope, the movie is a failure primarily because Gunn does not understand the Superman mythology in the least. And in an unintentionally hilarious twist, that lack of understanding turns his entire ‘immigrant story’ on its head in the most grotesque (but timely) of ways.
I waited to write this for a little more than a week, so as not to spoil anything too soon, but for anyone who hasn’t seen it and still would like to, here is the standard warning that there is a key plot spoiler ahead.
With that being said, the specific part of the Superman legend that Gunn does not get is Kal-El’s parentage, the famous Kryptonian scientists Jor-El and Lara. (Gunn also turns Clark Kent’s adoptive parents, Jonathan and Martha, into slack-jawed yokels, but I’ll get to that a little bit later.)
If you haven’t heard about this plot point yet, yes, in Gunn’s movie, Jor-El and Lara are basically sociopathic Master Race Nazis encouraging their son (in a message he did not hear) to subjugate the human race and start his own superior race by mating with as many human women that he can find and keep captive in a harem.
The movie spends a good 20-30 minutes talking about harems, and I am pretty sure that is the first time someone has ever said that about ANY superhero movie, let alone the gold standard.
Needless to say, social media has had a field day with this characterization of Superman’s biological parents, who sound a lot more like General Zod than … well, than even General Zod.
We all agree that Jor-El ordering Superman to conquer Earth and enslave a breeding harem was just a projection of James Gunn’s barely disguised fetish, right? pic.twitter.com/SVsRHfyl20
— The Refined Populist (@RefinedPopulist) July 15, 2025
Evil Jor-El confirmed again.
— Nerdrotic (@Nerdrotics) July 19, 2025
Yes, it is worse than Clark letting Pa Kent get sucked up in a tornado. https://t.co/IWPhpIMRhi
He’s just so smug about it, too. That’s just as infuriating.
James Gunn singlehandedly destroyed almost 90 years of #Superman's legacy and lore with this scene alone pic.twitter.com/xQ8CkAF41k
— Fantastic Four: First Steps Updates (@comicxbook) July 17, 2025
Some have come to Gunn’s defense, pointing to a few comic book runs where Jor-El did have plans to use a ‘Matrix’ to re-create Krypton. Also, on the TV show Smallville, there was an AI version of Jor-El that could be cruel and resort to nefarious tactics.
BUT NONE OF THEM TOLD KAL-EL TO BANG ALL THE WOMEN AND KEEP THEM AS SEX SLAVES!
Yes, to echo the post above, this is FAR worse than Zach Snyder not letting young Clark Kent save his father from a tornado. It's far worse than anything that has been in any Superman movie, even Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.
In the end, of course, Superman overcomes this attempted programming by his deceased parents, and in one small moment of non-comic relief, Johnathan Kent tells his adopted son that he gets to choose his own path.
But even in that moment, Gunn gets parenting completely wrong. Contrary to what he has Pa Kent say, parents do and should have influence over who their children become, at least what kind of character they develop. It’s not surprising that the childless Gunn would not understand this fundamental concept of raising children.
Then there is the ironic twist that Gunn should have seen coming when he tried to scold everyone that his Superman is an immigrant story.
James Gunn: "Superman is an immigrant"
— Jesús Enrique Rosas - The Body Language Guy (@Knesix) July 15, 2025
Jor-El in Gunn's Superman: tells his son to go to Earth and r*pe all the women he can
🤔 pic.twitter.com/okczMxPt5b
Oops.
Something tells me that the message of Kal-El as an immigrant coming to impregnate all the women isn’t going over so well in the U.K. right now, where groomer gangs have been exposed as one of the country’s greatest cover-ups in modern history.
Funniest thing ever is that the movie was marketed last minute as an immigrant story then we find that Jor-El wanted Kal to enslave and have a harem to make half breeds
— Pink_Kino💀 (@Pink_Kinoo) July 17, 2025
Unintentionally redpilled Trump propaganda https://t.co/K7efoYUe96
Either that or Gunn’s message is that immigrants should assimilate into the culture of their adopted homeland and reject the failed ideology of the places they left.
Sounds good to me, but I am 100 percent sure Gunn was not going for that.
There are many other reasons that Superman is a failure. The supporting characters are all pretty weak. Ironically, the robots that Kal-El keeps in his Fortress of Solitude exhibit more humanity, kindness, and empathy than many of the human characters. And the idea of making a Superman clone is almost as old as comic books themselves; trying to pretend that it is some kind of ‘plot twist’ ignores how much fans of superhero movies know about the lore of the characters.
But it is in Gunn’s total lack of understanding of the character he is developing, not to mention his utter faceplant of an ‘immigrant story,’ that truly causes the movie to flop.
Once you hear about Superman being directed to plant his seed in every woman on Earth, it’s not like you can forget that 30 minutes later because Lex Luthor has created a pocket universe prison. That’s the kind of message that tends to stick with you and have you shaking your head, no matter what special effects follow.
Ultimately, I don’t think Gunn was actively trying to blow up the idea of family that is so central to the Superman legend. That’s just who James Gunn is, so a subversive message about biological families just comes naturally to him.
And this does not bode well for the planned DC Universe of movies that Gunn is (at least for now) in charge of bringing to the screen.
But hey. At least Krypto the super-dog in Superman is a lot of fun. Especially when he beats up and mauls Lex Luthor.
So, that’s one thing the movie has going for it.
Maybe the only thing.
