Nicolas Cage Admits He Was Perplexed By His Superman’s CGI Appearance In The Flash: “To Me It Didn’t Look Right”

Following the surprise appearance of his version of the character in the movie, Nicolas Cage shares his thoughts on Superman’s CGI appearance in The Flash. Long before Brandon Routh or Henry Cavill donned the iconic red, yellow and blue suit for the big screen, Cage was once lined up to bring the DC superhero to life with the Tim Burton-helmed Superman Lives, which was ultimately scrapped after Burton left due to creative differences. Cage’s Superman would instead appear during the multiversal climax of the Ezra Miller-led The Flash, with CGI used to create a de-aged version of the Oscar winner.

During a recent interview with Deadline for his Golden Globe-nominated role in Dream Scenario, Cage was asked about the Superman cameo in The Flash. The star admitted to feeling a little “perplexed” by the CGI used for the Man of Steel’s appearance, and while he was “happy” to see it come to life, it still “didn’t look [right]“. Check out what Cage shared below:

But that was a long time ago. And then, subsequently, what happened with The Flash… I wasn’t upset, I was just perplexed. I was just like, “It wasn’t what I shot,” and I was worried about it. Like, “Did you just tell me that I was witnessing the destruction of the universe, so you could take pictures of me and then animate me?” Whether it was through CGI or AI, that wasn’t the conversation we had. So I was confused.
But I was still happy to look at it. I still wanted to see Colleen Atwood’s suit, which I maintain is a beautiful suit, and 50% of that [character] was my design. I wanted Superman to have the long, kind of black Samurai hair and a vulnerable feeling — almost no blinking, a stillness in his eyes. And so it was 50/50. It was Tim and myself, we had designed something, and it never came to light, so when I saw it moving, I was very happy that Andy Muschietti wanted me to do it. I did get some satisfaction from seeing the character, but to me, it didn’t look [right]. But then, Superman is an alien. Kal-El is from another planet. So in that way, the CGI kind of looked right, because it’s alien. It doesn’t look real. It doesn’t look like it has a heartbeat. So I can look at it that way and think that it worked.