Nicolas Cage will finally play Superman in The Flash

Once upon a time in the ’90s, Nicolas Cage was going to play Superman in a movie directed by Tim Burton and written by Kevin Smith. The movie was called Superman Lives, and it was real — there are pictures — but it was cancelled in 1998, leaving Cage’s dream of playing Clark Kent unfulfilled.

Until now! Esquire Middle East reports that Cage will play Superman in The Flash, which opens in theaters on June 16. The whole idea of this film is that the Flash (Ezra MIller) will travel to alternate universes where he’ll meet all kinds of superheroes, some of them drawn from movies past. Michael Keaton is famously showing up as Batman, whom he played in a pair of films back in the late ’80s and early ’90s. Ben Affleck will also make a final appearance as Batman. Cage’s Superman will fit right into this hall of curiosities.

“Nic was absolutely wonderful,” said director Andy Muschietti. “Although the role was a cameo, he dove into it… I dreamt all my life to work with him. I hope I can work with him again soon.”

Decades after his canceled Superman project, Nicolas Cage will play the Man of Steel

“He is a massive Superman fan. A comic book fanatic,” Muschetti added. He’s right; Cage named his son Kal-El, Superman’s original name from his home planet of Krypton. I’m guessing he just goes by Kal in day-to-day life.

Cage recently talked to Variety about Superman Lives, speculating that the studio got cold feet about how weird it was getting and pulled the plug. “It was more of a 1980s Superman with like, the samurai black long hair. I thought it was gonna be a really different, sort of emo Superman, but we never got there.”

Better late than never.

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