As The Flash fizzles at the box office, those fans who did go see the film would have been shocked to see Nicolas Cage’s surprise cameo as Superman.
It was a moment that finally brought to the long-awaited Cage/Superman moment we never got in the 90s with Tim Burton’s aborted Superman Lives, and the creatives behind the film are talking about how they made it happen.
In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, director Andy Muschietti talks about bringing to life Cage’s version and how it was meant to honor things all things DC, even if it was never made.
“Part of the idea of the multiverse is presenting these worlds as living together and real,” Muschietti tells the outlet. “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 says they tossed around plenty of names for cameos, including a few that never made it. “We had a lot more characters that we had to let go because there just wasn’t the time,” she said. Then Cage was brought up. “We were all gobsmacked,” Barbara explains. “We were like, ‘We have to get him!’ Immediately, we called his agents.”
Cage made it to set, filming his appearance in full costume. Barbara confirms, “We shot him in his suit, and he looked insane. Amazing.”
“He did volume-capture because we needed his performance, but in the movie, obviously Superman is younger, so we wanted to portray a Superman that is the age that Superman was in 1996, which is the year where the movie Superman Lives would have come out,” Andy Muschietti adds. “We did have to refer to digital enhancement in the aging.”
SEE ALSO: Details on The Flash’s surprise Batman end scene cameo revealed
You can see Nicolas Cage in all his CGI Superman glory as The Flash currently plays in cinemas worldwide.
Worlds collide in “The Flash” when Barry uses his superpowers to travel back in time in order to change the events of the past. But when his attempt to save his family inadvertently alters the future, Barry becomes trapped in a reality in which General Zod has returned, threatening annihilation, and there are no Super Heroes to turn to. That is, unless Barry can coax a very different Batman out of retirement and rescue an imprisoned Kryptonian… albeit not the one he’s looking for. Ultimately, to save the world that he is in and return to the future that he knows, Barry’s only hope is to race for his life. But will making the ultimate sacrifice be enough to reset the universe?
The Flash is directed by Andy Muschietti (It) and stars Ezra Miller as Barry Allen/The Flash alongside Kiersey Clemons (Iris West), Ben Affleck (Batman), Michael Keaton (Batman), Sasha Calle (Supergirl), Michael Shannon (General Zod), Antje Traue (Faora-Ul), Kiersey Clemons (Iris West), Ron Livingston (Henry Allen), and Maribel Verdu (Nora Allen).
