The new Superman film, opening in US theaters on July 11, has already become a political football after director James Gunn called the Man of Steel “the story of America, an immigrant coming from another world.”
While pundits on Fox News dubbed the movie “Superwoke,” historians note that Clark Kent’s journey has always mirrored that of Jewish refugees in the 20th century. Here are five facts that put the debate in perspective.
1. Gunn’s reboot leans into the immigrant theme
In an interview with The Times of London, Gunn said his movie is “about how basic human kindness is a value we’ve lost” and framed Superman as an immigrant who embodies that ideal.
He added that anyone upset by the message is free to be offended, insisting the story is still “political” because it tackles morality in the public square.
2. US conservatives cried “Superwoke”
Fox News panellists ridiculed the immigrant framing, with Kellyanne Conway complaining that audiences “don’t go to the movie theater to be lectured,” while co-host Jesse Watters joked that Superman’s cape now reads “MS-13,” a dig at Latino migrants, according to Media Matters.
The Independent reported that host Greg Gutfeld accused Gunn of building a “woke shield” around himself to deflect criticism.
3. The character was created by the sons of Jewish immigrants
Writers Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Cleveland teenagers whose parents had fled antisemitic violence in Europe, first sketched Superman in 1933.
Their outsider status shaped a hero who anglicizes his alien name, Kal-El, to the all-American Clark Kent, and fights for acceptance in his adopted home, as noted by Moment Magazine. For Siegel and Shuster, Superman was the immigrant dream with a red cape.
4. Superman’s origin echoes Moses and other Jewish narratives
Scholars such as Roy Schwartz, author of Is Superman Circumcised?, highlight clear biblical parallels: baby Kal-El is launched from a doomed world in a small vessel, just as Moses was set adrift on the Nile.
Schwartz also points out that “El” is a biblical name for God and that Kal-El’s dual identity mirrors the tension many immigrants feel between old-world roots and new-world aspirations.
5. The Golem of Prague helped inspire the Man of Steel
The 16th-century legend of the Golem—a clay protector animated by a rabbi to defend Jews- fed directly into early American comics. Cultural historian Arie Kaplan and other writers argue that Siegel and Shuster re-imagined the Golem as a modern, indestructible champion who safeguards the oppressed.
In that light, Gunn’s emphasis on kindness and refuge is less a modern “add-on” than a return to the character’s roots.
Bottom line: Superman has always been an immigrant, and, by extension, a Jewish immigrant, long before today’s culture wars. Gunn’s film merely foregrounds a theme embedded in the hero’s DNA since 1938.
Whether audiences see that as “woke” or as classic Americana will say as much about 2025’s politics as it does about the Last Son of Krypton himself.