The following post contains spoilers for The Flash.
Superman Lives would have likely been one of the most unique superhero films of the ’90s if it actually happened. Luckily, we got a little taste of it in The Flash.
For those who aren’t familiar with the lore surrounding Superman Lives … it kind of sounds like a fever dream. Tim Burton was set to direct a Superman film starring Nicolas Cage, written by Kevin Smith.
Unfortunately, tons of studio interference got in the way. The movie was supposed to be about Superman battling Doomsday, a major plot point in the ’90s comics. A producer by the name of Jon Peters had a few demands for the direction the movie was supposed to take. First off, Superman wasn’t allowed to fly in the movie, and he had to wear a black suit. To make matters worse, the finale was required to be a fight with a giant spider.
READ MORE: You Can Finally See Nicolas Cage’s Unused Superman Costume
The film never actually came to fruition. That being said, there’s a small multiversal rift that opens up in The Flash, which gives us a peek into that universe. Nicolas Cage recently spoke to USA Today about that scene.
“I was glad I didn’t blink,” he joked about seeing a version of himself as Superman onscreen. “For me, it was the feeling of being actualized. Even that look for that particular character, finally seeing it on screen, was satisfying.”
He added…
If you really wanted to know what I was going do with that character, look at my performance in City of Angels. I was supposed [to play] Clark Kent after that and I was already developing this alien otherness playing this angel. That is a perfect example of the tonality you would’ve gotten for Kal-El and for Clark Kent: Clark would’ve been a little more amusing but Kal-El had the sensitivity and the goodness and the vulnerability and all those feelings that were kind of angelic and also terrifying.
If you haven’t seen it, City of Angels is the English-language version of Wim Wenders’ arthouse classic Wings of Desire, about a guardian angel (Cage) who falls in love with a human woman (Meg Ryan).
The Flash is now available on Digital HD.
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