Dean Cain feared that Superman, a role that he once played in the ’90s, could no longer say his patriotic catchphrase amid ‘cancel culture.’ Twitter users pointed out that the Krypton native is ‘not even American.’
Dean Cain was “fired up” over a Time Magazine article that reassessed superheroes amid police brutality protests. But people were firing back at Dean’s conservative beliefs, which the 53-year-old star of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman shared on Fox & Friends on July 2. “This is insane to me, though, because these people will scream anti-police rhetoric all day long but when their life is threatened and they need a hero, they will dial 9-1-1 and a police officer will show up. Because police officers are heroes,” Dean insisted while slamming the article.
“Now yes, there have been some bad apples. There’s been some bad situations. But 99.9 percent of all police officers are fantastic,” Dean continued. He may be be a bit biased, considering that the actor is now a reserve officer for the Pocatello Police Department in Idaho. He added, “[Cops] are there to serve and protect and they do a fantastic job.”
Dean then moved on to cancel culture. “This whole cancel culture thing we’re living in right now is crazy, it’s like an early version of George Orwell’s 1984. Up is down, war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength,” he said, and bemoaned that “as Superman” today, he “wouldn’t be allowed” to say Superman’s catchphrase: “truth, justice and the American way.”
People had a field day with this interview on Twitter, considering that Superman is technically an immigrant from the planet Krypton. “Funny because Superman is undocumented and has a uber wealthy businessman as his mortal enemy so ya’know….. eat s–t Dean Cain,” one person tweeted, and another person posted, “Superman is an immigrant adopted by a working class family whose archnemesis is a greedy tech billionaire, written by two Jewish Americans in direct response to the global rise of fascism. So no, Dean Cain should probably not play Superman today.”
Another Twitter user pointed out that Dean played a superhero who lived “under an assumed identity” and “would have been deported under trump’s current regime.” Well, that paints a picture of Donald Trump’s new Space Force escorting Superman back to Krypton.
On a more serious note, one person posed an excellent question on Twitter: “Dean Cain is bitching about Superman not being able to say the American Way anymore. What does the AMERICAN WAY mean? Ignoring science, treating BIPOC and the LGBTQ+ community like trash, a bad healthcare system and endless wars? Why would Superman believe in the American Way?”
There have been growing calls to defund police departments after George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, died while under custody of Minneapolis police officers Derek Chauvin, Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng (who have all been fired and charged) on May 25. One of them, Derek, kept his knee pressed against George’s neck despite the father repeatedly saying he couldn’t “breathe,” and it was later revealed that he died from “asphyxiation from sustained pressure,” attorney Ben Crump told CNN. Protests erupted, joined by many stars like Halsey, John Boyega, J. Cole, Ariana Grande and Cole Sprouse. Now, strengthening skepticism towards cops has left people divided (as Dean’s interview shows).