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The long-awaited film "Superman" (2025), directed by James Gunn, was released on July 11 and features standout performances by David Corenswet as Superman, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor.
Since its release, many viewers have drawn parallels between the film’s storyline and the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine.
The film depicts a fictional U.S.-backed nation that sets out to invade a weaker neighboring country. The plot centers on Superman’s intervention in an invasion by Boravia—a U.S.-backed nation—into its poorer, neighboring country, Jarhanpur.
The film marks a new chapter for DC Studios as the first film in the rebooted DC Universe and a fresh start for the Superman franchise. The movie made a significant impact, earning $220 million globally in its debut.
Superman hasn’t been seen on the big screen since Justice League in 2017. There have been a few cameos here and there in other DC film projects, but the world has been devoid of the Man of Steel for a few years now.
The film takes place on an Earth where Clark Kent has been Superman for three years now, while meta-humans have been around for over three centuries.
The main plot of the film centers on Superman's intervention in an invasion by Boravia, a U.S. ally, into the neighboring nation of Jarhanpur.
Boravia has a sophisticated and heavily armed military through U.S. support, while Jarhanpur is a poor nation that can do little to defend itself.
Superman’s intervention in the conflict raises concerns among U.S. officials about his unchecked power. Lex Luthor, a billionaire defense contractor, assures these officials that he can neutralize Superman if necessary—a goal he pursues by manipulating the media to turn public opinion against the hero, propelling the film’s narrative forward.
The film also explores Superman's struggle to reconcile his alien heritage with his human upbringing, the burden of public trust, and the weaponization of media.
Balancing action, humor, and emotional depth, it portrays a more vulnerable and human Superman alongside a Lex Luthor who represents both philosophical and technological threats.
While the storyline may evoke several real-world conflicts, one element in particular points more strongly to the Israel-Palestine dynamic than, for instance, Ukraine-Russia: the Boravians are portrayed as ethnically white, whereas the Jarhanpurians are depicted as non-white.
With the Boravian leader Vasil Glarkos (Zlatko Buric), who bears a physical resemblance to and bears a similar accent to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, working with the film’s primary antagonist Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), Lex, a key figure in the Boravian aggression, plans to take part of Jarhanpur for himself.
According to John Byrne, the writer of Superman, in a 2016 statement to the Daily Beast, Lex Luthor has been directly modeled after U.S. President Donald Trump from the 1980s.
Years later, DC Comics released an unauthorized biography of Lex Luthor featuring a cover inspired by the original cover of President Trump’s book The Art of the Deal.
On the other side of the debate, some supporters of Israel have criticized director James Gunn and DC Studios for allegedly embedding an anti-Israel message in the film.
“The film is very anti-Israel,” claimed a five-star review on the Letterboxd app, which has amassed nearly nine million views across platforms. Another widely circulated post on X, with 11 million views, described the film’s critique as “very explicit and in your face.”
Neither director James Gunn nor any member of the cast or crew has publicly suggested that the film’s narrative was intended as a commentary on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Gunn stated on X in February 2023 that he had been commissioned to write Superman. This confirms that work on the screenplay started over six months prior to October 7.
According to The Times of Israel, while Gunn has emphasized that the screenplay predates the conflict, that hasn’t prevented some anti-Israel viewers from embracing the film as a metaphor, nor has it stopped Israel advocates from rejecting such interpretations.
1 min read
Regardless of the controversy surrounding audiences’ interpretation of the movie’s symbolism as a reflection of the Gaza conflict or not, the movie has received a huge amount of positive reviews from critics and audiences. Praise was directed at its emotional depth, performances, and the film’s hopeful human tone as compared to its previous iteration.
Many reviewers appreciated the balance of epic action, humor, and heart, noting that the film delivers a more vulnerable and relatable Superman while paying homage to the character’s legacy, while some critics felt the movie was a bit generic and underwhelming in certain aspects.
3 min read
