Nicolas Cage’s Superhero Fandom Helped Fuel His Latest Comeback

Another Nicolas Cage resurgence has arrived — and no, this isn’t about stocks. Strong early reaction to 〈Spider-Man Noir〉 has put the actor’s long-running superhero fandom back in the spotlight. This article introduces anecdotes about Nicolas Cage, who is known in Hollywood as a prominent superhero superfan. What ultimately saved him from near-bankruptcy amid personal scandals was his commitment to doing what he wanted to do. He staged a comeback through a string of low-budget films and then satisfied both his own fandom and public expectation by playing Spider-Man Noir in 〈Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse〉.

A Superman Superfan Who Nearly Realized His Dream

You can prove Nicolas Cage’s superhero devotion with one fact: his second son is named Kal-El. Anyone familiar with the lore will know that Kal-El is Superman’s birth name — Clark Kent is his Earth name; as a Kryptonian he is Kal-El. Naming a child after a fictional hero is one way Cage wears his fandom on his sleeve. A comparable example is the late Robin Williams, who, as a huge fan of the video game The Legend of Zelda, named his daughter Zelda.

Cage nearly lived out that Superman fandom in 1997 with the project 〈Superman Lives〉. That film went down in legend as an unfinished, never-completed project. After Warner Bros., having tasted success with 〈Batman〉 (1989), tapped Tim Burton to direct a Superman film, Burton cast Nicolas Cage. Cage completed costume rehearsals and camera tests and waited eagerly for principal photography, only for the project to be canceled amid disputes over the scale of the production. Plans at the time called for Michael Keaton’s Batman to appear, so had the film moved forward, DC might have built a shared universe well before Marvel did.

A version of Cage’s Superman finally appeared in 〈The Flash〉 (2023), when a collision during a clash of Flashes produced one of the multiverse variants. Cage’s Superman fandom had also been fulfilled earlier when he voiced Superman in 〈Teen Titans Go! To the Movies〉 (2018). The scene in which Cage fights a giant spider was actually written into the 〈Superman Lives〉 screenplay, so the scene can be seen as faithful to the original concept. But 〈The Flash〉’s widely criticized visual effects left many viewers more baffled than thrilled.

The Homework Behind His Hero Roles

There are many Superman-related anecdotes, but Cage is unmistakably a superhero superfan. His stage name, "Cage," was taken from Marvel’s hero Luke Cage. His birth name is Nicolas Kim Coppola. He has a Ghost Rider tattoo on his left shoulder, which had to be covered with makeup during filming of 〈Ghost Rider〉. It’s well known that Cage aggressively courted the role as soon as the film was announced, and he worked out hard to get the look of the real Ghost Rider — completing his abs through rigorous training — only to complain afterward that, since audiences assumed the result was all CGI, he was upset and joked he wouldn’t work out that hard again.

Beyond that, he poured his fandom into detailed ideas that shaped his hero roles. In 〈Kick-Ass〉, Cage shaped Big Daddy’s speech patterns to echo Adam West’s 1960s Batman — a fitting approach given the Batman influence and Damon Macready’s age. When Spider-Man Noir first appeared in 〈Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse〉, Cage performed the role with the intention of reviving detective-noir icon Humphrey Bogart (〈Casablanca〉, 〈The Maltese Falcon〉).

For the newly released 〈Spider-Man Noir〉, Cage made a notable concession: it marks his first appearance in a TV series since he began acting. He had long maintained a rule against television work, but with companies such as Marvel and Sony involved, the Spider-Man Noir story could only be produced as a series. So Cage broke his own rule and agreed to return as Spider-Man Noir. He is also set to appear in the film that will cap the Spider-Verse series, 〈Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse〉, so if you haven’t seen the series yet, watch it quickly before that release.