Warning: This story contains spoilers about Warner Bros. and DC's "The Flash" movie.
It's a bird. It's a plane. It's ...
... the unbearable weight of the massively talented Nicolas Cage. The Oscar-winning "Leaving Las Vegas" star makes a cameo in Warner Bros. and DC Studios' "The Flash," which stars embattled actor Ezra Miller as the titular Scarlet Speedster in yet another cameo-brimming superhero flick.
In an interview with Esquire Middle East, "The Flash" director Andy Muschietti detailed how worlds will further collide in the June 16 release and how he got the "Face/Off" and "Con Air" star to join the DC Extended Universe as the Man of Steel. This, after Cage was set to play Superman in Tim Burton's ill-fated "Superman Lives" 25 years ago — a movie that never got made and was the subject of a 2015 documentary.
"Nic was absolutely wonderful. Although the role was a cameo, he dove into it," Muschietti said. "I dreamt all my life to work with him. I hope I can work with him again soon."
The "It" and "Mama" filmmaker also noted that Cage is "a massive Superman fan," describing the actor as "a comic book fanatic."
Indeed, Cage, whose real name is Nicolas Coppola as he's the nephew of director Francis Ford Coppola, styled his stage name after Marvel's superhuman hero Luke Cage and even named his son Kal-El — a nod to Superman's Kryptonian moniker. The 59-year-old also previously owned a near-pristine copy of Action Comics No. 1, the 1938 comic book in which Superman first appeared, but it was stolen from his home in 2000. (The storied comic book was recovered in a storage locker in 2011 after the locker was purchased in an auction. The actor later sold the 10-cent comic book at auction in 2011 for a then-record-breaking $2.1 million.)
Cage also voiced the Last Son of Krypton in 2018's "Teen Titans GO! To the Movies" and, in March, distanced himself from DC's rival Marvel, telling Variety: "I don't need to be in the MCU, I'm Nic Cage."
He's set to play Superman alongside Miller's timeline-breaking Barry Allen and veteran actor Michael Keaton. Keaton, who is featured heavily in "The Flash" trailer, is reprising his 1989 "Batman" role in the new film and Ben Affleck is returning as his version of the Caped Crusader too. Sasha Calle plays another Kryptonian — Supergirl.
"Worlds collide in 'The Flash' when Barry uses his superpowers to travel back in time in order to change the events of the past," the Warner Bros. and DC official synopsis says. "But when his attempt to save his family inadvertently alters the future, Barry becomes trapped in a reality in which General Zod (Michael Shannon) has returned, threatening annihilation, and there are no Super Heroes to turn to. That is, unless Barry can coax a very different Batman out of retirement and rescue an imprisoned Kryptonian… albeit not the one he's looking for."
Cage's appearance comes as new DC Studios bosses James Gunn and Peter Safran are storyboarding their next Superman-centered tentpole, "Superman: Legacy," as they build on (and overhaul) the DCEU canon of the past decade.
