Egyptian-American comedian Bassem Youssef has caused some social media chatter around Superman Legacy that the producers would not have wanted right now. He claimed he was cast in the upcoming DCU launcher.
Then, following an appearance on Piers Morgan: Uncensored where he dropped some criticism of Israel over the situation in Palestine, veiled in some mature comedy, he says he was written out of the role.
He made the claims in an interview with Salon this week:
“I was cast in the movie, ‘Superman,’ and then they told me, ‘We changed the script,’ after this Piers Morgan interview. I want to assume good faith. I want to know, I want to believe that this is true. I was a little bit bitter, and I wanted to go, I was like, ‘Oh, screw DC, screw Warner Bros.’ But then I understand, I understand the emotional burden that those people have.”
Variety has since got involved, and tapped up their sources. They say the situation was that Youssef’s character was in the script and Gunn had talked to Youssef about possibly playing the role. However no formal offer was ever made, and talks never went any further because the character was dropped from the script before the strikes started.
This means the character was written out way before the October 7th Hamas atrocities.
Gunn has subsequently done a posting on X confirming simply that:
“This is accurate.”
Filming on the movie is set to get underway in Atlanta next month, ahead of a summer 2025 release for Superman Legacy.
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