Warner Bros.With Superman scoring a second successful weekend in cinemas, writer-director James Gunn has been discussing the making of the movie, and a scene that very nearly didn’t make the cut.
Superman has been a hit with critics and audiences alike, with the DC movie nearing a $500 million haul at the box office, and managing a respectable 83% on Rotten Tomatoes.
We gave the movie four stars, writing in our Superman review that “it’s epic, emotional, and proof that the Man of Steel isn’t boring; by the end, you’ll believe that James Gunn’s DCU can fly.”
But one scene was nearly excised from the movie, thanks to an apparent widespread dislike of rodents. Mild SPOILERS ahead…
Superman director says “there’s a lot of squirrel haters out there”
Warner Bros.During a particularly action-packed sequence in Superman, the title character battles a Kaiju that’s destroying Metropolis. Midway through the fight, a building collapses, and looks like it will fall on a cute squirrel, but Superman takes a break from his derring-do to save the rodent.
It’s a scene that underlines his kindness and benevolence, not just to the human race, but to all creatures on Earth. It’s also a moment that very nearly didn’t make it into the film.
“We had three or four things that were heatedly debated throughout this movie,” Gunn says 34 minutes into the Happy Sad Confused show. “Saving the squirrel – heatedly debated! Too much.
“Some audience members didn’t… ‘why is he saving a squirrel?’ ‘Cause it’s a cute little adorable squirrel that was about to be crushed by a tail.’
“It wasn’t a small amount of people. There are a lot of squirrel haters out there. Who knew?”
- Also speaking to Rolling Stone, he said: “There was a cut where I cut it out and I’m like, ‘I really miss the squirrel. He’s gotta save the squirrel.’ In addition, there were also some geographic problems with where he ended up if I didn’t have him fly over with the squirrel. So I put the squirrel back in despite the protestations of some of my people on my crew.”
