Most of the news surrounding Superman: Legacy has focused on actors joining the film. The movie now finds itself in the middle of a controversy due to an actor leaving, however. James Gunn has responded to a report that an actor got cut from Superman: Legacy for a pro-Palestine interview.
Comedian Bassem Youssef recently revealed that he was set to appear in the Man of Steel’s next solo outing but was cut because of comments he made during an interview with Piers Morgan.
During an interview with Salon, Youssef was asked about losing the role. “In the United States of America, you can talk about Joe Biden, you can talk about Donald Trump, but you cannot criticize a foreign government which is kind of, like, very sad, you know?” he said. “And then because of that, I was cast in the movie Superman, and then they told me, ‘We changed the script’ after this Piers Morgan interview, and I want to assume good faith.”
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The Internet began taking Warner Bros. Discovery and Gunn to task, comparing Youssef’s situation to the one that Scream star Melissa Barrera dealt with not long ago. Well, rather than let the discourse continue, Gunn took to social media to set the record straight.
Gunn reposted and confirmed the validity of a story from IGN stating that a character named Rumaan Harjavti had been removed from Superman: Legacy by at least September 2023, a month before the Piers Morgan interview, due to script changes and that Youssef was never formally offered the role.
This story doesn’t land at the best time for Warner Bros. Discovery, as the company finds itself in the middle of several controversies due to comments made by CEO David Zaslav and the treatment of Coyote vs. Acme.
