Published May 30, 2026, 5:25 PM EDT
Felipe Rangel is a Movie and TV Journalist ScreenRant. He has been writing about movies and TV since 2021. Felipe joined ScreenRant in 2022, working across different teams, covering everything from breaking news to features to reviews and more.
Felipe is a writer who is an avid film and TV fan, with superhero movies and series being his biggest passion. He graduated from college in 2019, having studied Journalism. Before college, he spent a month studying at the Oxford English Centre. His superhero knowledge expands to the comics, with his undergraduate thesis being "Politics Reflected In American Comics."
A core Superman scene from Christopher Reeve's tenure as the Man of Steel has just been repeated in a new superhero release, and it comes from a former Superman actor. Over the years, many actors have played Superman in live-action. As the epitome of what a superhero means, new franchises keep coming back to Clark Kent, with the hero appearing in movies and TV shows.
Before him, Henry Cavill was the Superman of the old DCEU. That said, no version of the character has been as iconic as Reeve's, who remains the golden standard of what it means to be Superman. Reeve starred in many of the hero's most popular live-action moments, and there is one that was just repeated in another superhero universe by a former Superman actor.
Nicolas Cage stars in Prime Video's Spider-Noir. The Marvel series sees the veteran actor take on a disillusioned version of Spider-Man in New York City around the Great Depression. It is a gritty detective story with a grounded hero who goes by The Spider, not Spider-Man. That said, it shares elements with more fantastical superhero releases, and one of them starred Reeve as Superman.
Nicolas Cage's Spider-Noir And Christopher Reeve's Superman Have Something In Common
Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for Spider-Noir season 1.While Spider-Noir follows a Marvel character, it has a scene that pays homage to Superman, and which Reeve made famous in Superman II. In that film, Margot Kidder's Lois Lane suspects that Clark Kent is Superman. To prove it, she throws herself from a window at the Daily Planet, hoping he will fly to catch her. Instead of exposing his secret identity, Clark rushes downstairs and breaks her fall with a mix of heat vision and his Super-Breath. Reeve's Superman comes then goes back upstairs, with Clark looking out the window at Lois, destroying her plan.
Prime Video's Spider-Noir comes up with a similar scene, as Li Jun Li's Cat Hardy, the Spider-Man series' version of Black Cat, also decides to throw herself off a window to prove that Cage's Ben Reilly is The Spider. However, the outcome is completely different here. Not having Superman's impressive speed, the Marvel hero proceeds to save Cat by firing his webs at her. This proves to Cat that Ben is a superhero, and the two kiss. Respecting the difference in power and personality of the two characters, the outcome of Spider-Noir's recreation of that Superman II scene is fitting.
Nicolas Cage Also Connects To Christopher Reeve In Another Major Way
Like Reeve, Cage is also one of the many actors who have played Superman in live-action. Sadly, he was never able to lead a solo movie as the DC hero, as Superman Lives was eventually canceled after a tumultuous period of development. A couple of decades later, Cage was finally able to play Superman in a cameo in DC's The Flash movie, which was released in 2023 and explored a multiverse storyline — a loose version of DC Comics' Flashpoint — with Ezra Miller playing the title hero. Cage's Superman fought the giant spider he was supposed to in his solo film.
That version of the Man of Steel appeared in a sequence that showed different universes and heroes. Among them was also a fully CGI version of Reeve's Superman, who was finally seen standing side by side with Helen Slater's Supergirl in their shared universe. As such, not only did Cage also play Superman, like Reeve, and recreate a key scene from Superman II in Spider-Noir, but their versions of Superman appeared in the same movie.
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Superman II
Release Date December 4, 1980
Runtime 127 minutes
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Christopher Reeve
Superman / Clark Kent
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English (US) ·