Spider-Noir fame Nicolas Cage revealed whether Superman inspired his son’s name. In a recent interview, Cage insisted that his son Kal-El was not named after Superman. Interestingly, the actor was supposed to star in Superman Lives in the early 1990s.
Nicolas Cage reveals the story behind his son’s name
Nicolas Cage, a self-confessed comic book enthusiast, revealed whether Superman inspired his son’s name. The Spider Noir star clarified that naming his son Kal-El wasn’t purely out of Superman fandom. Cage shared with Entertainment Tonight, “He (his son) loves the name. What’s interesting is I wasn’t a Superman enthusiast; I grew up reading the monsters, like Ghost Rider and the Incredible Hulk.”
He continued, “The Superman thing is just something that happened. But I liked it. It’s a name, it’s a genuine name. It’s actually a Hebrew name, it means ‘Voice of God.’ I always thought Kal-El is a beautiful name. So I gave him the name, but it wasn’t because of some sort of adoration of Superman.”
Notably, Kal-El is Cage’s middle child and was born to him and his former wife Alice Kim in 2005. Interestingly, Kal-El was a role that Cage almost played onscreen. In the early 90s, Cage and Tim Burton joined forces on their own Superman film, Superman Lives. The actor even participated in a costume trial before the shoot. Unfortunately, Warner Bros. scrapped the project altogether, and it never saw the light of day.
Cage previously addressed the matter with Yahoo News Singapore, “I would’ve loved to have seen it, but I feel that in many ways, it was sort of a win-win because of the power of the imagination. I think people can actually see the movie in their minds now and imagine it and in many ways that might resonate more deeply than the finished project.”
Notably, his son Kal-El is 21 years old this year (via Parade). He landed his first Hollywood role at only 13 years old when he voiced young Bruce Wayne in 2018’s Teen Titans GO! To the Movies.
