Christopher Reeve’s children have admitted that they have not seen The Flash, and were not involved in his controversial cameo in the film.
In a new interview with Variety at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, Reeve’s children – Will, Matthew and Alexandra – told the outlet that they were not involved in the inclusion of his likeness in the Ezra Miller-starring 2023 film. In The Flash, Reeve appears as his iteration of Superman in a sequence where The Flash travels in time using the Speed Force, alongside older incarnations of Supergirl and Batman. Reeve’s children also added that they have not even seen the film.
Will, Matthew and Alexandra Reeve were at the Sundance Film Festival to promote a new documentary about their father, entitled Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story. Elsewhere in their interview with Variety, they spoke about their involvement in the film, with Alexandra calling it a “beautiful gift”. “We wanted people to see the highs and lows, the public facade and what’s happening at home,” she said.
Matthew added by expressing his delight at being able to examine archival footage he previously never saw, stating: “Seeing things I hadn’t seen before didn’t change my perception of him but enhanced it, like some rare Australian interview done in 1977 that was uploaded [on YouTube] and I didn’t know existed. It was pretty cool to see that and uncover a lot more material than we knew about.”
When asked about the most underestimated Christopher Reeve role, Will stated that Reeve was especially proud of his role as Congressman Jack Lewis in the 1993, Anthony Hopkins-starring film adaptation of Remains Of The Day. “He was so proud of his role in that movie,” said Will. “It’s not a big role. It’s an important role in the film. He got to show a completely different side of himself. I knew how proud he was of that. Not that he wasn’t proud of Superman, but if he were here he wouldn’t choose Superman, he’d choose ‘Remains of the Day.’”
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, and is currently seeking distribution.
Reeve’s cameo in The Flash was only one of a handful of cameos which did not directly involve the actors, or were significantly altered. In November, Nicolas Cage expressed dismay at how differently his appearance in the film was portrayed than what he expected. “When I went to the picture, it was me fighting a giant spider. I did not do that. That was not what I did,” expressed Cage. “I don’t think it was [created by] AI. I know Tim [Burton] is upset about AI, as I am. It was CGI, OK, so that they could de-age me, and I’m fighting a spider.”
The Flash received a four-star review from NME, with Alex Flood calling the film “a funny, action-packed and, of course, fast-paced adventure follows – with a surprisingly moving emotional centre.”