Thanks to his public support of Palestine, comedian Bassem Youssef claims he lost out on a role in James Gunn’s upcoming “Superman: Legacy.” But Deadline and IGN report that a source close to the Warner Bros. blockbuster stated Youssef was never offered the role at all. That’s because when Youssef made his comments on an October 17, 2023 interview on “Piers Morgan: Uncensored,” the studio couldn’t formally communicate with him due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike.
Youssef indeed taped an audition for the role of Rumaan Harjadi in “Superman: Legacy” before the actors strike began last July. But after that, Youssef’s claims don’t align with the timeline of work resuming on the upcoming film. Sources say that Gunn handed in his final script for “Superman: Legacy” after the WGA strike ended in late September last year, weeks before the Israel-HAMAS conflict began on October 7. The final draft of the script no longer had the Harjadi role in it. Then, Youssef made his comments ten days later. Since the SAG-AFTRA strike didn’t end until November 9, there was no window of time where Gunn and Warner Bros. could have made a formal offer to Youssef for the Harjadi part.
Still, the Egyptian-born comedian claims that Warner Bros. fired him due to his anti-Israeli comments during the “Piers Morgan” telecast. “They said Israel is the only military force in the world that warns civilians before bombing them,” Youssef said during the broadcast. “How f*cking cute! That is so nice of them because with this logic, if Russian troops started warning Ukrainians before bombing their houses, we’re cool with Putin, right?”
Youssef told Salon in an interview earlier this week that he believes his comments caused him to lose out on the “Superman: Legacy” role. “Because of that, I was cast in the movie, “Superman,” and then they told me, ‘We changed the script,’ after this Piers Morgan interview. I want to assume good faith. I want to know; I want to believe that this is true. I was a little bit bitter, and I wanted to go; I was like, ‘Oh, screw DC, screw Warner Bros.’ But then I understand, I understand the emotional burden that those people have. I mean, those people have a connection with Israel.”
A second source close to the situation considered that this may be a simple “he said, she said” misunderstanding between Youssef and the studio. Youssef disagrees, but he also understands where Warner Bros. is coming from if his comments did influence Gunn’s decision to cut the Harjadi role. “I understand maybe the people who are in charge, that took the decision, looked at me and didn’t want to have me. And maybe I understand,” he continued. “If I’m an Arab Muslim, I was the head of Warner Bros., I wouldn’t like a pro-Zionist or a pro-Israel to be in my movie if he attacked my people. I understand. This is the thing that we need to dissect: when I attack Israel, I attack its policy, I’m not attacking Jewish people.”
So, what’s the real story here? Is Youssef right in suspecting that his pro-Palestinian comments caused him to lose out on a role in “Superman: Legacy”? Or were the guild strikes so chaotic for studios that the part Youssef thought he had beforehand was no longer in existence once they concluded? The fact of the matter is the timeline shows that Warner Bros. could never have formally offered Youssef the role of Rumaan Harjadi before he made his comments on “Piers Morgan: Uncensored.” So perhaps this whole situation is indeed one of misinterpretation, albeit a provocative one, given the real-world context. But one expects Warner Bros. won’t issue a formal statement about this.
UPDATE: And it looks like James Gunn confirms IGN’s account of this story: that Youssef’s character was cut from “Superman: Legacy” well before the comedian commented on “Piers Morgan: Uncensored.” Take a look at Gunn’s tweet about the situation below.
UPDATE 2: On Threads, Gunn says Baseem and he have talked and are “good” now. “There isn’t one word against another,” he wrote. “Baseem and I talked, and we’re good. I understand how he thought things might be (which he was clear about in his interview), and I told him the whole story.
