THE BATMAN Actor On Critics Of James Gunn's "Kind" Depiction Of SUPERMAN: "F*ck Those People"

Con O'Neill, who played GCPD Officer Bock in Matt Reeves' The Batman, has shared his thoughts on James Gunn's Superman and the criticism some have levelled at this latest take in the character...

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By MarkCassidy - Sep 14, 2025 02:09 PM EST

Filed Under: The Batman

For many Superman fans, the "kindness is the new Punk Rock" take on the iconic DC Comics superhero introduced in James Gunn's recent reboot was exactly what they wanted from this latest big-screen interpretation of the character. For others, the Man of Steel's more hopeful outlook and squirrel-saving antics came across a little too hokey and old-fashioned.

Con O'Neill, who played GCPD Chief Mackenzie Bock in Matt Reeves' The Batman and HBO's The Penguin series, was a big fan of Superman, and had a blunt response to those who criticized the movie's depiction of the Man of Tomorrow.

O'Neill was asked about the DC Studios film during a panel at Oz Comic Con Brisbane (Via FeatureFirst.net).

"He praised its portrayal of Superman’s humanity and the promotion of kindness, furthering his point about it being hugely important in today’s society as a combatant against vitriol and hateful rhetoric. He also condemned the few individuals online who disagree with the sentiment portrayed in the film."

“'There are people who think Superman shouldn’t be kind like that. F*ck those people.'”

O'Neill was also asked if he was going to be a part of the Gotham PD spin-off series before it was shelved, and when and where we might see Bock again (he will likely appear in The Batman - Part II, but this has yet to be confirmed).

“I would tell you, but then I’d have to kill you,” joked the Our Flag Means Death star. “I love Bock. Matt Reeves and Matt Reeves’ mind is unquestionably one of the most extraordinary places I’ve been invited into. So wherever I thought or think Bock should be, it isn’t going to be what Bock will be. So I’d just go by the genius of Matt Reeves. I mean… the man is a f*cking genius. If you haven’t seen Matt Reeves’ other films… Watch them! They’re f*cking awesome.”

What do you make of O'Neill's comments?

Superman stars David Corenswet as Clark Kent/The Man of Steel, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor, Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner, Edi Gathegi as Mr. Terrific, and Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho.

The cast also features Pruitt Taylor Vince and Neva Howell as "Ma" and "Pa" Kent, and Milly Alcock's Supergirl makes her DCU debut ahead of her own Woman of Tomorrow movie.

"And that’s a wrap," Gunn posted last year when filming concluded. "God bless our cast and crew whose commitment, creativity, and hard work have brought this project to life. I set out to make a movie about a good man in a world that isn’t always so much. And the goodness and kindness and love I’ve encountered on a daily basis on the set has inspired me and thrust me forward when I felt too spent to move on my own.

Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. It has been an honor. The destination has been Superman, but the journey has been the toil and the laughter and the emotions and ideas and magic we’ve shared together on set - and for that I am forever grateful."

You can check out a synopsis for the movie below.

"In his signature style, James Gunn takes on the original superhero in the newly imagined DC universe with a singular blend of epic action, humor and heart, delivering a Superman who’s driven by compassion and an inherent belief in the goodness of humankind."

SUPERMAN Concept Art Showcases The (Casualty-Free) Destruction Of Metropolis In James Gunn's Reboot

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42 Comments

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Malatrova15 - 9/14/2025, 2:33 PM

Oh snap…Com O Neil himself ? Almost like Pablo Lyle

Superspecialawesomeguy - 9/14/2025, 2:41 PM

Love this guys voice.

TheVandalore - 9/14/2025, 2:43 PM

The 'Superman being into soft punk rock' and thinking kindness in a world of cynical people is being punk rock... I'll be honest, it's growing on me. I didn't like it at first, but I can see it fitting more as time goes on. But that Punkrocker song being in every social media video since the movie came out has been super annoying.

lazlodaytona - 9/14/2025, 2:48 PM

@TheVandalore - I thought the movie was fine. It served its purpose.
The one thing I wasn't crazy about, besides Supes getting his ass handed to him the entire movie, was having songs from bands in it. Star Wars and Superman are almost on the same level cinema-wise. The musical score is paramount. But modern-day music in either? Completely takes me out of the cinematic experience of both franchises.

harryba11zack - 9/14/2025, 2:57 PM

@lazlodaytona - man i don't know, hearing "for you" in the cinema was pretty bad ass

epc1122 - 9/14/2025, 2:59 PM

@lazlodaytona - I like how there was a mix. Tracks: home, last son, and look up i love and enjoyed punk rock and the song with mister terrific. I don’t think it has to be one brand or another.

Itwasme - 9/14/2025, 3:00 PM

@TheVandalore - as someone very deep in the scene for the last 40+ years I thought it was a little odd at first, but I do get it to some extent. I grew up going to CBGB's in the 80's and half of the kids there were homeless or living in some drug den with terrible parents. The scene was a bit of found family - which I think would have been an even better connection given he's an orphaned alien. PMA was a big part of the scene, but PMA was not in every scene.

So yeah. I get it, but not exactly.

lazlodaytona - 9/14/2025, 2:44 PM

I like him already

XelCorp - 9/14/2025, 2:46 PM

I can just hear him now slowly walking up to who ever he hears say that…

“You sonn ova B*tcchh.. u have any idea what kinda trouble you’re INn?”

Highflyer - 9/14/2025, 2:55 PM

While I wished the message wasn't delivered in such explicit dialoge, I like the message overall.

epc1122 - 9/14/2025, 3:02 PM

@Highflyer - I completely agree with your post. It’s unnecessary and I think it takes away from the point he’s trying to make.

Pictilli - 9/14/2025, 2:55 PM

He's not wrong.

HistoryofMatt - 9/14/2025, 2:57 PM

Here's the thing... most everyone saying "being kind is the new punk rock" are the same people publicly or privately CELEBRATING the death of Charlie Kirk, a man who they lie and slander in life and death was a "radical Far Right n*zi-racist-fascit-h*tler" but who in reality just simply had different ideas but who was extremely kind.

These are the people who celebrated the murder of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare.

So yeah... miss me with their bullsh*t about "being kind is the new punk rock." They're all evil, garbage human beings.

epc1122 - 9/14/2025, 3:09 PM

@HistoryofMatt - this is completely false. There’s a difference between celebrating one’s death and not feeling bad for him. He didn’t just have a different opinion, he was a racist and misogynist. I for one feel bad for his wife and kids but Kirk even said that he’s fine with gun deaths if it means a right to bear arms stays intact. It’s his own words. Are the ones who are upset about his death, were they upset when George Floyd died?? The same day he died there was also another high school shooting that got almost no reporting on. Guess you have to be a white Christian with money to feel bad for them if something bad happens to them.

Itwasme - 9/14/2025, 3:15 PM

@HistoryofMatt - it's a good thing you aren't being inflammatory or anything.

LiquidSwords - 9/14/2025, 3:22 PM

@epc1122 - "he was a racist and misogynist"

Do you have any examples of that?

"fine with gun deaths if it means a right to bear arms stays intact."

He didn't mean to murder someone for expressing their opinions.

"were they upset when George Floyd died??"

Why should they? It's apples and oranges. Floyd was a criminal who held a gun to a pregnant women's belly. Not even in the same league here. Up your standards.

As for the high school shootin -- how does it help your argument?

"Guess you have to be a white Christian with money to feel bad for them if something bad happens to them."

And there's the hypocrisy. Thank you.

HistoryofMatt - 9/14/2025, 3:30 PM

@epc1122 - Everything you said here and believe about Charlie Kirk is a lie. A provable, literal lie.

He was not a racist or a misogynist. You are lying. And thus, you are blocked because you are an evil, garbage person.

HistoryofMatt - 9/14/2025, 3:34 PM

@Itwasme - Calling out lies and hypocrisy and speaking the truth is never inflammatory.

What's inflammatory is what ever cultural institution in America has done since circa 2012, which is to repeat ad nauseam the insane lie that normal, every day American conservatives are "n*zi-racist-fascist-h*tlers" and that normal, every day American conservative ideas are "literal threats to Democracy." These are the lies the Democratic Party, the legacy media, the educational system, universities, and pop culture have told for almost 15 years.

Lies are inflammatory. We saw that this past week when someone brainwashed by lies all his life murdered a peaceful man over a difference of opinion.

epc1122 - 9/14/2025, 3:37 PM

@LiquidSwords - If I see a Black pilot, I’m going to be like, boy, I hope he’s qualified.
– The Charlie Kirk Show, 23 January 2024
If you’re a WNBA, pot-smoking, Black lesbian, do you get treated better than a United States marine?
– The Charlie Kirk Show, 8 December 2022
Happening all the time in urban America, prowling Blacks go around for fun to go target white people, that’s a fact. It’s happening more and more.
– The Charlie Kirk Show, 19 May 2023
If I’m dealing with somebody in customer service who’s a moronic Black woman, I wonder is she there because of her excellence, or is she there because of affirmative action?
– The Charlie Kirk Show, 3 January 2024
If we would have said that Joy Reid and Michelle Obama and Sheila Jackson Lee and Ketanji Brown

Reject feminism. Submit to your husband, Taylor. You’re not in charge.
– Discussing news of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s engagement on The Charlie Kirk Show, 26 August 2025
The answer is yes, the baby would be delivered.
– Responding to a question about whether he would support his 10-year-old daughter aborting a pregnancy conceived because of rape on the debate show Surrounded, published on 8 September 2024
We need to have a Nuremberg-style trial for every gender-affirming clinic doctor. We need it immediately.
– The Charlie Kirk Show, 1 April 2024

Kirk was an equal opportunity hater who called Martin Luther King, Jr. “awful,” and “not a good person,” while insisting, “We made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s.”

George Floyd was murdered and the fact that you would defend that says a lot about you. The store clerk thought he had counterfeit 20 dollars. Floyd served his time and is totally irrelevant to what happened.

My point with the hs shooting is they it’s getting absolutely no reporting and people are making it out as if Charlie Kirk was some good guy. There’s a reason why he was considered so controversial. I for one am not happy he died but I don’t feel bad for him, I feel bad for his wife and kids.

Itwasme - 9/14/2025, 3:41 PM

@HistoryofMatt - hmm... interesting take. Personally I think his record is there for everyone to see and people can drae their own conclusions. Whether a rural farmer in Idaho, a banker in NY or a business owner from Huntington Beach.

NoName6315 - 9/14/2025, 3:43 PM

@HistoryofMatt - "MLK was awful," Kirk said. "He's not a good person. He said one good thing he actually didn't believe." -Charlie Kirk, Dec
2023

"The Civil Rights Act, though, let's be clear, created a beast, and that beast has now turned into an anti-white weapon".
-Charlie Kirk, Mar 2025

"I don't like the word empathy. I think empathy is a made up new age term that does a lot of damage" -Charlie Kirk

A CBC Radio transcript quotes Kirk falsely telling a student that Floyd "died largely because of a drug overdose" and that the "knee on the neck" technique used by Derek Chauvin was an "approved police technique".

He also reportedly said, "Someone should've just took care of" transgender people "the way we used to take care of things in the 1950s and '60s". This latter comment referred to a time period when violence against LGBTQ+ people was common and practices like lobotomies and institutionalization were sometimes used.

This is just tip of vile things he said.

HistoryofMatt - 9/14/2025, 3:48 PM

@Itwasme - His record is there. The thing is, if you watch what he actually says you would never come to the conclusion that he is racist or misogynist. You could possible be brainwashed to think he is if all you do is watch and read the legacy media who claims he is by taking partial quotes of context and outright lying about what he says.

HistoryofMatt - 9/14/2025, 3:49 PM

@NoName6315 - All of those things you claim Charlie Kirk said are PARTIAL QUOTES and not the full quotes of what was said.

You know who said MLK was a terrible person? MLK's biographer. MLK was not a good person. He was a great man who did great things, but he was not a good person. He was an adulterer and even a serial sexual assaulter.

You would know that if you actually knew anything, but you're just another brainwashed piece of crap evil, garbage person.

LiquidSwords - 9/14/2025, 3:53 PM

@NoName6315 - "A CBC Radio transcript quotes Kirk falsely telling a student that Floyd "died largely because of a drug overdose" and that the "knee on the neck" technique used by Derek Chauvin was an "approved police technique"."

That's not false. It's a fact straight from the autopsy report.

"He also reportedly said, "Someone should've just took care of" transgender people "the way we used to take care of things in the 1950s and '60s". This latter comment referred to a time period when violence against LGBTQ+ people was common and practices like lobotomies and institutionalization were sometimes used."

Like get them professional help instead of encouraging mental illness. Not vile, just honest.

Itwasme - 9/14/2025, 3:53 PM

@HistoryofMatt - idk... he was pretty clear about supporting replacement theory. I honestly don't think most people who followed him know much about it or it's history, but he was a very smart guy and I think it's safe to assume he knew what it meant and that calling it by it's name so blatantly out like that.

I mentioned Huntington because of course there you have people on the Right who saw the same thing the people you're condemning on the Left. He was one of theirs.

Look, inflammatory rhetoric gets clicks and that was a big part of his business, I get that, but to quote white supremacy outright like that... I just think you have a difficult hill to climb to get out from under that one.

HashTagSwagg - 9/14/2025, 3:57 PM

@HistoryofMatt -

LiquidSwords - 9/14/2025, 3:59 PM

@epc1122 - Doesn't mean he was racist. He was speaking to the point of DEI hires and how standards are lowered. Do you want the best pilot flying your plane, or one who only got hired because they were black and met a quota? The other is in reference to Chicago and even made apparent in Charlotte, NC.

?si=eHbJxatUahhnUIwn

"We need to have a Nuremberg-style trial for every gender-affirming clinic doctor. We need it immediately."

He's right. Anyone trying to chemically castrate or remove the parts of children should be brought up on charges. Are you a groomer?

"Kirk was an equal opportunity hater who called Martin Luther King, Jr. “awful,” and “not a good person,” while insisting, “We made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s.”"

On the one hand, Kirk is correct that King was a more complicated man than we think and that it wasn't just smiles and sunshine in the civil rights movement. However, I'd need to read or view the full extent of this comment or interview.

"George Floyd was murdered and the fact that you would defend that says a lot about you. The store clerk thought he had counterfeit 20 dollars. Floyd served his time and is totally irrelevant to what happened."

Floyd was not murdered, he died from a fentanyl overdose. He has a wrap sheet. You made him relevant.

"My point with the hs shooting is they it’s getting absolutely no reporting and people are making it out as if Charlie Kirk was some good guy."

Because he was. He encouraged open debate. He didn't have a criminal record, remember?

"There’s a reason why he was considered so controversial. I for one am not happy he died but I don’t feel bad for him, I feel bad for his wife and kids."

For debating anyone and everyone? You should feel bad that your side suppressed his speech. He won the argument. Cherry picked quotes, so that all of them could be taken out of context is what you have.

centaur - 9/14/2025, 2:58 PM

the movie was ass bro get over it.

LiquidSwords - 9/14/2025, 3:23 PM

@centaur - 🎯

Sicario - 9/14/2025, 3:00 PM

Honestly I didn't like the movie. I found it trite and superficial.

The issue isn't whether superman can be kind or not. Of course he can, of course he should. But the story doesn't test him, it's just bland. He gets to be kind everywhere, there is no choice he has to make, and if anyone points out that his kryptonian parents being evil and he chose to be kind, no, that's not a choice, of course we know he is going to choose that. That's not a choice, choice is when he has to make a decision, if he didn't, there'd be consequences.

Another issue is, movie starts out by saying he is the greatest hero ever, implying the world over he is a legend, and yet, everyone treats him like a child. That's an inconsistency. And I hated lex being such a toddler. He doesn't command the room, more like, he's a rich kid, which is why everyone has to respect him

The casting was incredible tho.

epc1122 - 9/14/2025, 3:12 PM

@Sicario - to your point about choice, I would have liked another 20 minutes to the movie to show that he still saves people despite the public being against him.

ModHaterSLADE - 9/14/2025, 3:01 PM

I thought Corenswet did great as the character; the depiction was just fine for a younger/more Naive Superman.

harryba11zack - 9/14/2025, 3:22 PM

@ModHaterSLADE - "younger" ?? he was a 30 year old man with a zoomer cut. if he had been in his early 20's i could have bought some of his whiny behaviour.

ModHaterSLADE - 9/14/2025, 3:37 PM

@harryba11zack - Cry more. Superman in the comics is late 30s/early 40s. This was a younger version that obviously isn't experienced enough to be one of the foremost heroes in the world yet...

harryba11zack - 9/14/2025, 4:08 PM

@ModHaterSLADE - hes 30, there is a difference between immaturity and inexperience

fceeviper - 9/14/2025, 3:22 PM

This guy is awesome, Fuk those people.

bobevanz - 9/14/2025, 3:24 PM

This dude is right and it's funny seeing the freedom of speech crowd get triggered over free speech. "Rules for thee, not for me" clowns. It has to go both ways whether you like it or not

Matchesz - 9/14/2025, 3:40 PM

Nobody said the Superman shouldnt be kind, it’s the cartoony ahh approach they took, they’re always taking critics out of context and trying to create division

WalletsClosed - 9/14/2025, 3:45 PM

Just another reason why this movie sucks. The Batman and Diaperman are both terrible, two sides of the same coin. One just takes itself seriously (to the point of parody) while the other goes full on retard.

"There are people who think Superman shouldn’t be kind like that" No one said that jackass. Obviously we want a kind Superman, but we want a SuperMAN that's not naive, not cartoonish, not a saturday morning archetype and one that deals with real issues in a nuance and realistic way aka Henry Cavill's Superman. Anyone who thinks his Superman wasn't kind needs to get their eyes and ears checked.

Reboot the MCU and DCU

AnthonyVonGeek - 9/14/2025, 3:55 PM

Saying “f*ck those people” while trying to defend a “kind” character doesn’t really help his argument. 🤷‍♂️

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THE BATMAN Actor On Critics Of James Gunn's "Kind" Depiction Of SUPERMAN: "F*ck Those People"

Con O'Neill, who played GCPD Officer Bock in Matt Reeves' The Batman, has shared his thoughts on James Gunn's Superman and the criticism some have levelled at this latest take in the character...

SUPERMAN Concept Art Showcases The (Casualty-Free) Destruction Of Metropolis In James Gunn's Reboot

THE PENGUIN Picks Up 8 Emmy Wins Including The Award For Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup

DISCLAIMER: As a user generated site and platform, ComicBookMovie.com is protected under the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) and "Safe Harbor" provisions.