Do you know that NBA icon and large tipper Shaquille O’Neal is a Superman fan? From having the Man of Metal’s ’S’ defend tattooed on his arm as a result of he was nicknamed Superman out on the courtroom, to taking part in supporting Superman character John Henry Irons in Metal (though that ended up not being tied to the comics), the basketball participant goes approach again with the Kryptonian superhero. So whereas I’m positive followers of Shaq get frazzled once they see him out on the earth, it’s good to listen to he nerded out on the same degree whereas visiting the set of the 2025 film launch Superman.
CinemaBlend discovered that Shaq stopped by the Fortress of Solitude setup whereas talking with the Superman manufacturing designer, Beth Mickle. She took him on a tour round Superman’s Arctic getaway personally, as this was the place the place “VIP company” and family and friends could be taken because the DCU’s first theatrical installment was filming. Mickle recalled to us:
I’ll say, solely as a result of this was similar to one of the best day of my life, .Shaquille O’Neal got here for a tour, and I bought to take him across the set. It was simply us, after which two of the artwork administrators hanging within the wings. I bought to stroll him round, and bought to indicate him how we do the froth carving for the stone, and defined how we constructed the crystals. He requested if he might contact one, I used to be like, ‘After all!’ We went round, and knocked on a bunch of these issues, and a bunch of the crystals.
Since Shaquille O’Neal was born in 1972, it’s a very good guess he noticed the Christopher Reeve Superman films in his youthful years, and the Fortress of Solitude was an particularly integral location within the 1978 flick that made us imagine a person might fly. So it’s utterly comprehensible he’d be wowed by the Fortress of Solitude set and need to contact one among its trademark crystals. Even when somebody who wasn’t significantly keen about Superman bought to see the Fortress firsthand, it might nonetheless be admired purely as a technical achievement.
Because it seems, Shaquille O’Neal wasn’t the one notable particular person who visited the Superman set on that specific day of filming, which was already particular to Beth Mickle for extra private causes. She laid out:
He could not have been lovelier, however it was additionally simply very nice to see that even Shaq, one of many best of the greats of all time, was just a little dazzled by some surroundings. That felt actually good. After which later that day, the author Amor Towles, of A Gentleman in Moscow, additionally got here to set and bought to go see it. … It was my husband’s birthday, April 2nd. I used to be like, ‘That is one of the best day of my life. Like, there may be not a greater day than April 2nd, 2024.’
This massive day for Beth Mickle got here just a little over a month into Superman’s principal pictures, and cameras stopped rolling on July 30, 2024. Along with the aforementioned Metal, Shaq additionally has DC cred from voicing himself in an episode of Static Shock, which was set within the DC Animated Universe. Since James Gunn is plotting a whole Superman saga for the DCU, possibly it may be organized for Shaq to cameo in one among these upcoming DC films.
For now, Superman can bought digitally as its theatrical run begins to wind down. After assembly Milly Alcock’s Kara Zor-El on the finish of this film, we’ll see Kal-El’s cousin take middle stage when Supergirl comes out on June 26, 2026. In the meantime, Shaquille O’Neal stays one of many former athletes who’ve gone into broadcasting, and could be seen co-hosting Contained in the NBA on TNT.