Former Superman actor Dean Cain has found himself at the centre of a fresh backlash after publicly admitting he laughed at a social media post mocking the appearance of new Supergirl star Milly Alcock.
The controversy erupted on X after a user shared promotional artwork of Alcock, 26, who is set to make her debut as Kara Zor-El in the upcoming Supergirl film, and questioned how the superhero could have pierced ears if her skin is supposedly bulletproof.
‘Wait… if Supergirl’s skin is bulletproof, how does she have ear piercings?’ the user wrote alongside an image of the actress.
Another account then took the conversation in a more personal direction, posting a side-by-side comparison between Alcock and Chaka, a prehistoric humanoid character from the 1970s TV series Land of the Lost, asking: ‘And why does she look like this guy?’
Rather than ignore the joke, Cain weighed in with a brief response of his own, writing: ‘Dang it… I laughed.’
The comment quickly spread across social media, with many fans accusing the 59-year-old actor of joining in with appearance-based mockery aimed at a woman young enough to be his daughter.
Several Reddit users were particularly critical of Cain’s response.
‘She is like the most conventionally attractive woman ever. We can’t win,’ wrote one user, while another replied: ‘THIS. RIGHT. HERE. They just hate women. Period.’
Others pointed to Cain’s own experiences with criticism over the years.
‘To make it worse, he’s literally talked about receiving backlash and being given racist nicknames for being a half-Asian Superman actor,’ one commenter wrote. ‘And yet here he is endorsing and actively participating in those same systems of bigotry and shaming.’
Another simply branded him ‘such a loser’.
One particularly upvoted response read: ‘So an old washed up loser is bullying someone young enough to be his daughter publicly because she dares being the lead in a superhero movie. What a loser. I hope Supergirl will be a massive success. I will go watch it with my daughter.’
Elsewhere, fans argued the incident reflected a wider pattern of hostility towards female-led superhero projects.
‘I don’t get why whenever we get a female superhero movie, it turns into toxic masculinity central,’ one user wrote. ‘It is like a woman can’t be powerful or successful.’
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The row comes amid growing scrutiny of Cain’s public comments in recent months.
Last year, the former Lois & Clark star sparked controversy after criticising director James Gunn for describing Superman as an immigrant, telling TMZ that Hollywood was making the character ‘woke’.
More recently, Cain announced plans to join U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as a sworn officer after publicly supporting the agency’s recruitment drive.
Speaking on Fox News last year, Cain said he believed joining ICE was ‘the right thing’ and argued that President Donald Trump’s immigration policies were delivering what voters wanted.
‘I’m stepping up,’ he said. ‘Hopefully, a whole bunch of other former officers, former Ice agents, will step up and we’ll meet those recruitment goals immediately, and we’ll help protect this country.’
Ice has been responsible for an escalating number of immigration raids across the US since Trump was re-elected and now aims for 3,000 minimum arrests a day.
The raids have seen undocumented people, residents with protected legal status, and even American citizens pulled off the streets and thrown into a deportation system that increasingly does not respect due process, sparking protests across the US.
Alcock, meanwhile, has yet to respond to the internet discourse about her appearance publicly.
The 26-year-old actress rose to international fame playing young Rhaenyra Targaryen in House of the Dragon and is widely regarded as one of the breakout stars of the franchise.
Her casting as Supergirl was announced by DC Studios as part of Gunn’s rebooted DC Universe, with fans expected to get their first extended look at her version of the character when the film arrives next year.
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