The director of the new Superman film has sparked outrage after claiming the comic book hero is an “immigrant”.

James Gunn, who is also chief executive of DC Studios, said his new film, Superman, is the story of “an immigrant that came from other places and populated the country”, in an interview with The Sunday Times.

Now, a former Superman actor has hit out at the director, accusing him of making the superhero film “woke”.

Dean Cain, who played the Man of Steel in the 1990s TV series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, told TMZ: “How woke is Hollywood going to make this character? How much is Disney going to change their Snow White? Why are they going to change these characters [to] exist for the times?”

Cain, who is an outspoken Trump supporter, continued: “We know Superman is an immigrant – he’s a freaking alien… The ‘American way’ is immigrant friendly, tremendously immigrant friendly. But there are rules.”

He added: “There have to be limits, because we can’t have everybody in the United States. We can’t have everybody, society will fail. So there have to be limits.”