Cleveland Has Become A Go-To City For Making Superhero Epics, And It Makes Total Sense

Even if you've never visited New York City, Hollywood, or even Chicago, the average person could probably identify each skyline based solely on the countless establishing shots provided throughout cinema history. The same is not as true for a city like Cleveland, Ohio, the so-called "Mistake by the Lake" that I called home throughout my 20s. Cleveland, as a city, gets a bad rap from the rest of the world — as evident by how often the city is used as a punchline. (For example: One of the Hellmouths from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" is in Cleveland, thus explaining why the city sucks so much.)

Ohio, in general, is often used as a shorthand to mean "Anywhere, USA," even if a movie or TV show isn't filmed there. And yet, Marvel's "The Avengers" used Cleveland to double as Germany, while "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" reused the locations to be on the other side of the globe. The building where Loki (Tom Hiddleston) commands everyone to kneel? Yeah, that's the same building where Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) and Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) share a kiss on an escalator in a mall. It's also the same building piercing the sky that's visible in the shots of Hawkgirl (Cleveland's Isabela Merced!) soaring through the air in the "Superman" promos.

I haven't lived in Cleveland in about four years now, but it's a city I love with every fiber of my being, no matter how often people in Los Angeles grimace when I tell them where my wife and I lived before moving out here. The full-length trailer for James Gunn's "Superman" understands what makes The Land one of the greatest cities in the world and, by allowing it to double as Metropolis, rightfully presents Cleveland the way it exists in my heart — as a city worth saving.

While Clark Kent was canonically raised in the fictional town of Smallville, Kansas, his real parents are his two dads: Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, themselves the bespectacled sons of immigrants who met while attending Glenville High School in Cleveland, Ohio. Siegel's childhood home has even become a landmark in the city, a large "S" shield adorning the fence out front for photo ops. As such, it's easy to see the influence of Cleveland in early depictions of Metropolis, even as elements of other major metropolitan locations started to inspire the fictional city's geography. But as a live-action setting, Cleveland is perfect for Metropolis because it's a city that feels almost frozen in time.

For instance, the house where Ralphie in "A Christmas Story" lived (now a museum) was supposed to resemble Indiana in the year 1940. The film was shot in Cleveland's Tremont neighborhood in the early 1980s and didn't require much alteration. Even today, the neighborhood looks nearly identical to how it did when it was immortalized, with only the cars and coats of paint freshened up. While the city, of course, has its pop-ups of minimalist, modern apartment complexes as it has expanded over the years, Cleveland still has a classic Midwest look to the majority of its architecture, which is perfect for Metropolis.

Case in point: While now predominantly used as a luxury living complex, The Leader Building was built in 1913 to house the Cleveland Leader newspaper. Clark Kent even worked as a reporter for the Cleveland Evening News in some of the earliest issues of "Action Comics," which in the 1920s was also housed in the Leader. Fittingly, the spot doubles as The Daily Planet in Gunn's new DC movie.

By filming with practical locations, "Superman" boasts a tangibility lost in the blue and green-screened CGI hellscapes often plaguing much of the capes and tights cinema of recent years. When Superman (David Corenswet) and Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) kiss in the middle of the Cleveland Arcade (FKA Crystal Palace, the city's first building to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places), I can feel my heart swell knowing I've kissed my wife in that same spot (albeit, not while literally flying in the air). There's a warmth to The Sixth City that is often lost in the flashy, tourist-attracted epicenters of U.S. culture, a perfect reflection of the kindness Gunn has promised he imbued his "Superman" film with.

The Cleveland-based company ILTHY (I'd Love to Help You) trademarked the expression "Defend The Land," a rallying cry that has come to define the Plum of the Rust Belt, a city "built on hustle, grit, and unity." Gunn's "Superman" feels in tune with that motto, embracing the existing beauty of this Midwest Metropolis instead of trying to hide its distinctive landmarks. The Meteors baseball team is even utilizing a nearly identical font to The Cleveland Guardians in scenes filmed at Progressive Field. Superman is likewise heckled and arrested in Public Square, the central home of most of Cleveland's protests (and the annual Pride in the CLE celebration), where countless Clevelanders trying to Do Good have endured similar treatment.

When "Superman" was first invented, Cleveland was a bustling city full of potential and industry. However, during the 1960s, there was a decrease in population and economic hardship from which the city has never fully recovered. Cleveland has spent the last six decades fighting to survive and trying to find its place in the fabric of the U.S. Much like Kal-El/Clark Kent/Superman himself, Cleveland doesn't quite fit in, and no one seems to understand what makes it important. A lot of cities like Cleveland are deemed to have outlived their purpose, but you can't just scrap an entire city the same way you can't just toss Superman aside when he's not saving the world.

What do we do with Superman? What do we do with a hero who many deem "uninteresting" because of his incredible power level? For the last decade, we've tried to make him darker, angrier, and a reflection of our broken times, but that's not who Superman is, and that's not how Cleveland operates either. They're both just trying their best in the face of a world that feels like it wants them to fail.

Perhaps movies were correct in treating Cleveland, Ohio, like Anywhere, USA — because when Superman saves Metropolis, it's a sign to the world that he's here to fight for truth and justice for us all.

"Superman" flies into theaters on July 11, 2025.