Entertainment

James Nesbitt angers fans as he makes gaffe saying Stan Lee created Superman

He stars in Stan Lee’s Lucky Man, but the actor needs to brush up on his knowledge of his body of work.
He stars in Stan Lee’s Lucky Man, but the actor needs to brush up on his knowledge of his body of work. He stars in Stan Lee’s Lucky Man, but the actor needs to brush up on his knowledge of his body of work.

Viewers of This Morning were less than impressed when actor James Nesbitt incorrectly said that Stan Lee created Superman during an interview.

Nesbitt currently stars in Stan’s drama series Lucky Man, and appeared on the daily programme to speak about his role as a detective who comes into the possession of an ancient bracelet that gives him supernatural luck.

Speaking to hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, James said: “Stan Lee, who came up with this – he also came up with Superman and all those great Marvel heroes – the superpower he always wanted was the ability to control luck.”

James Nesbitt
James Nesbitt
James Nesbitt (This Morning/ITV grab)

But viewers quickly picked up on the Northern Irish star’s error, with many pointing out that Superman was not only not created by Stan, but that the character is also part of the DC Comics world, not Marvel Comics.

One fan took to Twitter to write: “James Nesbitt just said Lucky Man was from the mind of Stan Lee, creator of Superman and other famous Marvel characters … Geek rage!”

Another fumed that James committed “comic book blasphemy”, while one told Nesbitt to “do your research”.The disbelief continued as one viewer wrote: “@schofe Play it back but James Nesbitt just said Stan Lee created Superman?”“I just died a little that on This Morning James Nesbitt said Stan Lee created Superman,” wrote another disgruntled tweeter.

But there was support for the 52-year-old actor, who admitted during the chat that he was never a comic book fan as a child and he was more into football.One person wrote: “People whining James Nesbitt said Stan Lee created Superman. Did you also hear him say he wasn’t a big comic book fan? #ThisMorning.”Stan created a plethora of superhero characters for Marvel Comics in the 1960s including Iron Man, Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk and the X-Men.

Superman was created in the 1930s by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster before becoming one of the cornerstones of the DC Comics universe.

During his stint on the This Morning sofa, Cold Feet star James also praised Taken actor Liam Neeson.

Asked by Phillip if he is the first Northern Irish superhero, James said: “I think Liam Neeson will always be the Northern Irish superhero.”