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James Gunn's Superman doesn't have the same level of pop music needle drops as most of his previous films, but the movie's closing credits play out over the charmingly upbeat song 'Punkrocker' by Swedish group Teddybears, featuring the legendary godfather of punk himself, Iggy Pop on vocals. And despite the raucous reputation of his early career, Iggy Pop tells THR he's on board with Superman's message of kindness.
"I always thought the track had soul," Iggy Pop, now 78 and still touring, tells THR. "Superman is the best friend you could have."
Indeed, the idea that Superman is everyone's best friend - or at least that he's trying to be - is central to the story of the film and its themes of finding strength in kindness.
Iggy Pop (born James Osterberg, Jr.) is known as one of the founding fathers of punk rock thanks to his time with the heavily influential proto-punk band the Stooges and his subsequent solo career. In his initial heyday of the late '60s and early '70s, he had a reputation for his violently cathartic stage presence, which often left him covered in cuts and bruises by the end of his performances, and for his offstage personal troubles involving drugs.
In the subsequent decades however, he's taken on the persona of an aging rock crooner whose songs are more deconstructions of his own mythos than adding new chapters to it (his 2016 album Post Pop Depression is a personal favorite).
Still, there's no one on Earth more qualified to declare that he's a punkrocker than Iggy Pop, who famously derided the "punk" label in a 1977 CBC interview as an attempt to dismiss the artistic passion of punk artists.
Nowadays, it seems he's much more in line with Superman's message that kindness is the "new punk rock," and that radical optimism can be more powerful than a downwardly cynical worldview.
Superman is in theaters now. For more, check out our guides to all the upcoming DC movies and TV shows and how to watch the DC movies in order.
