Nicolas Cage actually named his second son Kal-El in a bizarre tribute to the birth name of Superman, perfectly encapsulating the chaotic energy of a man who once spent millions on dinosaur skulls and haunted mansions.

A Kryptonian name chosen for a real-life son

Kal-El is Superman’s birth name on Krypton, the doomed planet from which he is sent to Earth as a baby. On Earth, he grows up as Clark Kent; “Kal-El” belongs to the character’s origin story, not his public identity as a reporter and superhero. Naming Nicolas Cage’s son Kal-El turned a detail familiar to comic readers into a personal tribute—and gave the child a name with an unusually direct connection to the fictional world.

The role that never reached the screen

Cage’s interest in Superman went beyond the name. He was attached to play the hero in a Tim Burton-directed film often known as Superman Lives. The project was developed in the 1990s but canceled before filming, so Cage never appeared as Superman in a completed movie.

That distinction matters: the project left behind no finished performance for audiences to judge, only the striking prospect of Cage playing a character whose identity and image have been reinterpreted across generations. The name Kal-El, by contrast, became part of his family’s real story—a piece of comic-book mythology carried into everyday life.