Overview
- Cage told Variety that he legally changed his surname to Cage in 2025 and confirmed the move publicly in a May 2026 interview.
- He adopted the Cage name early in his career to avoid charges of nepotism and says the legal change finalizes a decades‑long professional identity.
- The surname was inspired by the Marvel character Luke Cage and by avant‑garde composer John Cage, choices he says aimed for a short, distinctive name.
- Cage said he will use both Nick and Nicolas and kept the French spelling of his given first name because his father named him that.
- Born Nicolas Kim Coppola and a nephew of Francis Ford Coppola, Cage says the legal change reframes how people view his work and could reduce automatic ties to his family while he moves forward with projects such as Spider‑Noir and the Madden biopic.