I'm pretty sure I knew through popcultural osmosis before I ever saw any of the films
Some people weirdly don't connect fictional scenarios to real life analogues though. Like in the Oz books, a princess is kidnapped and forced to grow up as a boy. Some people don't see that as a transgender character because it's a fantasy scenario. Some people don't see Superman as an immigrant because their brains just don't connect a science fiction situation with an alien to immigration
In one of the movies he's a toddler when he comes out of the pod