James Gunn is taking the time to celebrate an iconic supervillain on the 85th Anniversary of his first appearance with a look at his upcoming take on Lex Luthor. Nicholas Hoult will star as Lex in the upcoming DCU film Superman, opposite David Corenswet‘s Man of Steel. In the photo, dropped by Gunn on social media, is Hoult as Lex in a sepia behind-the-scenes photo. Fans have already gotten a couple of good looks at Hoult as Lex in the past teasers ahead of the movie’s July release. Joining Corenswet and Hoult is Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane.Hoult calls his Lex Luthor “smart” and “ruthless”, not a far cry from past iterations of the supervillain. During a panel Collider’s Steve Weintraub was in attendance of, after the debut of the Superman trailer, Hoult shared that, “this Lex obviously is smart and ruthless, and he has to outmaneuver Superman on certain levels because he can’t match him in others.” Hoult explains, “there’s also something about this character, hopefully, from my standpoint, where even though you perhaps don’t agree with his process, there’s an element where you can understand, on some levels, where he’s coming from and why what he’s pushing as his ideology is, perhaps, better for humanity.”
Who Is Lex Luthor?
In celebration of the 85th anniversary of Lex Luthor here’s an exclusive photo of Nicholas Hoult as Lex in our upcoming movie, @Superman.
Photo by @stefceretti. pic.twitter.com/1w7yi2zZC5
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) February 23, 2025
Lex Luthor has been played by and voiced by countless actors across the 85 years the character has been around, including: Michael Rosenbaum, Jon Cryer, Gene Hackman, and Jesse Eisenberg. The character, a human, is usually the head of LexCorp, a massive company in metropolis where Luthor runs his above and below-board operations out of. Enemy #1 in his book is, of course, Superman, finding any and all ways to bring down the Kryptonian so that Lex can continue his schemes that usually range from world domination to even just taking over Metropolis. As Hoult explans, a core belief of Lex is that he believes, in a twisted way, that his actions are justified, even if they aren’t morally right. He sees himself as knowing what’s good for humanity, not Superman and no flashy superpowers will impress Lex to believe otherwise.
You can watch Nicholas Hoult in James Gunn‘s Superman releasing this July.
via Collider