The superhero genre continues to be wildly popular, and all eyes are on what DC co-CEO James Gunn has up his sleeve for the new DCU. The first slate of projects is titled Gods and Monsters, debuting in theaters with the Superman movie. Hype for the upcoming DC movie is real, and James Gunn recently debunked a rumor about Lex Luthor. As a fan, I've got to say I'm relieved.
What we know about Superman is limited, and largely based on its limited footage. So fans are filling in the blanks, resulting in a number of theories and rumors swirling around online. While talking to fans on Threads, Gunn confirmed that we wouldn't be getting origin stories for the Superman cast, but that we will not see a certain version of Nicholas Hoult's Lex Luthor. As he put it:
There are no origins but Lex is not President.
There you have it. While it remains to be seen how/why Lex Luthor will stand in Superman's way in the forthcoming blockbuster, he won't have the full power of the President of the United States. Instead we'll seemingly be getting a private citizen with a huge amount of resources at his disposal.
The full Superman trailer just dropped, and offers clear glimpses at the ensemble cast James Gunn brought together. The footage is thrilling, although the specifics of the story are largely under wraps. Superman's morality is going to be at the heart of the narrative, but the specifics of his dynamic with Lex is unclear. As a reminder, you can re-watch the limited footage below:
James Gunn gave Nicholas Hoult the role of Lex because he seemed so full of hatred during auditions, so it sounds like the X-Men alum is going to be firing on all cylinders for Superman. And he'll presumably be a major villain in the entire DCU as a whole, especially since Gunn and company are putting so much focus on serialized storytelling.
We've only seen a few very brief appearances of Hoult as Lex Luthor, as James Gunn and company have been keeping the movie's contents close to the chest. That should change as we get close to Superman's release this July, but the choice to not put out a full length trailer until recently seems purposeful.
The DC Universe is still in its infancy, but we've already seen connection between its first two projects. Creature Commandos voice actor Karl Urban is making the leap to live action as Rick Flag Sr. in Superman, as well as Season 2 of Peacemaker. So the narrative possibilities feel pretty endless.
Superman will hit theaters on July 11th as part of the 2025 movie release list. We'll just have to wait and see what Nicholas Hoult will bring to the table as Lex Luthor.
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