Every live-action Superman on film and television has had their own Lex Luthor to contend with, and for James Gunn’s Superman, that pairing is David Corenswet and Nicholas Hoult. However, those who’ve been following along with the news cycle focused on the upcoming DC movie for a long time know that Hoult came pretty close being cast as the Man of Steel. Hoult’s story about meeting Corenswet during the audition process is not only amazing, but also ironically wholesome considering how much Luthor hates Superman.
While the actors appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to speak with guest host Diego Luna, Nicholas Hoult recalled how he walked out of doing one of his audition scenes to play Superman thinking, “Yeah, not bad, ok.” The he walked around a corner and saw Corenswet sitting in “one ray of sunshine” in an area of the studio lot with “lots of shadows.” Hoult compared it to when Superman charges up from Earth’s yellow sunlight, and then their first encounter went as follows:
And I walked over to say hello, and he stood up, and I was like, ‘God damn, he’s about an inch taller than me. Look at his hair, look at his jawline.’ And then he started speaking, I shook his hand, and I was like, ‘His hands are a bit bigger than me.’ And then he spoke, and I was like, ‘Oh, his voice is a little bit deeper too.’ And in that moment, whilst we were shaking hands, I was like, ‘I’d be happy if this guy was Superman. I was like, ‘You’re perfect for it, really, genuinely.’
Nicholas Hoult was reportedly one of the three actors in the final running to play the DC Universe’s Superman alongside David Corenswet and Tom Brittney. However, with this memorable encounter with Corenswet sometime during the first half of 2023, Hoult realized he was facing some major competition, though he wasn’t bothered by it. He knew right away this guy was the “perfect” fit to play Kal-El/Clark Kent, and that’s what came to pass by June 2024, with Corenswet’s casting and Rachel Brosnahan playing Lois Lane being announced at the same time.
So Nicholas Hoult’s sole superhero character remains Hank McCoy, a.k.a. Beast, in the “First Class” era of X-Men, but he’s not bothered by this. On Jimmy Kimmel Live!, he also retold the story about how he thought he’d have “fun” playing Lex Luthor after reading some of the villain’s scenes in the script. Hoult didn’t tell anybody this, but when writer/director James Gunn called him to offer him the Luthor role, he was relieved given his previous instinct. As for why Gunn cast Hoult as Luthor, he amusingly said in April it’s because, “This man is so full of hatred.”
On July 11, we’ll see how Nicholas Hoult does playing Lex Luthor in Superman, the first DC Universe movie following the franchise kicking off with the animated series Creature Commandos. He’s clearly pleased with how things turned out, and he even let his son shave his head for the role.
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