‘Superman: Legacy’: Nicholas Hoult Lands Role Of Lex Luthor
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EXCLUSIVE: James Gunn has found his Lex Luthor in British actorNicholas Hoult, several sources tell us.
A movie star always was eyed for this iconic role after Gunn selected fresh faceDavid Corenswet to play the title character and Emmy winner Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane.
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The studio wanted to go through the Lex Luthor casting processafter the SAG-AFTRA strike. Warners already is in business with Hoult on Clint Eastwood’sJuror No. 2,and he also starred in the 2015 Warner Bros. blockbuster,Mad Max: Fury Road, which made over $380M at the global box office andwon six Oscars.
Deadline reported last week that Venezuelan actress María Gabriela de Faría landed the role of villain The Engineer.
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Hoult follows in the line of such actors as Gene Hackman, Kevin Spacey and Jesse Eisenberg who’ve portrayed Luthor onscreen in the Warner Bros.Supermanfranchise.
Gunn selected Corenswet and Brosnahan as his main leads after months of audition tapes and in-person screen tests and before the actors strike but continued to be in prep on the movie.
Gunn, whose credits include the Guardian of the Galaxy films, The Suicide Squad and the Max series Peacemaker, is directing from his screenplay based on the DC characters. Superman was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The film is being produced by co-DC Boss Peter Safran (theAquaman andThe Conjuring films).
Superman: Legacy has been set for a worldwide release on July 11, 2025.
The project was announced earlier this year when Gunn and Safran laid out their plan for the first phase of this revamped slate and Superman: Legacy was front and center as the project that would help launch this strategy.
Hoult is repped by UTA, 42, and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern.
Warner Bros had no comment.
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30 Comments
- Anonymous
Would have liked to seen Dwayne Johnson in this role
- Mark Lynch
The Engineer is NOT a villain, she’s a member of DC superteam The Authority, which is being introduced in this film.
- Anonymous
One of the Skarsgards would’ve been more interesting. Gunn seems to make very much non surprising choices, no interesting moves or risks to be seen as of now. Hope the movie itsef doesn’t play it safe too.
- Anonymous
It seems there are only 10 actors left who play everything ;D
- Anonymous
Skeptical for now. DC has had problems creating a convincing villain in Luthor on film, despite casting some talented actors. On the other hand, small-screen versions seem to have worked much better (even including the brief Luthor appearance in the streamer “Titans”). And is Gunn planning on a whole team of villains are, including The Engineer? That harkens back to the “villain mess” in the Clooney Batman film. Not a good sign.
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