Superman is in big trouble with Lex Luthor! James Gunn hypes up the ‘scary’ nature of Nicholas Hoult’s villain in the upcoming film.
The internet has been collectively swooning over David Corenswet all week with the release of the first trailer for Superman. However, that doesn’t mean everyone is in his corner. There’s been plenty of hype over Nicholas Hoult’s performance as Lex Luthor. It’s something James Gunn was able to expect during production of the reboot, recalling the crew’s affinity for bad boys on set.
“When we were on set and Nick walked in there, he’s every ounce of the big time movie star you can imagine,” Gunn explained in a recent chat with The Screen Brief. “And the women were swooning over Lex Luthor. And I’m like, ‘Oh, everybody loves a bad boy.’”
Yet Nicholas Hoult isn’t just bringing his rugged good looks to the role of Lex Luthor. For as much as fans have been looking at him with doe-eyes, something sinister is hiding beneath that egghead exterior. James Gunn teased that the villain will be something truly scary in Superman, not just because of his intelligence, but the ideology he employs behind it.
“One of the things that was important to me was to make a Lex Luthor who was absolutely Superman’s equal. Maybe more that. You’ve got to be scared, and this Lex is scary. And it’s not just because he is a bad guy—because he’s pretty bad—but he has his reasons for thinking what he thinks, which we get into. And it’s a lot of ideological things about what Superman represents versus what he represents as the world’s most intelligent man.”
Lex Luthor’s Ideology In Superman
While James Gunn obviously can’t lay all of his cards on the table before the second trailer for Superman hits the web, he did tease the ideology he crafted for Lex Luthor in the film. According to the director, what separates Nicholas Hoult’s character from the Man of Steel comes down to their generosity for humanity, with one having much more of it than the other.
“And so, it really is this battle of ideologies between the two of them and how they look at the world. One of whom is very generous in his point of view, which is Superman, and one of them is not very generous in his point of view, which is Lex.”
“But also, his intelligence and his way of dealing with the sort of henchmen that Lex has around him makes him incredibly dangerous to Superman. And when you’re willing to fight, and there are no rules, you always have an upper hand over the person who’s willing to fight and has a lot of rules—which is Superman.”
Modern superhero media can often feel very Shonen-esque with heroes overcoming odds simply due to being stronger. James Gunn seeks to flip this paradigm on its head for Superman. Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor isn’t doing the wrong things for the right reasons, he’s doing the wrong things for the very, very wrong reasons. And that should get any fan incredibly excited to see more.
Superman is currently scheduled to hit theaters on July 11, 2025. Stay tuned for the latest news regarding the future of the DC Universe and make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more content!
