Lex Luthor has had more on-screen real estate than any other Superman villain. Since his debut in the pages of 1940’s Action Comics #23 — in which the red-haired super-genius plotted to turn the nations of Earth against each other and make himself supreme master of the world — Luthor has appeared in everything from the 1950 film serial Atom Man vs. Superman (played by Lyle Talbot) and the 1966 Filmation cartoon The New Adventures of Superman (voiced by Ray Owens), to Superman: The Animated Series (voiced by Clancy Brown) and a recent cinematic interpretation (Jesse Eisenberg) in the 2016 Man of Steel sequel Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and 2017’s Justice League.
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But there are two actors who have defined Lex Luthor on both the big and small screen: Gene Hackman‘s real estate-scheming criminal mastermind in 1978’s Superman: The Movie and two of its sequels, and Michael Rosenbaum‘s bald baddie in the Superman prequel series Smallvile.
“I went back and watched Gene, and I love what he did. I mean, I’m such a fan of his in those [Superman] films,” Nicholas Hoult, the latest actor to play the Man of Steel’s arch-nemesis in James Gunn’s Superman movie, told ComicBook during a visit to the reboot’s set. “And also his whole career as an actor, obviously. He’s incredible — one of the best of all time — so that’s an intimidating thing, obviously.”
While Jon Cryer and Michael Cudlitz have recently played versions of Lex Luthor in The CW series Supergirl and Superman & Lois, respectively, Hoult recalled growing up with Hackman’s Luthor and Rosenbaum’s Lex as “the first Lex that I was more aware of.”
Hoult, who previously played Henry “Hank” McCoy/Beast in Fox’s X-Men movies, noted that it’s intimidating “taking on any character that’s been interpreted before.”
“People have strong opinions and ideas of how it should be,” he said. “You want to take the script, first of all, and do that justice, and serve the story. And then just be honest and truthful to that, and what your opinion of it is.” For Hoult, having the visionary Gunn at the helm helped differentiate his version of Lex Luthor from previous cinematic iterations — whether that be Hackman, Kevin Spacey (in 2006’s Superman Returns), or Eisenberg (in the DC Extended Universe).
“I think that’s the brilliant thing [about] having James as the writer and director of this: he really understands storytelling first and foremost, but also the characters in this world, and what they all represent,” Hoult explained. “He wrote scenes that instantly felt very honest and believable to me, so it was then about just committing to those ideas that were on the page, and yeah, going back and watching Gene, and watching Michael.”
Superman stars David Corenswet as Clark Kent/Superman, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor. The cast includes Edi Gathegi as Mister Terrific, Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho, Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern Guy Gardner, Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen, Sara Sampaio as Eve Teschmacher, María Gabriela de Faría as Angela Spica/the Engineer, Wendell Pierce as Perry White, Alan Tudyk as Superman Robot #4, Neva Howell as Ma Kent, Pruitt Taylor Vince as Pa Kent, Sean Gunn as Maxwell Lord, and Frank Grillo as Rick Flag Sr. The DC Studios movie flies into theaters July 11.
