The director makes a compelling case for a potential Lex Luthor anti-hero twist.
After the explosive success of Superman, director James Gunn has done no shortage of interviews, giving us a glimpse behind the curtain of his creative process and the characters that he brought to life in the film. Recently, he joined The Ringer-Verse for a chat, running the conversational gamut about his DCU projects and Man of Tomorrow — especially where longtime and fan-favorite villain, Lex Luthor, is concerned, going so far as to be on record saying that Luthor is one of the characters he sees the most of himself in.
When asked what he could say about what he was most excited about in rendering and bringing a character like Lex to life in Man of Tomorrow and beyond, Gunn said, without venturing into spoiler territory, “I think we saw all about the evil part of Lex. […] He’s pretty evil. He’s a pretty bad guy. I think he, as a character, is very interesting.”
Probably not in a traditional sense. Expanding on his feelings surrounding the villain whose story has stretched just as long as the Man of Steel’s and what he considers to be Lex’s best qualities, Gunn went on to say, “There’s something, despite everything, that is incredibly heroic about Lex. Take aside, like, morality, which is hard to do. But here is this guy who is saying ‘you can hold up a building, you can shoot down, you know, planes with your eyes. [ …] I’m gonna kick your ass because I’m better than you.’ I can’t help but admire his tenacity and his sort of ego. His ambition is beyond compare.”
We already know that Man of Tomorrow will not be a direct sequel to Superman, though David Corenswet will be returning for a key role in the film. Now having heard his thoughts surrounding Lex Luthor, it seems a more likely possibility that Man of Tomorrow could indeed be more deeply focused on Lex, possibly centering around more of his backstory (and deep-seated beef with Superman), with Nicholas Hoult thrust into the spotlight to bring him to life in a bigger way. And we will likely get to see the debut of Lex’s Warsuit — something as of yet unseen on the big screen, but teased for the announcement of the sequel.
What do you think, could Lex Luthor ever be a heroic figure? Let us know in the comments. And keep the conversation going in the ComicBook Forum.
