James Gunn has found his Lex Luthor.
Nicholas Hoult will play the Man of Steel’s arch-nemesis in Superman: Legacy, completing the core cast for the superhero reboot that already has David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan as Clark Kent and Lois Lane.
Hoult was one of the actors reportedly in the running for the titular role, but Gunn – co-head of DC Studios and the film’s writer-director – instead chose Hoult to play Luthor, the bald-headed industry titan with an abiding fixation on bringing down the last son of Krypton.
With the actors’ strike over, Gunn has been busy filling out his cast. He confirmed on social media that María Gabriela de Faría has recently been cast as another villain, the Engineer. On the superhero side, Superman will be joined by Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion), Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi) and Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan).
“Superman: Legacy” is the first feature film in DC Studios’ relaunch of the DC Universe in film and television, which Gunn and fellow co-chief Peter Safran announced in January. On 11 November, Gunn announced that the film would still be released on 11 July 2025, as originally planned, due to the work of his production team during the strikes.
Hoult has had a busy schedule of late: He stars in Clint Eastwood’s upcoming legal thriller Juror #2, voices the titular cat owner Jon in the animated Garfield movie and stars in Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu alongside Emma Corrin, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Bill Skarsgard.
