Superman: Legacy: Who is David Corenswet?

By Nicole Drum

One of the most eagerly awaited pieces of entertainment news these days is casting for James Gunn's Superman: Legacy and on Tuesday, fans got the update they were waiting for.  It was announced and confirmed by Gunn that David Corenswet has been cast as Clark Kent/Superman in the upcoming live-action film set to be written and directed by Gunn himself. It was also announced that The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel star Rachel Brosnahan has been cast as Lois Lane in the film as well. Additional casting for the film has yet to be announced.

Corenswet may not be a household name, but there's a good chance that you may have seen the actor before. In terms of movies, Corenswet most recently appeared in Pearl, the 2022 X prequel starring Mia Goth. In the film, Corenswet played the unnamed and ill-fated projectionist. He also starred in Netflix's 2022 film Look Both Ways opposite Riverdale star Lili Reinhart. In that film — which tells the story of a woman, Natalie over two realities, one in which she is pregnant upon college graduation and one in which she is not — Corenswet plays Jake, the love interest of Reinhart's Natalie in the reality where she is not pregnant and instead pursues her career.

In terms of television Corenswet is perhaps best known for his work in American Horror Story co-creator Ryan Murphy's drama miniseries Hollywood. In the series, Corenswet plays Jack, a World War II veteran who moves to Hollywood in hopes of becoming an actor. Corenswet is also an executive producer on the series. He also starred in another Murphy series, The Politician where he played River Barkley, Both series are streaming on Netflix.

A Recent Report Suggests Shortlist for Lex Luthor Casting

On Monday, a report by The Hollywood Reporter indicated that a casting decision for Clark Kent/Superman and Lois Lane were imminent, but more than that some news about a shortlist for other roles — notably that of iconic villain Lex Luthor — had emerged. Per the report, once decisions on who will play Clark Kent and Lois Lane are made, Gunn will start the next wave of casting. Among those being considered for Lex Luthor are Alexander and Bill Skarsgard. Hoult has previously been reported to have initially wanted to play Luthor before trying to go for Superman and it's not clear if he would put himself in the running for the Lex Luthor role should he not be chosen for Superman. The report also noted that the film will also be casting other heroes, including members of The Authority.

What Do We Know About Superman: Legacy?

Per DC Studios, Superman: Legacy tells the story of Superman's journey to reconcile his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing as Clark Kent of Smallville, Kansas. He is the embodiment of truth, justice, and the American way, guided by human kindness in a world that sees kindness as old-fashioned.

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"Now that we've kind of done a lot of auditions, we're narrowing it down," Gunn explained in a recent appearance on Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum. "We're not done yet. By the way — there's a lot of stories out there about who we're auditioning and all these screen tests. I'm just saying it's not all true, that's for sure. There's things in there that are completely false, but I can't go out there and say 'Oh this isn't true, and this isn't true' without going through everything. And by the way, it's not the audience's — at this point, I don't think it's the business of anyone who is screen testing for a role. That is a very private thing. Journalists have to do what they have to do. That's their job. They're trying to get hits. They find out some things from agencies, but here's the problem — is that they find out some things from agencies that might be true. They find out other things from agencies, which are agencies pushing their clients and trying to pump it up, like 'I think my client is testing!' There's a lot of nonsense that comes out of it, and that's difficult, because there's people out there that are supposedly testing that aren't, and that must be difficult for them as people. And there's other people that might be testing... and I think it's a private thing between me and them."

Superman: Legacy is set to debut exclusively in theaters on July 11, 2025.


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