Nicholas Hoult reveals that his Lex Luthor in Superman will have to be ruthless in order to outmaneuver the Man of Steel in the new DC movie. After fans got to witness the first trailer for James Gunn’s new Superman movie, there will be plenty of questions about Superman’s arch-enemy, Lex Luthor. Nicholas Hoult is the latest actor to step into the role of Lex Luthor, but he is more than up for the challenge. According to Hoult, Lex Luthor will have to bring everything at his disposal to match wits with someone the power level of Superman.
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ComicBook was on hand for a general Q&A held on the Warner Bros. lot after the Superman trailer premiere, where Nicholas Hoult gave new insight into his portrayal of Lex Luthor. “The thing about this Lex, I think that was most exciting to me was being in a James Gunn universe. Like you said, so emotionally raw and powerful, but huge in the scope of the world and what he’s creating.”
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He then spoke about how “ruthless” Lex will have to be to stay one step ahead of the Man of Steel, and how some fans will understand Lex’s thought process of believing he’s better for the world than Superman. “And I think with this Lex, I mean, obviously he’s smart and ruthless and he has to outmaneuver Superman on certain levels because he can’t match him in others,” he said. “But there’s also something about this character, hopefully from my standpoint, where even though you perhaps don’t agree with his process, there’s an element where you can understand on some levels where he’s coming from and why perhaps what he’s pushing as his ideology is perhaps better for humanity.”
It’s been almost exactly a year since Nicholas Hoult was confirmed to be playing Lex Luthor in Superman. Director James Gunn has never shied away from debunking or confirming speculative news on social media, confirmed Hoult’s casting in November 2023 by posing in a photo with the actor.
“Yes, finally I can answer, @nicholashoult is Lex Luthor in #SupermanLegacy and I couldn’t be happier,” Gunn wrote on Instagram. “We went out to dinner last night to celebrate and discuss how we can create a Lex that will be different from anything you’ve seen before and will never forget. “But, James, we heard this weeks ago, why didn’t you tell us it was true?” Because, although we were discussing it, it wasn’t final until a couple days ago and I don’t want to tell you all something that isn’t certain. Anyway, here’s to Lex (and Nicholas!), one of my very favorite characters in the DCU.”
Comics inspirations for Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor in Superman
With Superman being such a popular property, there have been a bevy of interpretations for Superman characters across comics, movies, TV shows, and animation. Back in November, Hoult talked about pulling pieces from many of those iconic versions. “It’s about I think you take from all the previous interpretations of the character and the comics and you build upon it. That’s the fun thing in like movies and comics and kind of all media in a sense is the history of all of it. It’s all kind of a building amalgamation of it,” Hoult said on the Happy Sad Confused podcast.
He also spoke about some of his Lex comic inspirations. “There’s so many and James [Gunn] has already spoken about quite a few that influence obviously the overall film and All-Star Superman, and there’s little things that you draw from each, Birthright and all those all those comics,” Hoult said. “But the one that I really rang…and I read a lot, but the one that I found myself picking up again a lot was Lex Luthor: Man of Steel. There was a lot in that just resonated with me.”
Superman is the first movie in DC Studios’ new DC Universe. Directed by James Gunn, Superman stars David Corenswet as Clark Kent / Superman, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor. Other DC heroes fans can expect to see include Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi), Green Lanter Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan), Authority’s Angela Spica / Engineer (María Gabriela de Faría), and Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo).
DC Studios’ Superman soars into theaters July 11, 2025.
