Titus Welliver, the Bosch and Deadwood star who has also appeared on Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD and Castlevania, has been cast in the role of Lex Luthor on Titans. The actor, according to the EW story, is actually a big DC fan, who has been waiting for a call like this for years. This is as good a time as any for him to play the role, considering that the series’ upcoming fourth season will deal with the revelation that Superboy was cloned in part from Luthor’s DNA, a twist introduced in the comics from by writer Geoff Johns.
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Superboy will be dealing with that reality throughout the season, and while it’s unlikely we’ll get to see the other half of his DNA matrix (after all, there are already two different live-action Supermen currently in action), Lex is making his first DC TV appearance since the end of Supergirl, The CW series which starred Superman IV: The Quest For Peace star Jon Cryer in the role.
“You usually have to do this whole dog-and-pony show to get an actor to do the show,” showrunner Greg Walker told Entertainment Weekly. “But when I called to kind of lure him in, I could barely get a word in. We were talking on the phone and he was just walking through his library, telling me about all his Wolfman/Perez Titans editions. He’s a giant, giant fan. He’d watched every episode of the show, and could tell me about certain stories, certain shots. It was the most unexpected call I’ve ever had.”
You can see a first look at Welliver in the role below.
Bosch is one of the longest-running hits from Prime Video, who recently made Titans star Alan Ritchson a household name with their mega-hit Reacher, based on the books by Lee Child.
“He has a very sensitive, thoughtful approach to evil and power,” Walker said of Luthor. “You know what he’s done, what he’s capable of doing, except like many of those people, he’s personable. He doesn’t have a cat on his lap….He’s curious, which I think is very interesting about his character. He wants to know about people and what makes them tick, and how they’re different from him. He sees the world through the lens both of his own power and his own inadequacy, and tries to compensate for both.”
Titans season 4 premieres in November on HBO Max.
