Lobo is an interesting character for DC. One of the most popular characters to come out of the 1990s, he was created by Keith Giffen in a 1983 issue of Omega Men, but didn’t really come into his own until his villainous persona was reinvented as an extreme ’90s antihero. As a cosmic bounty hunter, the Main Man clashed with Superman more than once, but also had to work with the Man of Steel on a few occasions. This, along with James Gunn’s Mastodon post featuring the character, has led some fans to wonder whether Lobo might appear in the upcoming Superman movie from Gunn.
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Lobo is best known as a stand-alone character, and his best stories are the ones that satirized the excesses of ’90s comics by dialing them up not to 11, but to 33. That said, he has had plenty of memorable interactions with Superman — so much so that in recent years, attempts to revitalize Lobo have often brought him back into the Superman mythology.
Emmett J. Scanlan, who previously played roles on Constantine and in Guardians of the Galaxy, was tapped to play Lobo on Krypton, Syfy’s short-lived and critically-acclaimed Superman prequel series. In it, Lobo found himself in an antagonistic alliance with Adam Strange (Shaun Sipos) and Superman’s grandfather, Seg-El (Cameron Cuffe).
Not long after that, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment’s DC Universe line of animated feature films rebooted their line. The first outing? Superman: The Man of Tomorrow, which pitted a younger version of the hero (Darren Criss) against Lobo (Ryan Hurst).
As a cosmic bounty hunter, inserting Lobo into a Superman movie would be pretty easy: for some reason or another, someone — another villain, probably, to set up for a sequel — wants Superman either taken down or brought to them. Lobo is hired for the job, and hilarity ensues.
Because Lobo enjoyed a brief run as one of DC’s biggest names in the ’90s, there have been a number of actors who know the character, and have expressed an interest in playing him. Jason Momoa is near the top of that list, especially after a report emerged earlier this month that suggested he could leave the role of Aquaman behind and instead become Lobo.
“The only one I want to play is DC and Lobo. He’s badass,” Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan said a couple of years ago. “Lobo would be very cool. I don’t think that I’m as big as Lobo is, but if you could transplant Mickey Rourke’s body on my head, that would be just great.”
And more recently, Gotham actor Todd Stashwick posted a photo of himself smoking a cigar, juxtaposed with one of Lobo doing it, on social media.
At this point, all of the Lobo speculation (and virtually all other speculation, except that Gunn is writing a Superman movie for a new actor) is just that — speculation. Still, it seems like Lobo is a character whose name keeps coming up — and he’s one that has been closely associated with Superman for years now. Only time will tell if it could actually happen.
