The perfect villain for the upcoming sequel to James Gunn’s Superman has already been set up for the DC Universe, and they’ve never been seen in a live-action movie before. As the first feature film and the first live-action project in the rebooted DCU, Superman laid the foundations for some very exciting storylines in the new franchise’s future. As well as introducing David Corenswet as Clark Kent, Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor, the members of the Justice Gang, and more, Superman also debuted a character who could transform into one of DC’s most significant and notable villains.
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In September, James Gunn confirmed that Superman and Lex Luthor’s story will be continuing in Man of Tomorrow, an indirect sequel scheduled to hit theaters on July 9, 2027. Gunn has revealed that Clark and Lex will be pitted against “a bigger threat,” spurring speculation about which villain the unlikely partnership will fight. While Brainiac has been a popular choice for Man of Tomorrow’s villain, there is another brilliant candidate that has already been established in Superman.
2025’s Superman May Have Already Told Us Bizarro’s Origin Story
Some theories have suggested that Bizarro would make for the best villain in Man of Tomorrow, and Superman might have already told us this antagonist’s origin story in the DCU. Several versions of Bizarro appeared in DC Comics, first appearing in 1958’s Superboy #68 as a clone of the young Clark Kent. The more-prominent version of Bizarro was created by Lex Luthor, who used a Duplicator Ray to create an imperfect and defective clone of Superman in 1959’s Action Comics #254, just like Hoult’s Lex Luthor did in James Gunn’s Superman.
David Corenswet played Clark Kent’s clone in Superman as well as the titular superhero himself. The clone – simple-minded and cumbersome – harbored many of the same gifts as Superman, but was completely under the control of Lex Luthor. Luthor dressed the clone in various costumes to masquerade as the Hammer of Boravia and Ultraman, but Krypto destroyed Luthor’s cameras broke his connection to the clone. This ultimately allowed Superman to defeat his clone by throwing him into a black hole that threatened to tear apart Metropolis, but we didn’t actually see this clone’s death.
One popular theory has suggested that the clone of Clark Kent didn’t actually die in Superman, but could have just been sent to another world on the other side of the black hole. Bizarro and Bizarro Lois Lane create their own world in DC Comics, Htrae, which takes the form of a giant cube. The appearance of cubes in Lex Luthor’s pocket dimension in Superman reinforces theories that the clone will establish his cube-like world after being thrown into the black hole, which could set him up as the perfect villain for Man of Tomorrow.
Why Bizarro Would Be Perfect For the DCU’s Man of Tomorrow
James Gunn has confirmed that Clark Kent and Lex Luthor will be teaming up in Man of Tomorrow to take on an even bigger threat. Bringing these two enemies together right now seems almost impossible, so the DCU will need to introduce a villain that has good reason to oppose them both. Superman’s clone returning as Bizarro would fit this brief perfectly. Lex Luthor created him from a strand of Superman’s hair, and manipulated and controlled him for a long time, while Clark Kent himself pushed the villain into a black hole, seemingly killing him.
Bizarro would have beef with both Superman and Lex Luthor, and he could return with even more power if he’s spent some time amassing a following on his own world and acquiring more intelligence and strength. It would make sense for Superman and Lex Luthor to team up to take on Bizarro, but he might not be a big enough threat to carry the entirety of Man of Tomorrow. This leaves the door open for other DCU villains to be introduced, perhaps Brainiac, or antagonists from Peacemaker season 2’s twisted Earth X, but we’ll have to wait until July 2027 to learn who Superman and Lex Luthor will be facing next in the DCU.
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Image courtesy of 2th Century Studios -
image courtesy of 20th Century Studios
