Metropolis may have more scandal than meets the eye. ComicBook recently sat down with the cast of Superman and got quite the lesson in Perry White lore. White, the iconic editor-in-chief at The Daily Planet, is being played by veteran actor Wendell Pierce, known for his roles on The Wire, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, and Elsbeth. When asked which DC character he’d like to appear on screen with in the future, Pierce had an immediate answer: Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor. His reason why? It all has to do with a 35-year-old love triangle in the comics that Pierce discovered when he was researching to play The Daily Planet‘s head honcho.
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“The one thing I learned being outside the world, not knowing about the world, and then researching the world, is Lex Luthor had an affair with my wife.” Pierce shared. “And my second son may be his. So I have a bone to pick with him.”
Pierce is referring to an arc that transpired in the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths era of Superman. In The World of Metropolis #1 (August 1988), Perry’s White wife, Alice, had a fling with none of than Lex Luthor. She wasn’t intentionally cheating on him — Perry was away serving in the Army overseas, and Alice believed he was dead. However, when White returned from his service, Alice married him and the baby boy she gave birth to, Jerry, was considered to be legitimate. The truth ultimately came to light in Superman (Volume 2) #47 in October 1990. Jerry, along with Jimmy Olsen, got mixed up with the crime organization called Intergang. A gunshot wound from one of the criminals sent Jerry to the hospital. When Lex Luthor showed up alongside Perry and Alice to check on Jerry’s recovery, Perry, along with readers, learned that Jerry was, indeed, Lex’s son, and not his.
A smackdown between Pierce’s Perry White and Hoult’s Lex Luthor, especially over something as scandalous as an illicit affair and lovechild, would be thrilling to watch. However, to make it work in the current DC Universe, co-chairman and Superman writer/director James Gunn would have to work some of his storytelling magic to make such a rivalry feasible. In the comics, Lex’s affair with Alice worked because they were approximately the same age, whereas there’s a 26-year age gap between Pierce and Hoult. Luthor would have had to be a very young man indeed when seducing Alice, and Gunn would likely have Jerry be younger rather than a contemporary of Jimmy Olsen’s for the dynamic to work.
Even so, a secret affair and son would add an enthralling layer to Hoult’s already complex portrayal of Lex Luthor in Superman, as well as give him even more reason to hate The Daily Planet and those who work there. Furthermore, as Pierce said, it would not only give him a reason to act opposite Hoult in a future DC Universe project, but also give both actors something compelling and deeply personal to fight over beyond what to print in the Planet‘s latest edition.
Superman hits theaters July 11th.
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