With Lex Luthor (Michael Cudlitz) finally coming to Superman & Lois next week, it’s going to put this season’s big bad, Bruno Mannheim, in a weird spot. After all, he and Lex have quite a bit in common — so much so, that you can even see LexCorp Tower from the swank penthouse out of which Bruno operates his criminal empire. That said, the pair have very different priorities and goals, and it’s not impossible that when Lex finds his way into Lois, Clark, and Bruno’s circle, it will throw things further into chaos than they already are.
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During a recent conversation with Chad Coleman, the The Walking Dead veteran who plays Bruno, we asked him about the similarities and differences between himself and Lex Luthor. He had a fairly nuanced take, and promised us that while Lex is an evil guy who thinks he’s right, Coleman sees Bruno as operating in shades of gray. He admitted that it was exciting to get to play off the idea of Lex, and create a new kind of genius opponent for Superman.
“There’s also the personal link with Michael Cudlitz and myself and having the ships passed in the night on The Walking Dead,” Coleman told ComicBook.com. “So it’s great to have him over here, and he’s just got chew up the scenery with that role. So it’s awesome.”
While Lex’s hatred of Superman is built, in no small part, on the insecurity that comes with not being the most powerful person in the room for once, Coleman says that an important aspect of Bruno is a feeling that Superman isn’t actually “above” him at all.
“Myself and the showrunners, we talked. We had long conversation, and they went, ‘You meet him. You are as formidable as he is, and there’s nothing about him that intimidates you at all. And you meet him eye-to-eye. And based on where you come from and what you’ve had to endure, where your family and community have had to endure, you have every right to speak your peace to this man and deal with he and Lois,’” Coleman explained. “And all of the sociopolitical implications were perfect, with a man of color playing the role as well. And it pops. I think it pops, and I think they always said, ‘You always want to have them saying, he has a point. He’s making sense. He’s not some lunatic. He could very well be a politician. He could run for office, damn it!’ That’s how put together he is.”
“I love that. But I also know at the heart of it, he is a family man and he loves his community,” Coleman added. “People always want to judge, but there’s a lot of gray and a lot of people who are fully accepted in the world, and I’m sure you can name them all very easy. So could I. I love the gray. It’s beautiful complexity. But the heart of the man is the love of his wife and his son and his community. That resonates for sure. And the judgment of Lois and Superman — he feels that, and that does not sit well with him because he feels, ‘Who are you to judge me?’”
Superman & Lois airs on Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.
