The New Superman Trailer Proves James Gunn Has Fixed The DCEU's Lex Luthor Mistake

The first official trailer for Superman has finally dropped, and it looks like the DCU is poised to fix the Lex Luthor mistake committed by the franchise’s predecessor, the DCEU. The latter franchise closed with 2023’s Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which was followed by a year’s reprieve before Creature Commandos kicked off the DCU officially. This show proved that the DCU will not wipe the slate clean entirely, as illustrated by returning characters like Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller and references to previous DCEU installments like The Suicide Squad.

Nevertheless, many of the more mainstream facets of the DCU, like the members of the Justice League, will be brand-new, with David Corenswet stepping into the role of Superman as a fresher-faced version of the character than Henry Cavill. While this has stoked some controversy among diehard fans of Cavill’s portrayal, Superman teasers and trailers have helped to illustrate what Corenswet will bring to the table. A justifiably more unifying new feature of the new Superman, however, is the change to his arch-nemesis, Lex Luthor.

The DCEU’s Version Of Lex Luthor Just Didn’t Work

Jesse Eisenberg Might Have Been The Wrong Choice For The Role

No matter how well Henry Cavill portrayed Superman in Man of Steel and beyond, the DCEU fandom was perhaps more resolutely unified in their distaste for the DCEU’s Lex Luthor. While this isn’t a slight on Jesse Eisenberg – a fantastic actor in his own right – he was still perhaps one of the most egregious miscasts of the entire DCEU. Eisenberg’s typically frenetic style was on full display, essentially reinventing the character and turning him into more of an exuberant prodigy than a cold and calculating genius.

Jesse Eisenberg recently commented on the Armchair Expert with Dax Shepherd podcast about his Lex Luthor role being so poorly received, stating that he felt it might have hurt its career due to how public it was.

It isn’t unusual for comic book adaptations to take some creative liberties, and the DCEU was rife with them. Foregoing Batman’s no-killing rule was a particularly controversial example, and it’s safe to say that flipping Lex Luthor’s characterization on its head, even by replacing his iconic bald look with a mop of curly hair, stoked similar controversy. While a more comic-accurate version of Luthor would emerge in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, this would prove to be too little, too late. Thankfully, the DCU doesn’t appear to be making similar moves.

James Gunn’s Superman Is Showing Us A Lex Luthor Straight From The Comics

Lex Luthor Looks Cold And Calculating

Nicholas Hoult is portraying Lex Luthor in Superman. While he had very little to say (if anything at all) in the previous two Superman teasers, the latest Superman trailer gives us greater insight into his characterization through a few speaking lines. Off the bat, Superman‘s Lex Luthor looks the part, but Hoult conveys a far colder personality in just a few seconds of screen time that flies in the face of Eisenberg’s more chaotic portrayal. In DC Comics, Lex Luthor is characterized as far more sinister than Eisenberg’s interpretation.

His confident stride into the Fortress of Solitude while super-powered attendants dispatch Superman’s robots is a particularly striking example of this. He is additionally seen to be decrying the fact that Superman is “the focal point of the entire world’s conversation,” hinting at his distaste for the Man of Steel’s fame outshining his own. The fact that Superman will sidestep the origin stories of both Superman and Lex Luthor should additionally help to debut Lex Luthor at his most comic-accurate, while the story the movie looks set to adapt feels particularly compelling.

Is Superman Even Riffing On Lex Luthor’s Best Stories?

The Trailer Hints That Lex Luthor Is The President

There is an interesting moment in the Superman trailer that has raised a significant question about Lex Luthor’s current position. While his towering “LutherCorp” skyscraper shows that his corporation is already well-established, Luthor is additionally depicted on-screen just as Lois Lane mentions “the President” in her interview with Superman, suggesting that Lex Luthor is the president. This would certainly add a compelling layer to the dynamic between him and Superman, who is seen to be causing friction by intervening in a war without government approval.

This would also mirror a story from DC Comics. Lex Luthor becomes the President of the United States in the Lex 2000 run of comics, where he uses the office to undermine and ultimately attempt to defeat Superman. This is ultimately to no avail, though there are other universes in the DC mythos where Lex Luthor successfully uses the office to defeat his nemesis. Whatever the case, if Lex Luthor is not already president in Superman, his apparent sway over other superpowered individuals in the trailer certainly suggests that he is acting from a position of authority that could develop within the DCU.