James Gunn just came right out and said who the new Superman is going to be in Superman Legacy, so we’ll break it all down. He also announced the new Lois Lane. They’re still casting Lex Luthor right now, but we do have a pretty close idea about who it’s going to be, and there are a couple of really solid picks that they’re looking at.
The whole idea with this version of Superman is that he’s meant to be kind of like an early Superman, Superman Year 2. The same way they did Robert Pattinson‘s Batman as Batman year 2. Superman Legacy will not be an origin story but very early in his day as the character, very early after he started to wear the cape.
Obviously, I’ll be doing articles for Superman Legacy as we get more news about the movie and what’s happening with James Gunn’s new rebooted DCU, the DC movies.
David Corenswet Is The New Superman
But the big news that you probably literally just saw in your feeds the last couple of minutes is that David Corenswet is going to be the next Superman in Superman Legacy. He’s been my number-one pick for the last couple of months while they announced that this was going to happen.
Once James Gunn announced that he was going to recast Henry Cavill with a new version of Superman, everybody was looking at David Corenswet. But there were a couple of other people on the list, but for the most part, he looked and felt like the part. And a big part of that is actually a bit of a change from Henry Cavill’s Superman is how much more they’re leaning on the Clark Kent side of the character.
There was some Clark Kent that we saw from Henry Cavill. But for the most part, you saw him as Superman in the Snyder Versus movies like Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, and in the Justice League Snyder cut.
Getting into David Corenswet as Superman. I think this follows in the noble tradition of Christopher Reeve, Brandon Routh, and even Henry Cavill in that it is a mostly unknown yes. Christopher Reeve had worked before, yes. Henry Cavill had some great credits, and yes, Brandon Routh had been someone people wanted because of the look, but largely they were unknown personalities to the overall population in a really beautiful way.
I think what makes Superman work is you see yourself in him. And that’s what humanizes him. This is an alien, this is a God, this is an all-powerful entity, but you need to connect with Superman, and I think the unknown is the best way to do that.
Because when you’re associating a lot of his previous movie or TV Show work, you’re going to go, “Ohh, I think of him as blank,” or “Ohh, this is familiar to me because of this experience,” or “Ohh this and this.” Blank slates are a beautiful open source of man. That’s Superman; this is iconic Superman.
David Corenswet And Not Nicolas Holt?
James Gunn even said that he completely relates with Superman because the guy is everything he is. Superman is somebody who is totally an outsider among humans who feels like an alien, but he is also the ultimate insider among people because he’s Superman.
This is our director and writer connecting to Superman. And I think if you’ve got too much baggage, you got too much past tense association, you’re not going to feel that with a character. I really love Nicholas Holt. I really was, actually, honestly gunning for Nicholas Holt as Superman because I like the guy. And because he’s been almost Batman, he’s been almost Superman. It’s just kind of like Henry Cavill.
Henry Cavill was almost James Bond, like he’s almost been a lot. So I was really pulling for him, but I honestly, I’ll totally own it; I would have seen him as a war boy from Mad Max. I would have thought of him as not necessarily Beast from the X-Men, but certain other roles of his, and I would have thought that the whole time.
David Corenswet, I don’t know, and I love that. And it’s a beautiful tradition of what Superman is. This, I think, is going to connect us to Superman. This, I think, is the right casting call. The guy looks like Clark Kent and Superman, and I’m very excited about it. So this is an Aces win for me, and I love James Gunn’s casting.
But doesn’t David look like he could be Henry Cavill’s younger brother? So when Henry Cavill said that he was not going to be Superman anymore, but there were talks about him possibly coming back in the future, maybe for like a Crisis on Infinite Earth movie, they could also bring him back as just the older version of David Corenswet’s Superman. And I don’t think they’re gonna plan to do that anytime soon. It’s still going to be many years before James Gunn works up to the end of his DC Phase One, which is called DC chapter one.
Rachel Brosnahan Is The New Louis Lane
Let’s go over to Rachel Brosnahan now. Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane is, I think, pitch-perfect. Because there’s a certain intellectualism that I want Lois Lane to always have, and I think the way she handles Amy Sherman Palladino’s dialogue is exactly that. There’s a linguistic ability that when you’re a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, you probably have, and you can handle language.
Amy Sherman Palladino writes like Aaron Sorkin. She’s got the Shakespearean flavor that is so hard to deliver, that is so hard to wrap your brain and then mouth around that. She just does and does so well that I honestly think the beauty of the simple boy from Kansas and Smallville juxtaposed with the powerhouse that is Rachel Brosnahan, a city girl from Metropolis, is going to sing.
I also think of Rachel Brosnahan as a little older than I see David Corenswet. But I kind of like that dynamic because there’s a more authoritative Lois Lane to Superman being this innocent Boy Scout. I think that juxtaposition is also gonna really tie in with this character. And I think that when I think of Rachel Brosnahan, the first thing I think is capable, then I think intelligent, then I think well-spoken. These are all things I would describe Lois Lane as.
I think Lois Lane is maybe the most important casting in the DCU. Because you’ve got expectations of Batman, you’ve got expectations of Superman, but Superman doesn’t work without Lois because that’s the anchor to his humanity in so many ways, along with Jimmy, along with the Daily Planet.
But I think of the love that Superman has for Lois when he is pushed up against the wall. He always has that. When he’s doubting himself for doubting humanity, he always has Lois. So Lois, I feel like is this sleeper Ace in the hole of casting. I think Rachel Brosnahan is really going to embody that, and I think it was really important.
Superman And Lois Lane Runner Up
Now if you look at the other names, we had Thomas Britney and Nicholas Holt for Superman. I mentioned Nicolas Holt already. But I didn’t know Tom Britney that well. We had Emma McKay and Phoebe Dynevor for Lois Lane. I did not know these two at all, but their look was so good. I’ve seen a little bit of Emma Mckay’s work, but I don’t know their work that well.
But I think that when you look at all of this casting, you’ve got this beautiful innocence in all four of them in their own way. I know that James Gunn had said he wanted Superman to be someone that you want to hug, someone that’s approachable. I think all three of these names absolutely represent that.
But I think Emma McKay, Phoebe, and Rachel Brosnahan are all very strong, well-spoken, capable actresses that are leading ladies. I want Lois Lane to be a leading role in this film to the point where I want scenes where it’s like, “Man, Superman’s also here.” And I think that’s what we’re gonna get with Rachel Brosnahan.
So both of these castings, I think, are absolutely genius. I’m excited to dive into more as soon as we have any examples. But let’s kick it over to Lex.
One Of The Skarsgard Brothers As Lex Luthor?
Lex Luthor is a bit of an unknown because this might be, I’m gonna stress that might be, one of the Skarsgard. That has been the rumor. A lot of the rumors have come true. David Corenswet has been rumored for months. Rachel Brosnahan had been rumored for a month. So clearly, the leaks are coming from somewhere that’s credible.
The rumor is Bill Skarsgard is up against his own brother, Alexander Skarsgard, for the role of Lex Luthor. I love this because, one, it mirrors the Thor Hemsworth situation where Liam Hemsworth was basically up for it until Chris Hemsworth came back, and then it worked out that Chris Hemsworth got the role. Brothers at odds for superhero legacy is it’s a very interesting thing.
But with Lex Luthor, I can see both of them being cold and calculating but impossibly likable, which is Lex Luthor. I’ve been watching all the DC animated universe films, all of them in all the universes, and one thing I am enjoying is how fascinatingly endearing Lex Luther is, and that’s the Skarsgard.
Even as Pennywise, Bill Skarsgard is like, “Why do I want to know more about him? You shouldn’t. He’s terrifying”. And Alexander Skarsgard always has that energy. The Northman is one of the most slept-on movies, I think, in the last five years. Because this brutal Viking of pure violence is so captivating and interesting, and that’s what he always plays. Whether he’s Tarzan, whether he’s like a Rom-Com lead, or whether he’s literally a Viking warrior, he is always fascinating.
Brother Vs. Brother
So both Bill or Alexander, I could either see, and personally, I see a bit of a bigger Lex Luthor. I’ve always seen him as kind of a physically capable man. I’d love to see either Bill get jacked like his brother or Alexander Skarsgard just says jacked. I’ll love Alex playing Alex just for fun linguistics, and Alexander Skarsgard is Lex Luther is a good time.
So either Skarsgard and make me very happy. I love the playfulness of brothers going against each other. They also seem like they really like, trust, love, and respect each other. Their dad, Stellan Skarsgard, is also a big actor, so I don’t feel like they’ll be like problems at Thanksgiving if one of them gets cast and the other doesn’t. I feel like they’re a loving family.
So I think Skarsgard for this is absolutely delightful. I hope that rumor is true, but it has not been confirmed. James Gunn has only confirmed David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan. He has not even mentioned Lex Luther, but now that that’s been announced, I imagine this would come out any day now.
Superman Is The Mask Clark Kent Wears
James Gunn also talked a little bit about what Superman as a character meant to him and how fundamentally how he viewed the character. And it sounds like he really does understand the dichotomy between Clark Kent and Superman because a lot of people talk about this when they’re talking about the differences between Batman and Superman.
When you’re talking about the Batman character, the whole idea is that Batman is who he really is. Bruce Wayne is the mask that he puts on when he’s out in public, he pretends to be Bruce Wayne, and he really is Batman. Whereas with Superman, it’s reversed. Clark Kent is who he really is when he’s just walking around being normal, and Superman is the mask that he puts on.
Even though there was some humor in Henry Cavill’s version of Superman, I do feel like that was a much more serious, much more grounded version of Superman, and that was the whole point.
One of the big differences with James Gunn’s Superman Legacy movie is that when the events of the movie pick up, superheroes will already exist as metahumans will already exist in the world. Whereas during the Man of Steel movie, it was sort of like an introduction to the whole concept of aliens, like “Oh my God, aliens are real.” Then you started to see all these metahumans proliferate the rest of the Justice League characters with powers.
One of the other big details about Superman Legacy is supposed, The Authority group is going to show up during this. This group would have already existed during the events of the movie because James got said they were going to do a movie based on the Authority for those of you that wanted to see those characters in live action.
Also Read: DC Chapter 1 Gods And Monsters Explained: All The New Announced DC Movies And TV Shows
