‘Superman: Legacy’ has a front-runner for Lex Luthor, and it’s an actor who flunked their audition for Batman

With James Gunn recently confirming that Superman: Legacy will begin shooting in January of next year, this summer’s San Diego Comic-Con is looking a likely destination for at least one major role to be revealed to the world, if not more.

The DC Studios co-CEO has a penchant for ensuring that nobody spreads misinformation about his current or upcoming projects, which leaves us curious to discover how he’s going to react to a bombshell story from The Hollywood Reporter that comes right out and lists a cavalcade of names said to be in the running for all of the biggest parts.

There’s certainly an interesting and eclectic names among them; a roster that includes Sex Education‘s Emma Mackey and Golden Globe winner Rachel Brosnahan for Lois Lane, along with Jacob Elordi, Tom Brittney, and Andrew Richardson for the Man of Steel himself.

However, the most interesting by far is that Nicholas Hoult has already been positioned as the front-runner for Lex Luthor, something that’s even more delicious when you consider he failed to land the lead role in The Batman after making it to the final two alongside Robert Pattinson.

As a source put it, “The studio has loved him since Fury Road“, so that might parlay into Hoult becoming the latest name to cross the Marvel/DC divide having previously played Hank McCoy in the second batch of X-Men blockbusters. Gunn hasn’t addressed the report head-on as of yet, but if he doesn’t, then it’s a good indication the speculation is right on the money.