Dave Bautista has put the cat amongst the pigeons on social media, with him responding to a fancast of him as Lex Luthor as the world waits with bated breath for James Gunn’s first slate.
Stand-up comedian and comic book pundit Chris Killian gave out what seemed at first like a major hot take. Out of almost nowhere with no previous discussion like it, Killian expressed his interest in seeing Bautista play Superman’s greatest foe in Lex. Given Bautista has arguably been typecast as a muscular man mountain himbo-type, it’s far from the roles he’s most famous for.
Intriguingly, Batista has responded to this fan cast and admits he can’t get his head off such an idea. The most popular fancasts for Bautista in Gunn’s DC universe had been as the likes of Bane (for fairly obvious reasons), although this fancast in particular would really switch it up.
Bautista, if he did indeed get into serious discussions to play Luthor and got cast, would join a ragtag group of actors to have taken on the role. Gene Hackman was the first actor to take on the role in a big release, following the Christopher Reeve Superman quadrilogy.
Then came the one nobody wants to talk about in Kevin Spacey for Superman Returns — which was also directed by someone nobody wants to talk about. Jesse Eisenberg was the next to take the gig, with him giving it a Mark Zuckerberg-esque vibe for Batman v. Superman. Which nobody wants to talk about.
Perhaps Bautista is the right man to reinvigorate the character. Something completely new with an actor at the top of his game seems the right choice.
