‘If there were a Lex Luthor’: James Gunn refuses to confirm the villain of ‘Superman: Legacy’

James Gunn is mum about the antagonist of his new film Superman: Legacy, but he pledges that every canonical character he uses will at least be emotionally grounded.

In a recent interview on actor Michael Rosenbaum’s Inside of You podcast, the writer, director, and DC co-boss skirted questions about whether Lex Luthor will take part in the reboot. The issue is obviously of great concern to host Rosenbaum, who portrayed a young Lex Luthor on Smallville for the better part of 10 seasons.

Rosenbaum began his line of questioning with, “There’ll be a Lex Luthor, right?” After a long pause from Gunn, Rosenbaum clarified, “Isn’t that already known?” Gunn responded that while “everyone thinks” there’s a Lex Luthor in the movie, he has never actually confirmed that. Rosenbaum then said, “If there were a Lex Luthor … promise me … he’ll have gravitas. … He’ll be Lex Luthor. He won’t … be goofy … or crazy! He’s going to be something that’s grounded and real.”

Gunn confirmed as much, saying that “everything” in his Superman: Legacy script is “grounded and real.” The filmmaker also engaged in some heavy flattery, calling Rosenbaum “the best Lex Luthor” that has ever graced the screen. Hold up there: Rosenbaum is definitely the best-developed Lex we’ve seen, given the number of episodes the Smallville writers had to flesh him out. But are we ready to throw the great Gene Hackman under the bus like that?

As Luthor, Hackman oozed condescension and sleazeball charm every second he was on screen. He absolutely owned the room, even when sharing space with Christopher Reeve — which is all the more impressive given that Lex doesn’t show up until almost halfway through the original Superman film and plays an adjunct villain in the first sequel. (Superman IV: The Quest for Peace barely exists, so we’re not considering that.)

That’s no slight against Rosenbaum, who terrifically embodied a more complex version of the villain on television. We’re just surprised Gunn gave the host those props when we know for a fact the Guardians of the Galaxy director considers Superman: The Movie one of the best comic book films of all time.

No one mentioned any other Luthors, including Jesse Eisenberg’s twitchy take on the villain in Batman V Superman. But something tells us that when Rosenbaum screamed the word “crazy” as something Gunn should avoid in his movie, Eisenberg is exactly who he was talking about.