Jesse Eisenberg first played Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, though he'd later return in Justice League's post-credits scene to tease forming the Injustice League alongside Deathstroke. In Zack Snyder's Justice League, we'd learn that the original plan was for the villain to reveal Batman's secret identity to Slade Wilson, thereby setting the stage for The Batman.
It seems likely that Lex would have factored into Ben Affleck's movie in some way, but with that no longer happening, we may never know for sure. However, when we were recently fortunate enough to speak with Jesse about his new movie Wild Indian (which is now playing in theaters), we asked about a possible return as the iconic Superman villain and if he was aware of original future plans.
You can check out what the Justice League star had to tell us in the video below (at the 12:18 mark).
On another note, a role that’s followed you for the past few years now is Lex Luthor. Zack Snyder’s Justice League came out earlier this year and we got to see a slightly different take on that scene with Deathstroke, but do you view Luthor as a character that’s behind you now, or that you could return to one day?
Umm… [Laughs] I’m probably the last person to know the answer to that question because I don’t know how they make those decisions. You know, my background is in theatre where you do a play 200 times and you feel like you’re just getting the hang of it by the last performance. I would love to play any character again. After a movie ends, the actors usually turn to each other and say, ‘Oh, now I finally know what I’m doing and I understand what my purpose [was].' Actors, in my experience, do like playing roles again but that particular one is just not up to me. I’m sure I could do a one-man show somewhere but no one would, you know…
[Laughs] I think I asked you a similar question two years ago and you might have said the same thing, and it is a shame nothing has moved forward because in that Snyder Cut, it felt like it was teasing Lex for The Batman, a movie that isn’t happening with Ben Affleck. It feels like there were big plans for him moving forward, but I guess it’s just one of those things as an actor?
Oh, yeah. Yeah, of course. Also, if there were [plans], I didn’t know about them. Otherwise, I’d have some great material, but I didn’t know about it!
Unfortunately, we're guessing that Jesse's time as Lex has indeed reached its end, which is a shame when we know that Snyder once had huge plans for him in the DCEU (we didn't get a chance to ask about those Justice League storyboards, but we doubt they were ever shared with the cast without scripts).
He's busy with plenty of other projects, though, including this movie and his own directorial debut in When You Finish Saving the World. Check back here soon for more on that and Wild Indian.