In the build-up to Superman's release, two key role were conspicuously absent from the various casting announcements, with director James Gunn doing his best to keep the actors playing the Man of Steel's biological parents under wraps.
Leaks from preview screenings later revealed that Bradley Cooper and Angela Sarafyan has been cast as Jor-El and Lara Lor-Von, but there was a twist involving these characters that did come as a surprise to fans once they were sitting down to watch the movie.
When Lex Luthor gains entry to the Fortress of Solitude, we learn that Clark Kent's parents actually sent him to Earth as a conqueror, and specifically chose the planet because its people are weak and will be easily dominated. There's also the implication that Kal-El should impregnate as many of Earth's women as possible in order to build a "harem" and restart the Kryptonian race.
Luthor uses this information to turn the public against Superman, who is initially under the impression that the message must be fake - as are we. But no, in the DCU, Jor-El and Lara Lor-Von are far from heroic figures that are generally depicted in the comics and all previous adaptations of Superman's origin.
There was speculation that the message Superman's parents sent him to Earth with may still turn out to have been manipulated, but Gunn made it very clear that there will be no retcon during an interview with Rolling Stone earlier this year.
"That’s the whole point of the movie, that Superman thinks he is doing something because it is his destiny and his Kryptonian parents have set him out to do this thing, and along the way he discovers through the love of the people who are actually his parents that he’s doing these things not because of someone else, but because of himself. It’s like taking accountability in the deepest way possible that his morality is not based on some figure outside of himself, but on his own choices. I think it’s really beautiful in that way, and I’m not gonna change that."
"And I don’t really even think of Jor-El and Lara as being totally evil," he added. "They just have this mindset that humans are less than what they are. We’re sea turtles to them. They’re just trying to keep the Kryptonian genes alive."
This plot point proved to be highly divisive, but it did leave the door open for some interesting future storylines involving Jor-El and Lara. Cooper was asked about potentially returning as Jor-El for Man of Tomorrow during a recent interview with Variety, but he completely evaded the question by talking about how much he's been enjoying the second season of Peacemaker.
Standard tactic when an actor has been instructed not to speak about a certain project, but would fans really want to see this take on Jor-El again, anyway? Be sure to share your thoughts in the comments section.