Superman: Legacy director James Gunn has taken to Instagram to officially announce Nicholas Hoult's casting as Lex Luthor in the upcoming DCU reboot.
The trades reported that Hoult had landed the role over a week ago, but Gunn, who usually chimes in to confirm any new casting news, was notably silent on social media.
In his post accompanying the announcement, the filmmaker explained that he's only now commenting on Hoult's casting because the deal was just finalised a couple of days ago. He also promised that this latest take on the iconic DC Comics villain will be "different from anything you've seen before."
"Yes, finally I can answer, @nicholashoult is Lex Luthor in #SupermanLegacy and I couldn’t be happier," the GOTG Vol. 3 director wrote. "We went out to dinner last night to celebrate and discuss how we can create a Lex that will be different from anything you’ve seen before and will never forget. “But, James, we heard this weeks ago, why didn’t you tell us it was true?” Because, although we were discussing it, it wasn’t final until a couple days ago and I don’t want to tell you all something that isn’t certain. Anyway, here’s to Lex (and Nicholas!), one of my very favorite characters in the DCU."
Hoult will join David Corenswet as the Man of Steel and Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, along with Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, Edi Gathegi as Mister Terrific, Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern Guy Gardner, and Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho.
More recently, Sara Sampaio signed on to play Lex's assistant/lover Eve Teschmacher, and Skyler Gisondo has been cast as Jimmy Olsen.
Members of the anti-hero team The Authority will also appear, and we recently learned that María Gabriela de Faría (Animal Control) has been cast as Angela Spica/The Engineer.
Supergirl is also rumored to make her debut ahead of her own Woman of Tomorrow movie, but that's yet to be confirmed.
We're still not sure exactly how these other superheroes will factor into the story, but Gunn has previously revealed that Superman's dual-life as both Clark Kent and the Man of Steel will be explored in the film, suggesting that these characters will be his "super friends." Whether they'll be part of an actual team or not remains to be seen.
“Superman: Legacy is the true foundation of our creative vision for the DC Universe. Not only is Superman an iconic part of DC lore, he is also a favorite character for comic book readers, viewers of earlier movies, and fans around the world," said Gunn during the DCU slate announcement. "I can’t wait to introduce our version of Superman who audiences will be able to follow and get to know across films, movies, animation and gaming.”
Production is scheduled to get underway early next year.