As 'Superman: Legacy' Frontrunners Are Explored, James Gunn Teases A New Character
The film's director an DC Studios co-CEO is always ready to clarify or clap back at rumors
With writing at a standstill due to the strike, attention turns to casting as James Gunn’s Superman: Legacy hits that stage. According to The Hollywood Reporter, lists of frontrunners for the film’s major roles have surfaced, namely Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and Lex Luthor.
David Corenswet, who recently starred in Pearl opposite Mia Goth, is among the top contenders to play Kent, aka Superman. There are two other contenders who may also be in the mix but they have not been revealed. They advance to the screen test stage likely happening after Memorial Day or early June. Euphoria’s Jacob Elordi had his name surface for the role but he hasn’t actually shown any interest. British actors Tom Brittney and Andrew Richardson were also eyed early on.
As for Lois, well known as a reporter at the Metropolis’ Daily Planet, the names that have popped up have been Emma Mackey from Netflix’s Sex Education and the upcoming Barbie movie also from Warner Bros.; Rachel Brosnahan, Emmy-winner for Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel who reportedly delivered an “outstanding” audition; Younger and Bridgerton actress Phoebe Dynevor; and Ready or Not’s Samara Weaving, recently seen in Babylon and Scream VI. It is unclear who is advancing on to the testing stage. At 32, Brosnahan may be considered in the older range for the mid-20s-aged Clark and his peers Gunn is going for with his approach.
With Lex, it seems Nicholas Hoult is the only actor being aggressively considered. Currently seen in Renfield with Nicolas Cage, the 33-year-old actor has extensive comic book movie experience, having played the X-Men’s Hank McCoy, aka Beast, in the First Class to Dark Phoenix portion of the film series. Hoult’s name has come up around Legacy for several weeks. Some thought he was even up for Superman. The studio has been fond of him since playing Nux in 2015’s Mad Max Fury Road, trying their darnedest to get him somewhere, nearly cast in the role of Bruce Wayne and Batman in The Batman, which went to Robert Pattinson. Lex probably in a more grounded stage of his life before his animosity gets the best of him and the bigger stories come in, after the DCEU squandered its patience it had not introducing him right away.
Sources say the movie will be filled with many faces as it will look to bring in DC heroes that have already been active when Legacy is set. The film is the first to be wholly part of DC Studios’s new DC Universe under Gunn and Peter Safran, in its first chapter “Gods and Monsters”. Gunn, who is writing and directing the film, caught wind of the report, reminding people it’s just the audition stage. He stated “I would never comment on who is or isn’t AUDITIONING for a role. That’s the actor’s business only & isn’t something I’d make public unless they did it first after the fact.” He pointed to Glenn Howerton and Zachary Levi as examples, as they were auditioners for Star-Lord and stated so themselves. He did state however there’s been one character cast so far, and it’s not “any of the regular players in the Superman world”. Whether that’s a wholly new character or one rooted in another character’s world is unclear, though the use of a merman emoji may curry some favor.
