The New Lex Luthor

I was having a good day. A very good day. And then this happened.

Now until now I've been really really excited for Man of Steel 2. Sure, I had my doubts about Ben Affleck being Batman but if you've seen my post about that, you'll know I'm cool with it. I'm waiting for it to happen. I'm also warming up to the idea very much so I'm cool with that news now.

And then there was the news about Gal Gadot.

Gal Gadot being Wonder Woman is sort of a situation where I don't know anything about her and I'm putting a lot of faith into the casting decisions of Zack Snyder.

Also the reason I didn't get too mad about Gal Gadot being Wonder Woman is because I hope she's not a huge role in a movie about Batman and Superman.

Go and read my post on Wonder Woman and you'll hear my theories on how they should do this correctly.

In short, its not the decision I would have made but I'll put my faith in Zack Snyder to make us a movie and character worth watching.

And then there was the news that the movie was being pushed back 10 months.

I was going to do a post on this but I delayed it enough to realize that its not that huge of a deal. Am I bummed that the movie isn't coming out till 2016? Yes I am.

They've made several statements about it. The first one was to make sure the vision was done correctly, it depends on if you want to take that on face value but the more likely explanation is that they need to make some changes, rework the script, need more time to make sure everything is in place, and they felt it wasn't fully ready to debut in 2015.

I get that.

I'm not happy about it but I understand it. As long as Man of Steel 2 is a great film it won't matter if it came out of in 2015 or 2016. If it works, it works.

And then Warner Brothers comes out with some new information today.

Jesse Eisenberg is officially confirmed as Lex Luthor in the sequel to Man of Steel.

This is just... strange to me.

It was just out of left field and just down right strange. There were a bunch of rumors about Lex Luthor being played by Bryan Cranston, Mark Strong, even Joaquin Phoenix was in the mix when he was confirmed for a D/C project. I had kind of assumed that he was on board for that role it was just a matter of time till it was announced. I guess looking back it seems silly to think they would announce Phoenix's involvement and not announce that he's Lex Luthor.

So when Eisenberg was announced I just kind of thought. What the fuck?

I would almost say this is worth a "Daa Fuck?" Montage, but not quite.

If you read my "Now You See Me" review, you may remember that I mentioned that Jesse Eisenberg is good at two things. Being awkward and being an awkward asshole. And his character wasn't exactly a good guy in Now You See Me. That movie has shown that Eisenberg can be a diabolical "mastermind" and I suppose he can be charismatic. I just don't want to see Eisenberg's character from Now You See Me as Lex Luthor. I didn't like that character and I see Lex Luthor as a villain you love to hate.

And I think this casting decision is a little bit different from Batfleck and Gal Gadot. Ben Affleck is an established actor and while he wasn't my first choice for the role, I have seen him in enough to know that he's able to do the role and along with the faith I have in Zack Snyder, I think this will be a good choice of a role. Gal Gadot, I don't know anything about so that's totally on my faith in Snyder.

With Eisenberg it just makes me ask Snyder.

I'm not saying it couldn't work, I think I'm just put off by the performances I've seen Eisenberg in.

I don't want to be the kind of person that says they're not going to see this movie because a casting choice has been made because I'm going to. The point of this is this.

I DON'T WANT TO SEE MARK ZUCKERBERG AS LEX LUTHOR.

Okay that was the only out burst I was planning on having in this post. I'm writing this right after I heard about it so I may be a little bit emotional. Hopefully I warm up to the idea but its making me kind question how this movie is going to turn out. I suppose I'll give the same thing I said about Gal Gadot in response to this.

You're on thin ice Snyder. You are asking me to put a lot of faith into a movie that is already a risk. And it better pay off.

But all my doubts and disapprovals aside, what does this mean for the series if Lex Luthor is played by a young actor. Eisenberg may be 30 but he still looks like he is maybe in his late twenties. He's young, very young.

I can guess that they're going to build him up as a boy genius, someone who graduated school very early and made a living for himself at a very young age. Putting aside the casting, I like this direction. Its very different and I think a great way to reinvent the character.

I suppose there will be questions on whether or not Eisenberg will shave his head. I personally think he should but I won't be heart broken if he doesn't. I think if they're not going to have him shave his head, there should be a pretty damn good reason.

Now does this say anything about Lex Luthor's role in the movie?

When it comes to theories of how Lex Luthor will be involved in the movie, I believe that he should not be the villain in Man of Steel 2. At least not the main villain. I want him to be more of a political villain in the first movie, publicly denouncing Superman and saying he's dangerous to the Earth.

If you didn't catch my earlier posts, my theory was that perhaps Luthor and Bruce Wayne are rebuilding Metropolis after the destruction of the first movie (This needs to be addressed). They create an alliance because they both are millionaires looking to rebuild the city and they both have a distrust of Superman. But while Bruce Wayne's fear comes from actual distrust, Lex Luthor's distrust comes from Superman's possible disruption of his illegal businesses.

That's my old theory. I felt like it worked for a Bryan Cranston Lex Luthor because Luthor and Wayne could be allies at first. This would create a rigid relationship with Batman and Superman from the beginning. While I feel it could maybe work for a young Lex Luther, here is my new theory.

Lex is a symbol of earned wealth, capitalism, and new ways of doing things. He's really into developing new technology, possibly similar to a very young Tony Stark. Bruce Wayne on the other hand represents an old wealth he procured from inheritance. While Wayne has made a name for himself on his own merits, his wealth is something he received from his father. Lex's wealth was built. He has more humble beginnings but is incredibly intelligent that he's able to mass a huge wealth at a very young age. That creates a rivalry between Wayne Enterprises and Lex Corp. These two are going to have to have some close connection with each other in this movie, its just too perfect for both characters to appear here.

I think the distrust between Wayne and Kal-El must still be there but for Luthor it should be different. A part of me thinks he should initially think of Superman as a new toy. Maybe something he can buy and control. Where Bruce Wayne believes Superman should be casted out, Lex Luthor may at first see Superman as a weapon. But when Superman refuses that's when they become enemies, rivals even. Lex deduces that if he can't control Superman, Superman must be eliminated.

And Jesse Eisenberg's Superman can't be a wimp. He has to be charismatic, cunning, and always having plans up his sleeve. I see a way this vision I have of Luthor could be tarnished by him hiding behind his money for his power but he needs to have earned it. This will reinforce his intelligence and make a formidable foe for Superman... in later movies.

Thinking about it now, I actually see a lot of potential for Lex Luthor being younger. I'm still not wild about Jesse Eisenberg getting the part but I guess if there's a deliberate choice in going with a younger actor, he's not the worst choice...

I will now speak directly to Jesse Eisenberg.

Mr. Eisenberg, you are about to embark on playing one of mine and many Superman fan's favorite villain.

I don't really like a lot of what you do. I liked Zombieland, I thought your part made sense. I didn't like you in Now You See Me. For the longest time I got you confused with Michael Cera.

At least he is funny.

But I'm going to go along with this only on the fact that I like where this could potentially go.

But you have to sell it to me.

You have the potential to make me very very wrong about you. I hope that you do. Best of luck. And don't fuck this up. Get rid of your stupid curly hair and don't fuck this up.

That's kind of the end of my rant towards Eisenberg being Lex Luthor.

I will end this post on a happy note. Along with Eisenberg, they announced another casting. A casting I'm really happy about.

Jeremy Irons is going to be Bruce Wayne's butler, Alfred Pennyworth.

I will not go on a huge rant about this mainly because there's not much to rant about. I love the casting choice.

I love Jeremy Irons as an actor. I think he'll be a great Alfred.

I mean this probably was a difficult decision just because he will be following in the footsteps of Michael "freaking" Caine.

Michael Caine was just a brilliant Alfred Pennyworth. He brought a lot of heart to the role and always made me cry.

Anybody who got this role was kind of screwed from the beginning. Nobody is going to do a better job at Alfred Pennyworth than Michael Caine. I think Jeremy Irons will do a good job and it opens up opportunities for a new way of looking at the character.

Its definitely not a role that gives me enough confidence to overlook the Eisenberg casting but its a good choice.

So I've talked long enough and I have some other movies to watch and review. Those are my thoughts on the new casting news for Man of Steel 2. I know I'll be doing more in the months to come.

Let me know your thoughts on the casting. Comment and discuss below.

I'll leave you with this. I couldn't really find anything about Lex Luthor worth putting up here so instead I'll mention that DC needs to create a villain in Lex Luthor as one that we love. A good example of a villain we love is Loki from the Marvel universe. But Tom Hiddleston wanted to be Thor initially. Here's a clip of a bonus feature about Loki and how he started up.