Superman 2: James Gunn Hints at Lex Luthor Rematch and Release Date in Retitled Sequel
Superman 2 has a July 2027 release date, a new title, and a hell of a tease for Nicholas Hoult’s return.
Superman has a fairly robust rogue’s gallery under his belt. You might not know this if you only watch comic book movies, where the Man of Steel faces alternating rounds betwen Lex Luthor and General Zod, but outside of Batman, Spider-Man, and maybe the X-Men, Kal-El has one of comicdom’s top shelf villain rosters.
So it’s interesting that in his surprise Wednesday announcement about Superman 2, writer-director James Gunn not only revealed that the movie is now titled Man of Tomorrow and headed on the fast track for a July 9, 2027 release date, but that it seems likely to again star Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor opposite David Corenswet’s Clark Kent—albeit not as you might have expected to see the bald evil genius.
In the below social post with the title and date, we see a Jim Lee penciled drawing of Superman and Lex side by side, with the evil LuthorCorp CEO in some kind of mecha super-suit, and Superman holding a screwdriver and leaning on his nemesis’ shoulder. If we read the implications correctly… it looks like they’re teaming up?!
For the record, the image is dated 2025 and seems to be one Lee drew specifically for Gunn’s announcement. If so, however, it’s heavily influenced by the suit Luthor wore in the 2019 six-issue DC Comics event, DCeased, where an alternate reality DC Universe is infected by a zombie-like virus created by the inhabitants of Apokolips (remember them, Snyder fans?). Consequently Metropolis is wiped out in the virus, which saddens Luthor enough to lead to him teaming up with Superman to save what’s left of the rest of the world.
… For the record, we do NOT think that James Gunn is going to destroy Metropolis and go straight to some cataclysmic doom and gloom story in only his second Superman movie. Ahem, this is no longer the DCEU, right?
But it does seem like he is taking a page from that tale and others where in spite of their general animosity, a love of Metropolis and the like will bring Superman and Luthor into a state of detente and partnership. It certainly is ironic given how much virulent xenophobia and bigotry Hoult’s Luthor expressed toward immigrant Superman in this past summer’s film. If one wants to be completely guileless and “punk rock” in a Clark Kent sense, one might even assume the Man of Tomorrow’s big speech about being a good person got through to the narcissistic billionaire at the end of Superman.
… More likely though is that like Charles Xavier in a 20th Century Fox X-Men movie, Clark shouldn’t get too close to trusting his, um, old friend.
The announcement also raises the question of what threat could be bad enough to cause them to join forces? Perhaps a brainiac even more vain and egotistical than the LuthorCorp CEO?
The news of Man of Tomorrow getting fast tracked just two years after Superman, and one year after next summer’s anticipated Supergirl movie starring Milly Alcock, also suggests plans for Gunn’s DCU are changing fast after the fairly warm reception Superman received. The DC Universe’s cinematic kickoff indeed crossed $600 million worldwide, a first for a DC movie in some years. That’s a far cry from the heights of some of DC’s 2010s movies, but the bad taste those films left in audiences’ mouths seemed to presage steep drop-offs in their sequels and follow-ups.
In two years, then, we might be able to test whether like Batman Begins to The Dark Knight, if Superman and perhaps the greater DC Universe is on a different trajectory. Now if you’ll excuse us, it’s time to blast some Mighty Crabjoys.
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David Crow is the movies editor at Den of Geek. He has long been proud of his geek credentials. Raised on cinema classics that ranged from…