Superman: Man of Tomorrow’s Braniac Offers Sweet Thoughts on Casting
Before he makes Superman's life miserable, Brainiac actor Lars Eidinger is all warmth and gratitude.
In Man of Tomorrow, the upcoming sequel to Superman, German actor Lars Eidinger will play Brainiac. An intergalactic collector from the planet Colu, Brainiac’s cold, computer brain strips him of all emotion. He simply travels from planet to planet, shrinking cities he finds interesting and bringing them into his ship, with no regard of the lives he’s ruined.
In real life, Lars Eidinger seems like a big sweetheart. At least that’s the impression one gets from a new interview, in which he discusses his casting in the James Gunn picture. “It’s a true miracle that it happened,” Eidinger said. “I would venture to say that every actor, every actress in Germany, there is a secret hope that one day to receive a phone call from Hollywood. And I always thought, I’m 50 now, I thought okay, that’s it, and it suddenly happened. And it all went relatively quickly, didn’t it? And me? Yes, I really can hardly believe it, honestly.”
On one hand, Eidinger certainly isn’t a big name like several of the others that Gunn has cast in the DCU. But he’s not a newcomer either. Just last year, Eidinger had a brief but memorable role in Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly, having worked with the director previously in the Don DeLillo adaptation White Noise. Moreover, Eidinger has worked with French filmmaker Olivier Assayas, appearing in Clouds of Sils Maria and Personal Shopper.
More importantly, Eidinger is no more an unknown than the star of Man of Tomorrow, David Corenswet. Although the actor had a reoccurring role in Ryan Murphy‘s The Politician and the HBO series We Own This City, he was best known to moviegoers as the ill-fated projectionist in Ti West‘s Pearl. As a relatively fresh face, Corenswet was able to disappear into the role of Superman, allowing us to see the icon before the actor.
Such a disappearance may be even more important for Eidinger. Brainiac may not be a household name like Lex Luthor or even Bizarro, but he is one of Superman’s most intimidating foes. His intelligence exceeds that of Luthor, and unlike Lex, Brainiac has no emotion or ego to get in the way. You won’t see him nearly crying because Superman makes him feel small.
Brainiac first appeared in 1958’s Action Comics #242 by writer Otto Binder and artist Al Plastino. Even by early silver age standards, Brainaic was a menacing villain, a chilly collector of worlds whose force field blocked Superman’s attacks. Over the years, he’s only become more frightening. Whether as a skeletal robot or as a massive brute with purple tendrils, Brainiac always poses a challenge to the Man of Steel.
Maybe that’s why Eidinger so easily shrugged off the first question the reporter asked him. Before going into his warmhearted observations about his late-in-life big break, Eidinger was asked if he’s scared of Superman. “No,” the actor responded, without even pausing for a beat. That’s exactly the type of chilly, uncomplicated response Brainiac should have to a question about Superman.
Man of Tomorrow is set to release on July 9, 2027.