As Warner Bros. Discovery charts its course into the future under new CEO David Zaslav, questions abound about what will become of the DCEU. Zaslav has grand plans for DC Films, but those plans didn’t include “Batgirl” or several other DC projects in early development. So while releases for “Black Adam,” “Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom,” and “The Flash” remain secure (for now), there’s still a lot of uncertainty ahead.
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One thing fans do know, though, is that Zaslav likes Superman, and he especially likes Henry Cavill‘s Superman, and he may make Cavill the centerpiece for future DCEU projects. So, what does Jessie Eisenberg, the actor who played Superman’s arch-nemesis Lex Luthor in “Batman v. Superman: Dawn Of Justice” have to say about this? Does he expect his version Luthor to come back for future movies? Deadline reports that Eisenberg doubts he’ll return to reprise the role, but it would be a nice surprise if he does.
After a Q&A at the 28th Sarajevo Film Festival, Eisenberg discussed the possibility of returning as Luthor with Deadline. “I’d be shocked if I wound up in a DC movie, but it would be a pleasant shock,” he said. “Listen, I’m not a comic book fan. To me, it was not playing a role that I’d envisioned since childhood. To me, it was a chance to play this great character that this great writer wrote, and I loved doing that.” Eisenberg played Luthor much differently than how comics typically portray the character. Instead of an egotistical, power-hungry CEO, Eisenberg played Luthor as a dainty tech-bro, like Mark Zuckerberg with poor fashion sense.
Neither fans nor critics took to Eisenberg’s portrayal, much to his dismay. He discussed his feelings on the backlash during the Q&A. “I felt very personal about it,” he said. “The writer, Chris Terrio, is a very serious writer, and he’s a very emotional person. He thought a lot about my character, and I thought a lot about my character too. I talked with my acting coach about the character a lot, about his backstory with his father and his emotional life—and then people hate me.” To be fair, Eisenberg’s Luthor is hardly the only divisive thing to come out “Batman v. Superman,” or any DCEU film for that matter. All of the films are littered with questionable creative choices, wooden plots, and stodgy CGI.
That panoply of issues doesn’t mean Eisenberg would turn up his nose at doing another superhero film for DC. Would he do his role as Luthor again? Said Eisenberg: “Yeah. Because as an actor, you do all kinds of different things, and sometimes great roles show up in really commercial things and sometimes terrible roles show up in independent films.”
Eisenberg back as Lex Luthor in a future “Superman” movie? Honestly, who knows what Zaslav has in store for DC Films, but given how high he is on the Superman character, don’t count out the possibility.