If there’s one thing James Gunn seems determined to do with DC Studios’ post-reboot runway, it’s not simply “bigger,” but weirder, sharper, and (in the most literal sense) brainier. And now the filmmaker has apparently locked in his big cosmic chess move: German actor Lars Eidinger has been cast as the arch-nemesis villain Brainiac in “Man of Tomorrow,” the upcoming “Superman” follow-up that’s slated for July 9, 2027.
Gunn confirmed the news himself, announcing that Eidinger rose to the top of a “worldwide search” for Brainiac and welcoming him to the DCU. And yeah, that’s a hell of a phrase to pair with a villain who—depending on the incarnation—can feel like the icy end-point of intelligence turned predatory: a collector, a curator, a conqueror with a god-complex and a hard drive where empathy should be.
For American audiences, Eidinger might still read as an “oh-that-guy” rather than a marquee name, but he’s been steadily crossing over—appearing in “All the Light We Cannot See,” “Irm Vep,” “White Noise,” and the upcoming “Jay Kelly.” (And if you’ve seen him in anything, you know he brings that unnerving, high-intensity precision—like he’s thinking three scenes ahead of everyone else.)
Details on the plot are still being kept close, but the early framing suggests the film will revolve around Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor and David Corenswet’s Superman being forced into some uneasy alignment against a common threat—one fans have long suspected would be Brainiac. If that’s the shape of it, it’s a juicy triangle: the ultimate egoist, the ultimate altruist, and the ultimate cold algorithm—each convinced they’re the only rational one in the room.
Either way, casting Eidinger as Brainiac feels like Gunn leaning into something nastier and more cerebral than mere spectacle—a villain who doesn’t just throw buildings, but reorders realities.
