James Gunn's DC surprised the world when it announced its casting choice for Superman 2's Brainiac in December 2025, and several months on, the decision looks even better. The sequel to 2025's Superman is confirmed to arrive on July 9, 2027, and it will mark the first time Brainiac has featured in a live-action film. The alien android from Colu is so dangerous that his presence forces the Man of Steel into an uneasy alliance with his sworn enemy, Lex Luthor.
Highly revered German actor Lars Eidinger is the man playing Brainiac in the DC Universe, and he doesn't take the opportunity for granted at all, proving he's the perfect man for the job even before the movie hits theaters. In a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, Eidinger highlighted what drew him to the role, describing the movie as one that holds "serious philosophical ambition":
"It's not as different as you might think. Even if it seems surprising at first, these films have a serious philosophical ambition. They carry great allegorical weight for me. Take just the word "super" — it's used as a superlative, for something excellent, wonderful. But "super" really only means "over" or "above." So Superman is the Übermensch. You have the Super Ego. There's already a deep psychological dimension built in."
Eidinger's words underscore how seriously he takes Man of Tomorrow and the superhero genre in general. He compared the sight of Superman suspended on wires in front of a bluescreen on set to "Hamlet holding the skull":
"Last week I was on set during rehearsals and asked if I could watch some of the filming, which had already started. And I saw an actor in the Superman costume, suspended on wires in front of a bluescreen. I looked at that image and thought: This is the essence of fiction. It's as significant an image as Hamlet holding the skull: Superman, in that Superman pose, hanging from wires in front of a bluescreen. Being in the Superman universe wasn't a dream or burning desire for me. But now that it's happening, I can see a certain inevitability in it, something almost fated."
It's not every day you see an actor get this passionate about comic book movies. Over the years, cape movies have sadly been viewed by a section of the film community as "less art" than other genres. Some actors get cast in them and treat the work as just a job, with little passion behind it. Eidinger views it differently and recognizes the artistic value, which is a big compliment to the genre and to Man of Tomorrow, given what a major theater talent he is.
Eidinger's Hamlet in Thomas Ostermeier's celebrated Schaubühne production earned him international acclaim. He even highlighted connections between his stage work and Man of Tomorrow, pointing out that Brainiac being "described as the incarnation of Satan" strikes him as "almost Shakespearean":
"Yes, the theatrical quality has actually helped me enormously in the context of Superman, too, because it involves a different register of performance, one that isn't primarily realistic and allows for a far more expressive style of playing. When I watch a film like James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy, I find it has a great theatrical quality — in the handling of good and evil, and in a certain tendency toward allegory. Brainiac is described as the incarnation of Satan. I find that almost Shakespearean. The king, the fool — there are so many parallels for me."
Eidinger's commitment to the role shone through even before he was given the job. He previously revealed in a German TV interview that he recorded his self-tape audition no less than 15 times before he felt it was good enough to submit. Gunn and DC Studios responded by flying him to Atlanta for an in-person callback. Eidinger watched Superman on the flight over to get in the right headspace.
Once there, the studio put him through a full-body 3D scan and sat him in a makeup chair for two hours before fitting him with a Brainiac mask, which was then kept so secret that he was escorted around the lot under an umbrella so no one could photograph the look. A remarkable level of dedication.
The DCU Is Blessed With Dedicated Villain Actors
The first Superman film was blessed with one of the best acting talents of his generation in Nicholas Hoult, who played Lex Luthor and reprises the role in the sequel. Hoult showed a level of dedication matching what Eidinger is displaying ahead of his DCU debut. His performance in Superman was one of the best live-action takes on Lex, and the interesting part is that he approached Luthor's villainy differently than Eidinger has, which makes the pair's eventual face-off all the more exciting.
Eidinger came at Brainiac from a theater perspective, while Hoult built his Lex through "reading comics, reading books, trying to understand Lex physically, emotionally," as he told Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. He also singled out Lex Luthor: Man of Steel, the 2005 comic by Brian Azzarello, as his favourite among those he read.
Hoult went a step further beyond the comics by studying previous takes from other actors. Appearing on Michael Rosenbaum's Inside of You podcast, Hoult told the Smallville star his version of Lex was the best: "I love [your performance as Lex]. It's the best, yeah. You did inhabit him with such depth and charm. That ability to switch, which makes him dangerous and formidable and a great opponent. I just love what you did." He also added, "I've since seen Richard Donner's movies and all the other ones and kind of seen some of the other performances."
Hoult obviously immersed himself in the character much like Eidinger has, and it isn't surprising since he loves the superhero genre. His first foray into it came in 2011, when he played Beast in X-Men: First Class. He reprised the role in X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Men: Apocalypse, and Dark Phoenix, and made a brief cameo as Beast in Deadpool 2 as well. This was all before DC. He was also in the running to play Batman in Matt Reeves' The Batman, but the role ultimately went to Robert Pattinson. A few years later, he finally got the chance to play Lex.
With both Hoult and Eidinger appearing together in Man of Tomorrow and even duking it out on the battlefield, fans will get to see two impressive talents deliver their takes on two of the most complex characters in DC Comics history.
Geraldo Amartey is a writer at The Direct. He joined the team in 2025, bringing with him four years of experience covering entertainment news, pop culture, and fan-favorite franchises for sites like YEN, Briefly and Tuko.
