A new photo from Man of Tomorrow has surfaced, and it confirms the return of another familiar face for the Superman sequel. James Gunn's follow-up to 2025's Superman already has one of the biggest casts the DC Universe has put together, and a chunk of that ensemble plays for the wrong side. The film brings David Corenswet's Superman and Nicholas Hoult's Lex Luthor together against a far larger danger, which means the villain bench keeps growing.
Frank Grillo, who plays Rick Flag Sr. in the DCU, shared a photo with Superman actor Terence Rosemore that all but confirms Rosemore is back as Otis Berg for Man of Tomorrow. Grillo posted the image on his Instagram Stories with the caption "Love them," tagging the official Superman account. Otis would slot in as the seventh villain tied to the sequel, joining a roster that has been filling out for months.
Otis is not a shock addition to the highly anticipated sequel film. Rosemore played the character in Superman, where Otis worked as one of Lex Luthor's lackeys, and he popped up again in the Peacemaker episode "Full Nelson." He has been on the edges of the DCU since the start, so a return for the sequel fits the pattern Gunn has set.
DC Studios has not put out a formal cast sheet naming Otis for the sequel, so the photo is the strongest confirmation yet that he's back. Also, Grillo has a long track record of teasing his DCU work online, and the timing of the post aligns with a production that began filming not long ago.
How Every Confirmed Villain Could Fit Into Man of Tomorrow
With Otis now confirmed, Man of Tomorrow's antagonist count has climbed up a bit. However, not all of them carry equal importance. Otis, for instance, is muscle and errand-runner for Luthor, the guy who handles the dirty work without much in the way of grand ambition.
This makes him useful as comic relief, and his role in the sequel is likely to be small. The stakes in Man of Tomorrow are very high, and the focus will be on the more formidable guys like Brainiac and Luthor.
Lex is the engine of the story. He is the villain Superman has to shake hands with, and the tension comes from never quite trusting that grip. Luthor agreeing to help against Brainiac does not erase what he is. This team-up is a marriage of convenience that could fall apart at any moment.
The smart money says Luthor turns on Superman before the credits roll, most likely once Brainiac stops being useful as a common enemy. Until then, he's likely to position himself as the man with the plan, bringing his old staff back into orbit and treating the alliance as a chess move rather than a change of heart.
Speaking of Brainiac, he's played by Lars Eidinger, and he's the reason any of this is happening. He is the big threat that pushes Superman and Luthor onto the same side, and his power level isn’t like anything the DCU has seen before. In the comics, Brainiac collects cities by shrinking and bottling them before wiping out whatever is left, and his intellect outpaces almost everyone he meets.
His arrival forces the heroes and Luthor to set aside their war, and his goals leave little room for negotiation. He is the threat that makes the rest of the villain roster look small, which is why the alliance has to happen.
Lex Luthor isn’t the only antagonist who has been a fixture in James Gunn's DC continuity. Rick Flag Sr. has appeared in multiple DCU projects, but Peacemaker Season 2 is when he became a true villain out of grief. After learning that Christopher Smith killed his son, Flag stranded Smith on Salvation, a multiversal prison dimension, and took over ARGUS in the process. That makes him a government heavy with a grudge and real power behind him.
In the sequel, Flag is the connective tissue between Peacemaker and Man of Tomorrow. He could operate as the state's answer to the Brainiac crisis, the man deciding which metahumans get deployed and which get locked away. In Peacemaker Season 2, he visited Lex in Bell Reeve prison and offered to transfer him to Van Kull, a prison that has already appeared in set photos from the sequel. Grillo has called Flag a big part of the sequel's story, so his role should run well past a cameo. He's likely the one to facilitate the alliance between Superman and Lex.
Another villain with close ties to Lex is also set to return. María Gabriela de Faría's The Engineer reprises her role after her debut in Superman. James Gunn teased her return last year after she lost to Superman in a brutal fight. Engineer's nanotech body lets her reshape herself into weapons, and de Faría has said the character can clone herself multiple times, a power the first film never fully unleashed.
Her loyalties are the open question. If Luthor is now cooperating with Superman, The Engineer could follow him into that uneasy truce, or she could break off and chase her own agenda. Either way, a villain who can split into a small army is the kind of asset both sides would want when Brainiac shows up.
Stephen Blackehart's Sydney Happersen is the brains for hire. He is a scientist who served Luthor in Superman and later helped Flag track Peacemaker through dimensional tech in Peacemaker Season 2. That makes him a valuable asset on any villain team as he's more brains than brawn.
Against a foe like Brainiac, a dimensional-tech specialist becomes a hot commodity. Happersen could end up the link between Luthor's resources and Flag's ARGUS operation, the person both bosses lean on for answers. Since Luthor is working with the heroes, Happersen is likely to help take down Brainiac.
There's also Mr. Handsome, a Lex Luthor ally who means a lot to him. Gunn has explained that Luthor created him in a petri dish at age 12, the first of his attempts to make a human, and the character popped up in Superman inside Luthor's pocket-dimension prison. Gunn confirmed the return of the eerie-looking villain with a set photo he shared on social media.
Mr Handsome is the one creature Luthor seems to feel real affection for, which gives the sequel room for something odd and personal. With Luthor's pocket dimension shut down at the end of the first movie, Mr. Handsome's status is up in the air. He is likely to appear somewhere closer to Luthor again, but it’s unlikely he'll have a huge impact on the film.
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.
