James Gunn brought over a unique detail directly from Smallville into his own upcoming Superman film to pay homage to the Tom Welling-led TV series. Smallville is one of the most beloved projects ever created that centers around the Man of Steel. Superman is already expected to include small details from past iterations of Superman (the John Williams score from the original 1978 film was already incorporated into the music for the new movie), so it is no surprise that Gunn is using a rather important piece of Smallville instead of maintaining complete accuracy from DC Comics.
In James Gunn's upcoming Superman film, which will be the first live-action project in the new DCU, Lex Luthor's corporation will officially be called LuthorCorp instead of LexCorp. Many fans will be more familiar with LexCorp Industries as the name of Luthor's business, which is what the corporation was known as in the comics and in other Superman projects (such as Batman v Superman), but Gunn's Superman was not the first project to feature the LuthorCorp name.
In an interview with ComicBook, Superman writer and director James Gunn talked about the decision to name Lex Luthor's business LuthorCorp instead of LexCorp. While mentioning that the name change does have a reason in the DCU lore, Gunn also admitted that he is "a Smallville fan," and that Lex's corporation was named LuthorCorp in Smallville:
"Well, I really, when I was making this movie, I really was taking stuff from all sorts of different comic books and TV shows and movies, and I'm a 'Smallville' fan, you know. It was LuthorCorp in 'Smallville,' so it is that, but it also left the door, you know... First of all, most people don't name their corporations after their first names. So, I believed it more in terms of that, and, also, it leaves the door open for, 'Was his father ever in any way a part of this, or his mother?'"
Smallville was the first piece of media to prominently use the LuthorCorp name instead of LexCorp. However, LuthorCorp was also used in Superman & Lois, a more recent TV show about Clark Kent and his adventures as Superman.
Will Other Smallville Easter Eggs Be In Superman?
Since Gunn admitted to being a pretty big fan of Smallville, it would not be surprising if there were some other small Easter eggs or nods to that series. Of course, it is impossible to predict what they could be, but Gunn has openly admitted that he has taken a lot of inspiration from comic books, TV shows, and movies that have been about Superman.
Smallville is one of the biggest Superman titles of all time (find out how Smallville broke DC canon here). The show ran for 10 years (2001-2011) and includes over 200 episodes, so, technically, it has explored more of the Man of Steel in live-action than any other Superman project in existence.
With so many episodes, Smallville featured a lot of different storylines and characters from Superman and DC lore. In turn, that gives Gunn a lot of material to be inspired by.
It is important to note that Gunn mentioned the LuthorCorp name will have a practical use instead of just being a nod to Smallville. So, if some other Easter egg from the TV series shows up in the film, it is possible, and even likely, that it will be something that won't just be an Easter egg, but will also be steeped in the DCU's clean slate of lore.
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