JuicyTalk
Superman director James Gunn addressed the rumors that he’d asked a major Guardians of the Galaxy star to play Lex Luthor in the debut DC Universe film, before casting Nicholas Hoult. This, of course, was Bradley Cooper, who ultimately played the hero’s father, Jor-El, instead in a cameo appearance.
The first live-action Jor-El was played by Nelson Leigh in 1948’s Superman film serial, with later cinematic portrayals by Marlon Brando and Russell Crowe. As such, Cooper joins a long legacy of actors to play Superman’s birth father.
However, Gunn revealed that this was not the original plan in an appearance on Happy Sad Confused with Josh Horowitz. The filmmaker explained: “I did talk to Bradley about it. We had a short conversation and at the end, […] I did want Lex to be someone that was more [a] contemporary of Superman’s.“
He elaborated that “Lex Luthor is important to Superman” and ” to the future of the DC universe,” so a younger actor would probably be better. Though, Gunn did heap praise on to his actor friend: “Bradley would have been a great Lex. I mean… Bradley’s great at everything.“
A significant element of Lex’s story in Superman was his deep-seated envy for the Man of Steel. Casting actors who are closer in age drives this point home by making a natural comparison between the two. Despite not landing Lex, Cooper did still have a major cameo, something Gunn said was due to the actor’s level of fame and talent:
I needed somebody who could play Jor-El — and I don’t think this is a spoiler, everybody knows about this — who had the stature of what we imagine that character being, somebody who could walk in the footsteps of Marlon Brando.
Ironically, despite Gunn feeling that Cooper was a bit old to play Lex, he felt the actor was well-suited to Jor-El for the opposite reason. He explained: “A lot of times, Jor-El is played by a 70-year-old man and that means he was 70 when he had a baby, so I wanted somebody that wasn’t too old.“
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Per Gunn, “everyone was bringing up all these actors that were too old for” him. Moreover, the director was excited Cooper played the iconic role “as a favor.”
While Cooper likely would have made an excellent Lex, placing him in the role of Jor-El both suits Gunn’s criteria and respects the cinematic legacy of the character. Interestingly, however, all of the film Jor-El actors were middle-aged, with Cooper at 50, Crowe at 49, Brando at 54, and Leigh at 43, not older men as Gunn implied.
Nonetheless, Cooper’s brief part as Jor-El was a fun surprise for fans, even with the dramatic change in his characterization, and Hoult made a truly amazing Lex with a lot of potential moving forward with the DCU. Gunn made the right casting call for both Jor-El and Lex in Superman.
