We’ve been treated to all sorts of Batman-related updates lately related to the Man of Steel sequel, but one character we haven’t heard too much about thus far is Superman’s arch enemy, Lex Luthor. After Jesse Eisenberg was cast in the role back in January, there have been few — if any — updates regarding the diabolical genius who challenges Superman at every opportunity, but a recent interview with Eisenberg offers a sliver of insight into how he’s approaching the character.
“I don’t know the history as well as the people making the movie, so I guess it’s up to them to figure out how much they want to separate it from previous incarnations,” Eisenberg told IGN when asked how different his version of Lex Luthor will be from the previous iterations played by Gene Hackman and Kevin Spacey.
Still, Eisenberg insisted that he’s approaching the role as a character independent of its past.
“There’s no way to play the history of the character played by other people, unless you do some kind of wink, but that doesn’t seem like a responsible way to act,” he explained. “So I will just do it as though it’s a character, in the same way you do a movie like The Double, which is a smaller movie — but you just kind of treat it like a character, and that’s probably the best course of action, I think.”
Of course, the most pressing question on the minds of many casual and hardcore Superman fans is whether Eisenberg will sport Lex Luthor’s iconic, bald look for his spin on the famous villain. On that subject, the actor declined to comment, citing the studio’s desire to reveal certain matters on their own time.
Eisenberg was quick to celebrate the role, however, while also playing down the “blockbuster” aspect of the project.
“The character’s really good, so it’s like doing anything else,” he said. “They make a lot of those [blockbuster, big-budget] movies, so if you’re an actor in things, you will probably cross paths with it at some point. But the character’s written really well. It’s a really great role. The fact that it’s in a big movie, you know, it seems like a character that would be in any kind of movie. It just happens to be in a bigger, flashier kind of thing.”
The sequel to Man of Steel is directed by Zack Snyder and is scheduled to hit theaters May 6, 2016.
