Jesse Eisenberg cast as Lex Luthor in ‘Batman vs. Superman’: good pick?

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Batman Vs. Superman (or whatever they’re calling it) is already a mess, I think, and they have’t even started production. First, Ben Affleck was cast as Batman. That was pretty bad. Then they cast Gal Gadot as Diana Prince/Wonder Woman, which… I mean, I’m rooting for her and I hope she kicks ass, but it does feel like they picked her name out of a hat. And then a few weeks ago, Warner Bros. announced that they were pushing back the production AND the release date because they’re terrified of going head-to-head with The Avengers sequel… and I also suspect the delay has something to do with the script being a mess, the casting mess, and director Zack Synder in general. So, what’s the next disappointment? The casting of Lex Luthor, of course. Your new Lex Luthor is… Jesse Eisenberg?!

Warner Bros. has found its Lex Luthor. Jesse Eisenberg has been set to star as the comic book supervillain, while Jeremy Irons will play Bruce Wayne’s trusted friend, ally and mentor Alfred in the upcoming untitled Superman-Batman film to be directed by Zack Snyder.

The casting of Lex Luthor has spawned rumors for months, with everyone from Bryan Cranston to Joaquin Phoenix said to be in the mix. Ben Affleck will play Batman, while Henry Cavill reprises his Man of Steel starring role as Superman. Gal Gadot has been cast as Wonder Woman/Diana Prince.

“Lex Luthor is often considered the most notorious of Superman’s rivals, his unsavory reputation preceding him since 1940,” Snyder said in a statement. “What’s great about Lex is that he exists beyond the confines of the stereotypical nefarious villain. He’s a complicated and sophisticated character whose intellect, wealth and prominence position him as one of the few mortals able to challenge the incredible might of Superman. Having Jesse in the role allows us to explore that interesting dynamic, and also take the character in some new and unexpected directions.”

As for Irons’ casting, Snyder called the role, “an absolutely critical element in the intricate infrastructure that allows Bruce Wayne to transform himself into Batman.” He added, “It is an honor to have such an amazingly seasoned and gifted actor as Jeremy taking on the important role of the man who mentors and guides the guarded and nearly impervious facade that encapsulates Bruce Wayne.”

As THR first reported, the new film is currently being written by Chris Terrio, from a story by David S. Goyer. Charles Roven and Deborah Snyder are producing, with Benjamin Melniker, Michael E. Uslan, Wesley Coller, Goyer and Geoff Johns serving as executive producers. The film is set to open worldwide on May 6, 2016.

Production is expected to get underway in the spring in Detroit.

Eisenberg is best-known for his starring role as Mark Zuckerberg in David Fincher’s The Social Network. He also starred in Woody Allen’s To Rome with Love and Louis Leterrier’s Now You See Me. He next appears in The Double and Night Moves.

Irons’ recent work includes playing the villainous Pope Rodrigo Borgia in Neil Jordan’s acclaimed Showtime series The Borgias. Man of Steel co-stars Amy Adams, Laurence Fishburne and Diane Lane are set to return.

[From The Hollywood Reporter]

Jesse Eisenberg? Really? That’s an… interesting choice. Don’t get me wrong, I like Eisenberg and I think he’s very talented. Talented at playing awkward, brilliant, nebbish, weird dudes. This is sort of like casting Woody Allen as Lex Luthor – it’s not necessarily a disaster, and the results could be either hilarious or frightening. So, will Jesse shave his head? Is Lex Luthor always bald? Probably. I should say this too – I never would have thought Jesse would agree to this kind of role. I always thought he was too artsy to take a villain role in a comic book movie. But I guess casting Michael Shannon as Zod the last time around opened up a lot of casting possibilities.

Also: Jeremy Irons as Alfred? NO. Alfred would end up groping Wonder Woman and then asking Batfleck to marry him for tax purposes.

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Photos courtesy of WENN.

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70 Responses to “Jesse Eisenberg cast as Lex Luthor in ‘Batman vs. Superman’: good pick?”

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  1. Marianne says:

    Jesse is pretty good…..when it comes to playing awkward nerd/douche kind of roles. I have a hard time picturing him as Lex Luthor.

    • Yep says:

      I feel like they’re going to go for a somewhat different interpretation of Lex. So I’m not going to be judge-y until there is footage.

      • Tapioca says:

        Unfortunately, while I trusted Chris Nolan to do right by the Joker when casting Heath Ledger – against popular demand – this film is being directed by Zack “Schoolgirl Rape Fantasy” Snyder.

        For me, Ben Affleck + Charisma-free Cavill + Waif-Fu Wonder Woman + Mark Zuckerberg + Director of Sucker Punch = saving of £9 on a film I won’t be watching!

      • Yep says:

        I’m tired of the body-snarking on Gal Gadot. She’s skinny because she’s an actress/model. It doesn’t mean she can’t bulk up or won’t. And the movie is coming out in 2016 so she’ll have some time.

      • JessicaC says:

        @Yep: They are filming this summer, she doesn’t exactly have a ton on time to bulk up.

      • FLORC says:

        Yep
        She’s already bulked up her chest. So there’s that. And no matter how much she tries her body type just isn’t what we think of when we think “Wonder Woman”. It’s not body shaming to say she looks nothing like the character. Gal doesn’t strike me as the type to start eating meat and drinking protein shakes while hitting the weights and laying off cardio for this. I could be wrong, but Time will tell.

        And all body snarking aside. She can’t act. It’s awful to watch. Sadly, I thin Jesse as Lex is the best casting so far.
        This movie will be a nightmare and hopefully someone will ban Snyder from ruining another comic based movie.

    • Liv says:

      Isn’t Luthor supposed to be hot? I just saw the series with Teri Hatcher today and they said he’s the most coveted bachelor of town.

      This by the way made my day:
      “Also: Jeremy Irons as Alfred? NO. Alfred would end up groping Wonder Woman and then asking Batfleck to marry him for tax purposes.”

      😀

      (MICHAEL CAINE FOREVER)

      • MrsBPitt says:

        I read (somewhere??) that Michael Caine said he would love to be Alfred in this new movie…wtf….why wouldn’t they want him to reprise his role….I can’t stand jeremy Irons…

      • Liv says:

        He was perfect as Alfred. The Batman trilogy with Nolan, Bale and Caine is my absolute favorite one. And now they are messing it up with super weird casting choices. Affleck as Batman is ridiculous, I won’t pay for that. Daredevil is all I’m saying.

    • Yep says:

      @Jessica C

      Didn’t Cavill and the Kryptonian characters bulk up in under a year?

      Anyway, she could be built like Chyna and not be believable as Wonder Woman. People with Wonder Woman (and Superman) sort of strength don’t actually exist. If I can suspend my disbelief for a dude who can fly and shoot heat out of his eyes, I can do the same for a slender Wonder Woman.

      • FLORC says:

        Yep

        Just adding something here. Men and women grow and maintain muscle in far different manners. We are not built the same. And Gal would have to protein up like a fiend.

        And i’m not touching this Superman is unbelievable so WW’s strength is too. I won’t geek out, but they are different in a million ways. Homeworlds and such.

    • *Laowai* says:

      My thoughts exactly. His acting is brilliant when he is a social outcast/asshole type character. I have trouble visualizing him as the of manipulative, intimidating genius character that I would expect from Lex Luthor. Eisenberg plays a good asshole, but I have trouble seeing him as a darkly sinister asshole.

      He could come through, though…and, honestly, with Batflek happening, its not like he will be the most embarrassing member on the cast. Damn, the first movie was really good, but this is shaping up to be a train wreck.

  2. Tig says:

    This really does smack of almost stunt casting. If the folks who really care about this move went crazy over Affleck, this news should send them over the edge. I can’t imagine the press tour!

  3. Gwen says:

    I don’t mind Jesse at all and I’ve got no problems with Jeremy Irons either. On the list of problems, there are a lot worse concerning this movie at least.

    • SonjaMarmeladova says:

      I think Jesse could pull of the villain, in a calm creepy way. And he’s so cute, I would like to see how he looks with a shaved head.
      But Jeremy as Alfred? I just can’t see that.

    • Nance says:

      Yes, but the list is ever growing…

  4. Kristen says:

    Looks-wise, if he shaved his head, I could see it. But his VOICE? No way. It’s so geeky.

  5. GoodNamesAllTaken says:

    You couldn’t pay me to watch this movie.

  6. Stef Leppard says:

    What. The. Fk?! No. Just…no.

  7. Yep says:

    “Then they cast Gal Gadot as Diana Prince/Catwoman, ”

    Wonder Woman. :p

  8. V4real says:

    By the time this Justice League movie, ahem…I mean Batman v/s Superman movie gets made the entire cast might be different. I wouldn’t be surprised if somewhere down the line Affleck dropped out. But I think he wants the kind of notoriety that IM brought RDJ.

    • Marianne says:

      Except I doubt he will get that notoriety. If anything, it he will remembered for it forever in a joke sort of way (like George Clooney being Batman).

      • Aisha says:

        I think might be the only person in the world who actually liked Batman and Robin… It had Arnie and his terrible freeze puns, the nipple suit and Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy! BatClooney fovever!

  9. Lucky says:

    We wanted Heisenberg not Eisenberg! Stupid Hollywood!

  10. MourningTheDeathOfMusic says:

    NO! Just, no! Michael Rosenbaum (Smallville) will always be the perfect Lex in my mind.

  11. Samtha says:

    Every choice they’ve made so far is weird. Maybe it will all turn out brilliant–who knows? But I won’t hold my breath.

  12. Dutch says:

    In a modern updating, we already know Eisenberg can play the prick tech billionaire type. However there’s a huge gap between prick who isn’t afraid to step on people on the way up and maniac bent on world domination. For Lex to work he needs to be intimidating, I get more of that vibe from Andrew Garfield than Jesse.

  13. Red32 says:

    I wish I could be a fly on the wall and listen to all the Marvel execs laughing their asses off and rushing to schedule a movie, any movie, to compete with this mess.

    I did not like Man of Steel. They tried too hard to be different from the Christopher Reeve version and that was distracting as hell. Obviously now they want to change Lex Luthor from a menacing megalomaniac to a sneaky little Facebook shit.

    • Samtha says:

      I’m half convinced there’s some corporate espionage going on. Marvel has some execs planted at Warner Brothers who continually pitch the most off-the-wall things possible. 😉

    • Dutch says:

      Marvel already has a as of yet unannounced movie scheduled for the same release day. I’ll bet they are waiting to see how Cap 2 does before going with a third movie in that franchise or busting out a new property. Marvel isn’t rushing anything. They’ve got a plan, it’s kicking WB’s teeth in and making them billions of dollars in the process. No need to change anything now.

      • Red32 says:

        Oh, I know they are and I didn’t mean to imply they need to change anything. I just think it would be funny if they were coming up with something to compete with this. “Howard the Duck reboot?” “Nah, how about a Nick Fury prequel set in middle school?”

    • Lilacflowers says:

      Man of Steel just didn’t get there for me. I thin Michael Shannon is a great actor but he just wasn’t Zod. Terence Stamp is forever Zod and Shannon brought too much angst.

    • Kate says:

      I didn’t care for MOS either. I believe one of the reasons the date was changed to 2016 because there was to much competition and MOS would have gotten crushed.

  14. danielle says:

    Jeremy iron seems like a very chilly choice to play Alfred. That character always seems warm and nurturing.

  15. Bread and Circuses says:

    I guess I’m in the minority. When I first read about this, I thought it was great casting.

    The fact Jesse is getting type-casted as a nerd doesn’t change the fact he can really act. He can do intense and creepy very well, and with his head shaved, I think he’ll look pretty scary, too.

    It’s Affleck I really can’t imagine in his role. Bruce Wayne, okay, but Batman? Not really.

  16. MrsBPitt says:

    The person the studio should get rid of IMMEDIATELY is Snyder….He is a TERRIBLE director….Superman was terrible, and I don’t care how much money it made (of course, people always go to see a superhero movie)….I actually laughed out loud at the tornado scene….A lot of people have been waiting for a Batman/Superman movie for a long time, and to put it in the hands of this sub-par director is just begging for a disaster…

  17. Ash says:

    Don’t know if this has been posted, but is it just me or this movie completely miscast? Wow, that is all I can say.

  18. Nanou says:

    It alway amuses to see people bashing and judging a movie and actors in roles they haven’t seen yet … But they’re “experts” soo …

    • MourningTheDeathOfMusic says:

      With some actors/actresses, you’ve consistently seen enough of their work to be able to hold doubt of their capabilities and frequently marvel at how in the world they were able to get into the industry in the first place.

  19. Side-Eye says:

    They’ve got to be on some level ten trolling shit.

  20. The Original Mia says:

    This movie is turning into a joke of bad casting choices. Poor Henry. So earnest about his role and it’s been overshadowed by the rest of this mess. WB has no idea what they are doing. Justice League will never take off.

  21. Dommy Dearest says:

    So Lex invented Facebook, Wonder Woman is an anti-hero thief, Batfleck is Batfleck and Alfred is Scar.

    • Aisha says:

      I’m surprised they didn’t cast Scar as Lex, at least he’s intimidating, Eisenberg looks like he could be Afflecks son.

  22. AnneSB says:

    I like Eisenberg’s acting style. Not sure how he’s going to make Lex Luthor work, but at least NOW I have some inclination to see this movie (but only just).

    I’m going to try and be really positive about this one. Every casting has been so weird that it might just turn out really good. We’ll see.

  23. here's Wilson says:

    not buying him or Affleck in these roles

  24. Ranting DC Fan says:

    Had just some updated info for people…
    Production wasn’t set back. Release date was. Ben Affleck still has directing duties for at least 2 projects and their schedules haven’t changed. (Rumor has it, he threatened leaving the project if it affected his projects)
    Henry Cavill is already at location and it has been confirmed that he will be filming for 10 months. Meaning the rumors of Back-to-Back films: Versus movie with cliff hanger then Justice League, are looking pretty true…
    And that’s why Gal Gadot was talking about her training, a day after the WB announcement. So I think she will be somewhat slender. Not the representation we would have wanted in a female SuperHero.

    On Jesse… Terrible. The Nolan ‘creative liberties’ argument means nothing. Nolan’s Gotham was all changed to fit his vision. Including ALL characters. His world wouldn’t fit in a Justice League universe: Aliens and Gods and Magic.
    So what exactly is Mr Snyder’s vision? Seeing that MoS was apparently ‘a difficult process’ because of the conflicting visions of Goyer (writer), Nolan (Writer/Producer) and Snyder(Director), can we really take MoS as an example of the vision? AND. His ‘vision’ also lacks credibility, as they were approaching only older actors for the past few months…

    And I would also echo most of you that it’ll be shit because of Zach Snyder.

    Nothing about this film gives me any confidence.

    • Dommy Dearest says:

      So. Do you need a wife?

      Hahahaha

      Nolan used people that were flesh and blood and didn’t explore the more comic origin areas with the characters other than the fear toxin. And by comic origin I mean the more comic elements such as Bane’s venom (let’s forget that one mindless Bane of the earlier movies), Joker’s things such as laughing gas or even Dent’s acid bath face. He went more real and that, to me, is one of the main reasons his universe would never match up against what we’ll see from this set of movies. You’d never think that beings such as Manhunter or even Superman would have existed in Nolan’s universe. Still haven’t seen MoS and I don’t think I’ll get around to that anytime soon. I hope DC goes the routes of the comics with origins for it’s villains- I can’t say how angry I am about Pym and Ultron for the upcoming Avengers 2.

  25. InvaderTak says:

    I am over superhero movies. I can’t understand how this got green-lit. Its a huge mess even now.

  26. Isabelle says:

    haha this film casting is all over the place. Honestly have little hope for it, as soon as Zac Snyder was added as the director had a feeling it was going to just more blah..than exciting.

  27. mayamae says:

    Remember when movies were cast according to ability to act, not if they look “right” for the part?

    • Morgan says:

      Unfortunately, actor/actresses need to fit the part, and have the ability to act. If they can’t fit it, they have to be able to pull it off somehow, and judging by the characters Eisenberg has played, I’m not sure if he could pull off a character of Lex.

  28. Kali says:

    My initial reaction was to wonder what the casting people are smoking but, after some time to think about it, am reasonably intrigued now. The general outcry seems to be exactly the same reaction as when Heath Ledger was casted as the Joker. However, as Tapioca mentioned, Snyder’s directing. Not Nolan. Really would not want to be in Jesse Eisenberg’s shoes right now, he has so much pressure to do this right.

  29. Lilacflowers says:

    I find Jesse Eisenberg incredibly annoying, which actually worked for him in Social Network. He surprised me in Now You See Me. Since Lex Luthor is an annoying character, maybe this will work. Having trouble seeing Jeremy Irons as Alfred.

  30. magpie says:

    Joaquin Phoenix would have been awesome. I love Jesse but he looks too young vs. Cavill (even though they’re the same age).

    • Virgilia Coriolanus says:

      Joaquin would have been good—-I love seeing him in a suit and slicked back hair…none of this homeless shit he’s trying to pull off now.

  31. Nanou says:

    I personally liked Michael Gough’s Alfred better than Michael Caine’s although the latter was great. I can’t believe there are people here bashing on the great Jeremy Irons when ironically most Batman fanboys are totally fine with his casting.
    I bet “comic book experts”praising Marvel are fine with a Hank Pym in his 60s.
    It’s amazing how people here can already predict this movie will be a mess without seeing a single image of it yet. See you in 2016 in theaters ; )

    • Aisha says:

      I agree on Michael Gough though all the casting for the Tim Burton movies was spot on. I think the issue is how disliked Ben Affleck is in general (I personally don’t like him for reasons I can’t explain but it might be the constant smirk face he has on). Jeremy Irons recently outed himself as a sexist, homophobic dumbass so that might be where the bashing is coming from. I think it’ll be one of those movies that’s either really good or spectacularly bad so I’ll definitely be seeing it too!

    • Dommy Dearest says:

      Actually no. Pym isn’t even going to be Ant Man, they are using Lang for Ant-Man. Which means no Wasp. And also means that Ultron’s origins being a Stark creation angers me. And there are plenty more who are just as angry. Pym won’t fit Disney’s mold since he had anger issues and slapped Janet around.

  32. V says:

    If different people were in charge of this movie, I’d probably say nay at the casting of Jesse as Lex, but all things considered, he might actually be okay in this particular interpretation of Batman/Superman. Any other director and I’d be more likely to cast Jesse as Jimmy Olsen, but since it’s Snyder at the helm…I’ll wait for the video.

  33. Luna says:

    I feel a little embarrassed to say this but I actually find Jesse kind of hot, especially after watching The Facebook Effect. He’s got that nerdy but very intelligent and smart thing about him which just makes you want to get close to him and ask him to teach you everything that he knows in that brain of his.

    Or maybe he was really really really good in The Facebook Effect which makes me believe that’s him in real life hahaha,

  34. shuttleturtle says:

    Jesus this kid cannot be Lex! Like I read in other site it would have be a fresh casting news to this film that is already boring, to hear that they cast a female Lex Luthor: Robin Wright chillness a-la-Claire Underwood would have been terrifying !!!

  35. tokeberry says:

    Yes. He is totally talented, and will do a great job.