There’s not a trick answer to this. When Warner Bros. announced last week that Jesse Eisenberg had been hired to play Lex Luthor in the sequel to last year’s “Man Of Steel,” that is correct. He is playing Lex Luthor. But when they say that, it’s still not a definitive explanation of what you’re going to see when that film arrives in theaters on the now-scheduled date of May , 2016. Which Lex Luthor is he going to play? For comic book fans, there are many possible answers to that question, and for fans of the various live-action and animated interpretations, there are even more possibilities in the mix.
I contend we’re not going to see a Luthor we’ve seen before. Not exactly. “Man Of Steel” was controversial with fans, and there are people who hate the choices the film made, as well as plenty of people who think those choices are what made the interpretation interesting. I think Zack Snyder and David Goyer have set out to tell a particular story, and if I know Snyder (and I think I do after this long knowing him and covering his work) and if I know Goyer ( and I think I do after this long knowing him and working with him and covering his work), then they’re going to continue telling that story in the sequel. Even if they are introducing more super-powered characters into the world, they’re doing it as a building reaction from Superman’s introduction.
An interesting bit of thinking and reasoning going on here. I wish I liked Man of Steel enough to have a well formulated opinion on this subject. As it is, I can already feel the rage building in me about how bad this franchise has started off and how they’re probably going to continue the downard spiral…