A new Superman: Legacy casting rumor claims that Bradley Cooper is the running to play DC Comics villain Lex Luthor.
This latest rumor comes from scooper Jeff Sneider during an appearance on John Rocha’s The Hot Mic podcast and piggybacks off a previous scoop from Deadline’s Justin Kroll who claimed that Gunn was in talks for a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy cast to play Luthor.
Kroll specifically wrote on Twitter, “One thing not mentioned, while they have been taking submissions for the Lex Luthor role, sources tell me Gunn has been talking to one of his Guardians for the part. Sounds like its probably not happening but there certainly were discussions during GOTG 3 press tour.”
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Referencing this tweet, Sneider told Rocha, “Justin [Kroll] had put out a tweet saying that James [Gunn] had been talking to one of his Guardians actors for a role, and I am told that that is in fact Bradley Cooper.”
When asked what role Cooper would play, Sneider replied, “For Lex.”
Sneider went on to say, “Bradley Cooper has been looking for a payday for awhile. And to reestablish himself as a movie star.”
“He’s been busy making movies, A Star Is Born, and now he’s doing the Bernstein movie, and he’s obviously the star of these movies as well, but I think he wants to be the star of a big franchise and assert himself as sort of dominance like that,” Sneider relayed.
He continued, “So, he trusts James Gunn, number one. Warner Bros. loves him, obviously, A Star Is Born, American Sniper, The Hangover movies, he’s like Warner Bros.’ f***ing guy. They talked to him on the Guardians press tour about it, from what I understand, and casting someone like Bradley Cooper would also give James Gunn more leeway in casting Superman.”
Sneider elaborated on the Superman casting saying, “He can go with a complete unknown in the same way Gene Hackman was there as a backstop when they hired Christopher Reeve. The only question about the Bradley Cooper of it all is when does Steven Spielberg wants to shoot Bullitt.”
He then detailed that Gunn and DC Studios “would like to announce Superman and Lois at Comic-Con. … Whether Superman and Lois actually show up that remains to be seen because SAG could be on strike.”
“So whoever is cast as Superman wouldn’t necessarily show up at Comic-Con because of a potential strike,” he reiterated. “And for all I know Warner Bros. may be like, listen, we’re not even opening up James Gunn to like questions about the strike and stuff like that. We’re not even going to Comic-Con.”
Nevertheless, he did says, “But it seems like this is their first Comic-Con with James Gunn as the head, they’ll have some sort of presence.”
As far as who might play Superman, Sneider cautions that their might be a number of other actors in the running, explaining, “When the first list for Superman came out, Reeve wasn’t on it, Cavill was not on it. I think we’re just getting sort of maybe the tapes that were prioritized. … Here are the tapes that we’ve got to prioritize, I don’t think it necessarily makes them frontrunners.”
Gunn reacted to any casting rumors writing on Twitter, “For all of you asking, I would never comment on who is or isn’t AUDITIONING for a role. That’s the actor’s business only & isn’t something I’d make public unless they did it first after the fact (like Gelln Howerton or Zachary Levi having auditioned for Star-Lord & being top choices).”
He added, “For now, only one person has been CAST in Superman: Legacy, and it isn’t any of the regular players in the Superman world.”
What do you make of Bradley Cooper potentially playing Lex Luthor in Superman: Legacy?