It should goes without saying that we couldn’t be much more excited about the burgeoning DC Extended Universe. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice hits theaters later this month, and present sa villainous threat to the planet powerful enough to unite the entire DC Justice League. Once the Caped Crusader and the Man of Steel get over their differences, they will have quite a bit still left on their plates. While we know Doomsday and Lex Luthor will feature prominently in the film, there’s a theory going around the internet that suggests seeds may also be planted for the eventual arrival of Brainiac.
This theory comes to us courtesy of the folks at Screen Rant, who suggest that the Lex/OS operating system advertised in the Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice viral campaign may in fact be laying the groundwork for Brainiac’s arrival in the DCEU. The website describes the operating system as "the world’s first neural network based operating system," which will usher in an "age of machines that will think for us, freeing up human brain power to tackle the world’s bigger questions." Oh Lex, what have you gotten yourself into?
Anyone who knows anything about A.I. in a movie knows that this can’t be a good sign for our heroes. As a powerful, ancient Kryptonian artificial intelligence, Brainiac has a "12th level intellect," making him arguably the most intelligent being in the known universe. He’s a longtime foe of the Justice League with strong ties to Superman’s origins on Krypton. This version of Brainiac will seemingly play a similar role to Skynet in the Terminator franchise, or Ultron in the recent Avengers: Age of Ultron – an omnipresent, highly advanced artificial intelligence that eventually comes to consider humanity obsolete.
Having Lex/OS serve as the foundation for Brainiac within the DCEU makes a great deal of sense because it all stems back to Lex Luthor. In the same way that Lex Luthor creates Doomsday, he may very well create other Justice League enemies in an effort to defeat them. His hubris always does seem to create massive problems, doesn’t it? Another distinct possibility lies in the fact that Luthor may not even have made Lex/OS at all. He could have reverse engineered the operating system from technology salvaged from Zod’s invasion of Earth without knowing Brainiac was hiding inside of the computers. Either way, we have a sneaking suspicion that Brainiac is waiting in the wings to raise hell for the heroes of the DC universe.
What do you think about this? Does Lex/OS represent the first silver screen incarnation of Brainiac, or is it just a fun piece of viral marketing? Let us know what you think in the comments, and be sure to check out Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice when it blasts its way into theaters later this month on March 25.
