Following the release of the Creature Commandos animated series later this year to Max subscribers, the film side of the new DC Universe franchise will begin next year with James Gunn’s Superman reboot, starring David Corenswet as the Man of Steel. Although the Superman cast includes antagonists like Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor and María Gabriela de Faría’s Engineer, officially-speaking, we don’t know what kind of specific threat Clark Kent will face in this upcoming DC movie. However, now there’s a wild rumor going around about another villain who’s appearing in Superman, and I’m hoping this particular piece of information isn’t true.
According to The Geeky Cast, Corenswet is actually playing two roles in Superman, with the other being Ultraman. However, instead if this version of the character being an evil counterpart of Superman from Earth-3 who’s a member of the Crime Syndicate of America, he will be a clone created by Lex Luthor, who’s described as being more of a scientist in this movie rather than an industrialist. If this information is accurate, this would be the second live-action adaptation of Ultraman following Smallville, although that character was a variation named Clark Luthor who lived on Earth-Two and was raised by Lionel Luthor.
Here’s the thing: I wouldn’t mind Ultraman being the villain in a Superman movie… provided that he was still a version of Superman from another universe. By turning him into a clone though, nearly all of his appeal goes away, especially since the ‘Superman clone’ role can easily be filled by Bizarro. After all, there have been plenty of stories where Lex Luthor created Bizarro, so why not keep that intact rather than replace him with Ultraman? It’s not as though Bizarro isn’t a villain who’s also deserving of time in a live-action movie.
What’s even stranger about this rumor is that it’s also mentioned in the report that Superman will have “a lot of multiversal aspects.” If that’s the case, then why not just have Ultraman come from another Earth. The Flash movie, the Arrowverse and the MCU have exposed the general public to the multiverse enough over the last several years, so even though the DC Universe Chapter One slate is just getting started, it’s not as though introducing other universes would be that big a shock to the system. Besides, introducing a faithful Ultraman on his own in Superman could set the stage for the Crime Syndicate to be featured in a later DC movie.
For now, it’s worth taking this rumor with a grain of salt, and it will likely be a while until it’s confirmed or debunked since Superman is still relatively early into principal photography. For now, just keep visiting CinemaBlend for more updates on how the reboot is coming along, and revisit Superman’s past film and TV appearances on Max with the other DC movies in order.
