Production on DC Studios’ Superman began just over a month ago and though little aside from the film’s design for the crest of the House of El has been officially revealed, rumored details about the plot have begun to trickle out. One of the more tantalizing tidbits to make the rounds is that star David Corenswet will be playing multiple versions of the character as Nicholas Hoult‘s Lex Luthor will team up with a dangerous doppelgänger in order to take on the Man of Steel. While that sounds dangerously close to the plot of the critically nuked 1987 film Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, director and DC Studios’ co-chair James Gunn has stayed out of the online discourse, leading folks to believe it might just be true. Now, a new rumor has emerged online that gives a bit more information about Luthor’s plan in the film. If the rumor proves true, the details could be fairly spoilery so proceed at your own risk.
According to online scoopster Can We Get Some Toast, Luthor’s plan to battle Kal-El in Superman revolves around the bald baddie using Kal’s DNA to create a corrupt clone of the hero! The idea, of course, is pulled straight from the comics where the concept has been explored multiple times, usually with Luthor’s clone being one take or another on Bizarro. However, Gunn’s take is rumored to give the clone a different identity, blending it with an evil, multiversal alternate Kal known as Ultraman.
In the comics, Ultraman goes by Kal-II and is Earth 3’s version of the Last Son of Krypton. Ultraman is the complete antithesis of Superman: a being of pure evil who certainly does not value truth, justice and the American way. Gunn’s Superman has been described as “kindness in a world that thinks of kindness as old fashioned,” so pitting him against an alternate version of himself that values none of that could provide for both an interesting commentary on modern society and a dangerous foe.
Should this indeed be part of Luthor’s plot to defeat Superman, it would not be surprising to see him in league with Maria Gabrielle de Faria’s Angelica Spica, aka The Engineer, who Gunn has said will be a villain in Superman.
Superman is currently slated to hit theaters on July 11, 2025.
