Rather than let the first look at Lex Luthor’s practical effects Warsuit come via blurry set photos, Man of Tomorrow director James Gunn took to social media earlier this week to share the iconic purple and green battle suit with fans. Now, as principal photography for the project continues in Atlanta, fans have captured Nicholas Hoult, and a stunt double, on set in the monstrous suit preparing to go to battle with David Coresnwet‘s Superman.
The final video shows Gunn directing Corenswet, who is sporting a suit that is “not the exact same” as the one he wore in Superman, on how to reign blows down upon Luthor.
While responding to fans on Threads, Gunn revealed that Man of Tomorrow will take place 2 years after the events of Superman, saying the time between the two is “basically real time.”
Production on Man of Tomorrow is underway in Georgia and as the crew works on bringing parts of Metropolis to life, James Gunn has taken to social media to reveal the first look at Lex Luthor’s iconic Warsuit.
Interestingly, the Warsuit comes emblazoned with an A.R.G.U.S. logo on the chest!
The internet has a funny way of remembering things, and right now, it’s fixated on a 26-year-old conversation between two friends. Following the news that Matthew Lillard has officially joined the cast of Man of Tomorrow, a persistent and highly logical theory has taken over: Eel O’Brian is finally coming to the big screen.
While Plastic Man sounds like a wild swing, the evidence suggests this isn’t just fan-casting—it’s a decades-long manifestation.
The bedrock of this theory isn’t just Lillard’s lanky frame; it’s a direct confirmation from James Gunn himself. Back in March 2023, Gunn took to social media to confirm a long-standing rumor: while filming the first Scooby-Doo in 2000, he and Lillard spent their downtime discussing a Plastic Man movie.
Gunn has gone on record stating that he always thought Lillard’s physical comedy and rubbery facial expressions made him the definitive choice for the role. In his recent “no reason” photo with Lillard on Instagram, fans noticed the actor’s current look—lean, expressive, and wearing a very Eel O’Brian style of glasses.
Why introduce Plastic Man in a Superman sequel? Perhaps Gunn is continuing that development of another group of heroes to the new DC Universe.
The Terrifics
We already know that Man of Tomorrow features the returns of Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi) and Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan). In the comics, these two are the core of a team called The Terrifics—and the third member is almost always Plastic Man. Lillard’s chaotic energy would be the perfect foil to Gathegi’s stoic intellect and Carrigan’s tragic Metamorpho. Introducing him here allows Gunn to build toward a Terrifics spin-off without needing a full origin story movie.
Some fans have argued the 56-year-olf Lillard might be too old, but Gunn has alreadly pivoted his DCU to feature seasoned heroes, like Lanterns Guy Gardner and Hal Jordan. A veteran Plastic Man who has been stretching for years fits the established timeline of this universe.
If Lillard is Plastic Man, it’s a full-circle moment for two of the industry’s most resilient creators. Gunn wrote the scripts that helped make Lillard a 2000s icon, and now he’s bringing him into the Gods and Monsters era. Plastic Man is a character that requires a specific mix of tragedy and absurdity—traits Lillard has mastered from Scream to The Bear.
The Matthew Lillard Renaissance is officially hitting the DCU. According to Deadline, horror icon and fan-favorite Matthew Lillard has joined the cast of Man of Tomorrow.
While his role is being kept under a fortress-level” secrecy by DC Studios, the casting marks a major 20-year reunion for Lillard and James Gunn, who famously collaborated on the live-action Scooby-Doo films written by Gunn in the early 2000s.
Lillard is currently on one of the most impressive runs of his career, and joining the DCU is the cherry on top. Fans just finished seeing Lillard as the enigmatic Mr. Charles in Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, where he played a manipulative political fixer working against Kingpin.
Gunn is known for alumni casting, and Lillard—the definitive live-action Shaggy—is a perfect fit for Gunn’s quirky but high-stakes world-building. Between returning for Scream 7, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, and the upcoming Carrie series, Lillard is officially the hardest-working man in genre film right now.
As usual, the internet is already rife with theories for the undisclosed role. Some believe he could be playing a character like Snapper Carr or a high-ranking government official (perhaps a DC version of his Born Again role) who serves as a liaison between Superman and the U.N. With Brainiac (Lars Eidinger) as the main threat, some theorists are looking at Lillard to play a more eccentric, tech-based villain like Winslow Schott, aka Toyman.
Filming is already well underway in Atlanta under the working title “Exodus.” Lillard joining the cast now suggests he may have a significant role in the film’s second act. Man of Tomorrow is locked in for a July 9, 2027 theatrical release, serving as the first true sequel in Gunn’s new DC Universe.
In between Zaslav’s tease and the announcement of Man of Tomorrow, fans discovered an unused storyboard from Superman in the behind-the-scenes featurette, Adventures in the Making of Superman,which they believed revealed the villain of the 2027 Superman sequel. The storyboard features Superman, Supergirl and Krypto flying but a closer look at the bottom corner reveals the head of one of the House of El’s greatest enemies: Brainiac. Gunn further teased the classic Superman villain by releasing a photo of the script for Man of Tomorrow with a brain front and center on the cover page, but stopped short of confirming his inclusion. Now, a trade report seems to have taken care of that.
According to The Wrap, Brainiac will indeed be the catalyst that causes Superman and Lex Luthor, complete in his Warsuit, to join forces in Man of Tomorrow.
Gunn previously revealed that the villain “was considered” for Superman and with Supergirl hitting theaters in 2026, it wouldn’t take much to give some background to Brainiac’s fascination with Kryptonions and reveal that he visited Krypton before it was destroyed and shrunk and stole the capital city of Kandor.
In the comics, Brainiac’s primary motivation is generally a cold, unquenchable thirst for absolute knowledge and self-improvement—which involves collecting and destroying civilizations; however, modern writers have created a more sadistic version of the character, will to torture and experiment on his enemies–or even his own clones in the Absolute Universe–and employ psychological tactics that are more calculated cruelty than logic.
Since it’s pretty obvious I can confirm I heard Claes Bang too. But there’s a handful of others who are going to be tested so it’s undecided https://t.co/MBAjzKsmg9
Following the news, social media scoopers collaborated to indicate that Claes Bang, who played the title role in Netflix’s Dracula, has already rested for the role. However, tests are ongoing and given Gunn’s previous work with DC Studios, will involve multiple rounds of testing, including reading with leads David Corenswet and Nicholas Hoult.
While Superman focused mainly on fleshing out the all-new, all-different DCU’s Metropolis and its cast of characters, the film’s opening text established a world in which metahumans have been a known quantity for 300 years. That allowed for plenty of room to introduce heroes and villains in the film without necessarily having to spend too much time on their origins, something director James Gunn took full advantage of in having the Engineer and Ultraman join Lex Luthor in taking on Superman.
Even though Maria Gabrielle de Faria’s Engineer didn’t land with audiences as much as Gunn had hoped, she was a key part of Luthor’s team, so with Superman’s arch enemy set to return in Man of Tomorrow, it shouldn’t be too surprising to learn that Gunn has plans for the Engineer as well.
As confirmed by Gunn from comments made in the Superman Director’s Commentary, de Faria will return in Man of Tomorrow where fans will learn what happened to the villain after she went toe-to-toe with Kal-El and lost.
“She’s out of the movie,” said Gunn of the character in reference to her not returning to the story after being knocked unconscious by Superman. “Where does she go? Well, you’re going to find that out in the next movie.”
That sounds a bit like PlanetWatch may end up getting involved in…watching the planet…when Brainiac attacks, which is a reasonable way of having Lex and Superman team up in Man of Tomorrow. However, the Engineer wasn’t the only other villain in Superman.
“We discover that Ultraman is a clone of Superman. [In the comics], Ultraman is from Earth-3, where he’s a part of The Crime Syndicate and an evil version of Superman. There are some similarities here,” said Gunn. “Also, you might ask yourself, ‘Where does Ultraman go at the end of the movie?’ He sends him up into the black hole. Is this the end of Ultraman? I don’t know.”
While obviously more opaque than the plans for the Engineer, it does sound as though while Ultraman’s fate might be unknown to the audience, it’s a little more defined in Gunn’s mind.
Could Gunn be hinting at a Crisis on Two Earths-type film as part of his Superman Saga? It’s certainly not one on many fans’ bingo cards and would be incredibly ambitious; however, if executed properly, it would also likely stand as a giant among comic-booky comic book films.
Less than a year into its existence, the all-new, all-different DCU has already gone and developed a particularly bad case of canon-itis. While it should be simple given only Creature Commandos, Superman and Season 2 of Peacemaker have been produced as part of the DC Studios’ slate, references in those projects have canonized projects made prior to the DCU’s inception.
In a 2024 interview, DC Studios’ co-chair James Gunn–who created each of the DCU’s first three projects–muddied the timeline waters of the all-new DCU by explaining that the events of a pair of projects he created as part of the now defunct DCEU would be considered canon to the new connected universe…kind of.
“Now in Creature Commandos, you’ll hear them talk about things that happened in The Suicide Squad or Peacemaker. Well then, those things automatically become canon,” said Gunn, before explaining that his previous statement was only mostly true.”The truth is almost all of Peacemaker is canon with the exception of Justice League… which we will kind of deal with in the next season of Peacemaker.”
The appearance of the Justice League was indeed dealt with in the next season of Peacemaker, or rather before it ever began. During a “Previously in the DCU” opening ahead of Peacemaker‘s Season 2 premiere, the Justice League was replaced with the Justice Gang plus two (Superman and Supergirl). Without further explanation, Gunn added that the events of Peacemaker Season 1 took place before the events of Superman and that while Superman and Supergirl were not part of the Gang, the Man of Steel and his Kryptonian cousin has been able to “team up with them a lot like they did in Superman.” And in light of a recent timeline cue, that is interesting indeed.
Only CC forward is pure canon; Peacemaker is almost entirely consistent with that canon other than the Justice League; The Suicide Squad has a lot of consistencies but I think of it as an imperfect memory.
-James Gunn
The truth is that canon doesn’t matter…until, of course, it does..and at some point, it might. And so while the entirety of The Suicide Squad is not canon, parts of it certainly are. In both Creature Commandos and Season 2 of Peacemaker, the death of Rick Flag Jr. at the hands of Christopher Smith during the mission to Corto Maltese has been addressed, meeting Gunn’s admittedly arbitrary and amorphous canon guidelines.
“For instance, Rick Flag Jr was killed because we heard Rick Flag Sr talking about it in Creature Commandos, not because we saw it in The Suicide Squad,” Gunn explained. And now, it’s clear why Jr.’s death has to mentioned: it had to matter.
The latest episode of Peacemaker, “Another Rick Up My Sleeve,” saw Joel Kinnaman back in the role of Flag Jr., kind of. As part of Peacemaker’s dimension hopping adventure, the character has found himself in an alternate timeline where a romance with Emilia Harcourt could be in the cards should she chose to leave an established relationship with a very different Flag. That’s all very interesting and will certainly matter eventually, but it was Kinnaman’s brief appearance as the OTHER Flag that set an important point on the DCU’s developing timeline.
In a flashback scene featuring Harcourt and the now-dead Flag, it was established that the mission to Corto Maltese took place three years ago. And because canon only matters when it matters, that matters because it coincides with Kal-El announced himself as Superman…and may well have put a target on his back.
In The Suicide Squad–which is, of course, not canon except for the parts that are–it is established that Idris Elba‘s Robert DuBois, aka Bloodsport, finds himself in Belle Reve after having taking his shot at Superman with a Kryptonite bullet.
Gunn has claimed that he’s “always looking for a place to put Bloodsport,” and the timeline tidbit in the latest episode of Peacemaker might have made that possible. Fans had previously expressed uncertainty about how Bloodsport’s attack on Superman could be reconciled within the DCU and Gunn looks to have addressed that by setting The Suicide Squad and Superman in the same year.
Superman reveals that Lex Luthor was well aware of Kryptonite and its effects on Kryptonians but Rick Flag Sr. also mentions that “there’s none left on the planet.” Without thinking too hard, it certainly does not mean there was none three years earlier, meaning–if Gunn chooses to make it so–Bloodsport’s attempted hit on Superman could become one of those things we hear talked about in Peacemaker, thus canonizing it into the DCU and allowing Elba to step back into the role.
With Gunn having written both Peacemaker and Superman, it seems highly unlikely that the three year span since Superman became active coincidentally intersects so neatly with the time since the mission on Corto Maltese. Indeed, given that Gunn was working on both projects simultaneously, it seems rather intentional. Perhaps Elba will be one of the big surprises Gunn has been hyping; perhaps he’s not involved at all. However, the tiny timeline tidbit has provided all the opportunity necessary to get Elba‘s Bloodsport, a character who first appeared in a Superman comic, back in the game.
Superman star Isabela Merced, who debuted as the DCU’s Hawkgirl shared Gunn’s social media post in an Instagram story she captioned “See You Soon.”
I’m totally done with the treatment. My treatments are incredibly intense. They’re not regular treatments. They’re 60-page treatments with dialogue and everything,” Gunn devulged. “And so, now I’m just turning that into a script. We’re planning out when we’re going to shoot that. It’s going to be much sooner rather than later.
-James Gunn
Should Merced, who also briefly reprised her role in Season 2 of Peacemaker, indeed be returning for the film, it is very likely she’ll be accompanied by Edi Gathegi‘s Mister Terrific, Nathan Fillion‘s Guy Gardner and Anthony Carrigan‘s Metamorpho, all members of the Maxwell Lord-sponsored Justice Gang.
With DC Studios hosting the red carpet premiere of Season 2 of Peacemaker and Superman debuting on digital platforms this week, James Gunn has spent quite a bit of time in front of the press and he has rarely remained silent in such situations. As such, it was no surprise that he broke some DCU news earlier this week, though the subject caught nearly everyone off guard.
I’ve already finished the treatment for the next story in what I’ll call the Superman Saga. The treatment’s done–which means a very, very worked out and I’m hopefully going into production on that treatment–and I’m working on that not too far away from today.
-James Gunn
After a recent mention of Gunn’s involvement in a “Super-Family” movie, the DC Studios co-chair revealed he has finished work on a treatment of what he referred to as the next story in the “Superman Saga.” Furthermore, the news that the film would be headed into production “not too far away from today,” certainly turned heads as it could possibly mean a third Superman Family film would be in theaters over a 2 or 3 year span, following this summer’s Superman and next year’s Supergirl. Now, in a new interview with Collider, Gunn has provided some additional information about the treatment and, once again, teased an imminent start of production.
“We’re scheduling it now, ” said Gunn of the production of the new film which will star David Corenswet but will NOT be Superman 2.
“I’m totally done with the treatment. My treatments are incredibly intense. They’re not regular treatments. They’re 60-page treatments with dialogue and everything,” Gunn devulged. “And so, now I’m just turning that into a script. We’re planning out when we’re going to shoot that. It’s going to be much sooner rather than later.“
Though no details have been revealed, fans have come to believe that the project may see Kal-El, his cousin, Kara Zor-El, and her dog, Krypto, team up to take on classic Superman baddie Brainiac. Should DC Studios schedule production sometime in 2025–which would align with the idea of “not too far from today”–it wound stand to reason that casting would get underway soon and that more details about the film would begin to make their way online.
After an incredibly short 35-day theatrical window, DC Studios Superman is now available to rent or purchase on digital platforms. Though the film hasn’t been pulled from theaters, fans were caught off guard earlier this week when the August 15th digital debut was announced; however, it turns out there’s a pretty logical reason behind the first film in the Superman Saga heading to small screens so soon.
“Well, it’s very complicated, but the truth is it is because of Peacemaker,” Gunn explained in an interview with Screen Rant. The DC Studios co-chair previously stated that “Peacemaker season 2 is very connected to Superman,” though now it sounds as though watching the Man of Steel’s DCU debut may be required reading for the new season of John Cena‘s streaming series.
-Photo courtesy of WB Media Pass
I originally thought Peacemaker was going to be coming out next month [September]. There was a lot of things that are beyond our control, so that Peacemaker is coming out now, and, at the end of the day, I wanted everyone to be able to see Superman that wanted to, even those people who couldn’t get to a theater before Peacemaker. And that’s really the reason for it.
-James Gunn
Reading between the lines of Gunn’s comments, it sounds as though Warner Bros. Discovery made the decision to release Season 2 of Peacemaker in August, scuttling the original plans for Superman‘s digital release. In all reality, the quick turnaround is unlikely to cause much harm to the box office total of the film and will more than likely spur another round of social media hype as fans who hadn’t seen it in theaters check in.
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