Superman: Legacy: James Gunn Has a Favorite Lex Luthor & That’s Okay

Posted in: CW, Movies, streaming, TV, Warner Bros, YouTube | Tagged: inside of you, james gunn, lex luthor, michael rosenbaum, smallville

Superman: Legacy writer/director James Gunn took to Twitter to make it clear that his having a favorite Lex Luthor isn’t a slight to anyone.

We had a feeling that there was going to be some pissiness when we covered it yesterday – and we weren’t wrong. DC Studios co-head and Superman: Legacy writer & director James Gunn checked in with his good friend Michael Rosenbaum on Rosenbaum’s Inside of You podcast to cover a whole ton of issues. At one point, Rosenbaum shifts the “Legacy” conversation to a subject near and dear to his heart – Lex Luthor. Though Rosenbaum said he assumed Lex would be in the film, Gunn made it clear that info never came from him. So from a purely hypothetical standpoint, Rosenbaum asked Gunn if there is a Lex Luthor that he be “grounded and real” and true to the character’s core – an approach Gunn seemed to agree with (referring to Rosenbaum as “definitely the best Lex”). Well, that didn’t seem to go over well with folks who were fans of Jesse Eisenberg, Gene Hackman, and other folks who’ve portrayed The Man of Steel’s arch-nemesis. In particular, some Zack Snyder fans thought the conversation was a directly veiled slap at the Snyderverse. So after clarifying that it was never intended as any kind of slight, Gunn had to follow up with a tweet where he argued that he had a right to have a favorite Lex – which is a weird thing to be put into a position to have to argue because… you know… opinions. We all have them.

In reading these replies, sometimes it seems like people are looking for things to get outraged about & have little sense of history. Although Donner’s ‘Superman’ movies are some of my favorites, I’ve spoken out publicly before, & even written about it in EW back in the early 2000s, perhaps unwisely, that Lex Luthor is not my favorite part of those films,” Gunn responded in a tweet looking to out to rest a non-issue that became an issue (shocking for social media, we know). “The portrayal can lean campy & I wished he seemed like a greater threat & I wished he’d played it bald throughout. I regret having intimated that I didn’t like ANY Lex on Michael’s show, but there it is. For the record, I think Hackman is one of the five greatest actors of the ’70s & ’80s, and he starred in some of my favorite movies; I just didn’t love him as Lex.” Here’s a look at Gunn’s tweet:

Here’s a look at the complete episode – and make sure to subscribe to the Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum here:

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