‘Man of Tomorrow’ James Gunn Superman Movie Casts Lars Eidinger As Brainiac

EXCLUSIVE: German actor Lars Eidinger will be Brainiac in James Gunn’s Superman and Lex Luther movie Man of Tomorrow, we hear.

This is the first time that Brainiac, a very popular Superman villain in the comics next to Lex, will appear on the big screen.  The character was created by writer Otto Binder and artist Al Plastino, and made his debut in Action Comics #242.

Brainiac is a really smart android who comes from the planet of Colu. He’s hellbent on collecting all the knowledge in the universe. What we know about Man of Tomorrow is that David Corenswet’s Man of Steel and Nicholas Hoult’s Luther have to team up against a new threat in the galaxy. Wouldn’t be a surprise if it’s Brainiac who can shrink cities and destroy planets. In the comics, the bad guy has a history of shrinking Superman’s home planet of Krypton; and in some storylines even destructed the place.

The UTA repped, European award nominated Eidinger has starred in such movies as Olivier Assayas’ Clouds of Sils Maria and Personal Shopper, in the Netflix Noah Baumbach directed movies Jay Kelly and White Noise, among several others. Eidinger was nominated last year for European Actor at the European Film Awards for the Matthias Glasner directed movie Dying.

Gunn wrote on Instagram, “In our worldwide search for Brainiac in Man of Tomorrow, Lars Eidinger rose to the top. Welcome to the DCU, Lars.”

An April production start is being eyed for Man of Tomorrow for a theatrical release on July 9, 2027. Superman was Gunn’s first big tentpole in the new DC Studios, led by himself and Peter Safran; the pic grossing over $616M around the world.