We ranked every major Lex Luthor performance, including Nicholas Hoult's, to crown Superman's best on-screen nemesis.

Curious to know when Lex Luthor, played by Nicholas Hoult, could return after Superman 2025? At the end of the movie, Superman humiliates Lex Luthor, giving him a well-deserved defeat and unmasking his plans to destroy Earth in an attempt to bring the hero down.

When taking on a timeless role like Lex Luthor for James Gunn’s Superman movie, it helps to get advice from actors who’ve been in the villainous role before. Batman V. Superman ’s Lex Luthor’s Jesse Eisenberg's blunt advice to Nicholas Hoult was… basically not to watch his performance.

James Gunn’s busy, hit-and-miss “Superman” is a lively summer ride, but it comes with lots of turbulence. David Corenswet makes a great Superman but is too briefly depicted as Clark Kent, “mild mannered reporter for the Daily Planet.

Like his animated counterpart, the Luthor in the 2025 Superman is carrying out a complicated war against Superman that comes with a huge cash outlay: He covertly supplies the fictional nation of Boravia with $80 billion in weapons, plotting with the Boravian president to seize control of neighboring Jarhanpur, then split the country between them.

Superman director James Gunn confirms that he initially had conversations with Bradley Cooper about Lex Luthor before deciding on Nicholas Hoult.

The Superman Good Deeds, Lex Luthor Bad Deeds meme trend took off shortly after the release of Superman (2025), directed by James Gunn and starring David Corenswet and Nicholas Hoult.

Speaking to Hoult on the set of Superman last summer, the actor explained how even during the process of going after Batman and Superman, it was Lex Luthor that subtly called to him. “It’s no secret that I read for Matt Reeves’ movie and for this film with James and I feel very fortunate the way things [played] out,

Lex Luthor is Superman's best villain, but he isn't the first. This villain was the first to content with Superman, but nobody remembers him.