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.

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

Superman features a very brief voice cameo from a second Lex Luthor actor besides Nicholas Hoult, Smallville's Michael Rosenbaum.