The Greatest Criminal Mind Of Our Time: an all-encompassing LEX LUTHOR discussion

[daBronzeBomma]

Jon Cryer has been cast as the CW Lex.

>sigh<

Swing and a miss, Berlanti.

Live Action Lex Luthor IX will be played by the less interesting guy from TWO AND A HALF MEN sitcom.

Some call it legacy casting. I call this stunt casting.

Of all the things to salvage from SUPERMAN IV, nephew Lenny Luthor should not have been one of them.

Guess we're in for more Buffoon Lex.

[manofsteel1979]

Jon Cryer has been cast as the CW Lex.

>sigh<

Swing and a miss, Berlanti.

Live Action Lex Luthor IX will be played by the less interesting guy from TWO AND A HALF MEN sitcom.

Some call it legacy casting. I call this stunt casting.

Of all the things to salvage from SUPERMAN IV, nephew Lenny Luthor should not have been one of them.

Guess we're in for more Buffoon Lex.

We shall see. I'm willing to give Cryer a chance. He may surprise us.

I mean,a great dramatic actor in the role is no guarantee of greatness. We had both Gene Hackman and Kevin Spacey, both of whom looked like no brainers on paper...but we got real estate conman Lex.

Michael Rosenbaum was an unknown comedic actor who is as far from Lex Luthor as you can get in real life...and he's one of the best if not the best live action Lex to date. So anything is possible.


But as of now im generally skeptical.

[jetengine]

Lex Luthor imo should be a bald, slightly more neurotic and obsessive Xanatos from Gargoyles.

[stargazer01]

Jon Cryer has been cast as the CW Lex.

>sigh<

Swing and a miss, Berlanti.

Live Action Lex Luthor IX will be played by the less interesting guy from TWO AND A HALF MEN sitcom.

Some call it legacy casting. I call this stunt casting.

Of all the things to salvage from SUPERMAN IV, nephew Lenny Luthor should not have been one of them.

Guess we're in for more Buffoon Lex.

I know exactly how you feel. After seeing how good Krypton did villains like Brainiac, Gen Zod and even Doomsday, the bar has been raised on TV for DC. Cryer just doesn't look like Lex at all to me.. He's so not threatening looking, sigh. We need a little miracle.

We shall see. I'm willing to give Cryer a chance. He may surprise us.

I mean,a great dramatic actor in the role is no guarantee of greatness. We had both Gene Hackman and Kevin Spacey, both of whom looked like no brainers on paper...but we got real estate conman Lex.

Michael Rosenbaum was an unknown comedic actor who is as far from Lex Luthor as you can get in real life...and he's one of the best if not the best live action Lex to date. So anything is possible.


But as of now im generally skeptical.

My only hope is that both Cryer and the showrunners go for a very serious Lex. It really depends on what they want for the character. I hope he's more like his mom, Lillian, than Donner's Lex. I just don't have high hopes due to the writers in this show. They have turned out quite bad, IMO, so I don't expect nothing really good. I hope my concerns are way wrong and Cryer at least surprises us in the acting department, because lookswise, he is no my Lex Luthor at all.

[manofsteel1979]

One thing that gives me hope is that we've gotten an inference that this Lex leans more toward the mad scientist end of the spectrum and a bit less toward the skinny kingpin/ real estate huckster.Thats one of the things I liked about Eisenberg's Lex in BvS. FINALLY we got a super scientist version of Lex. Yeah it was flawed but it was on the right track.

If Cryer does a less twitchy and nueruotic version of Lthat Lex Luthor, I will probably end up liking that take.

[daBronzeBomma]

We shall see. I'm willing to give Cryer a chance. He may surprise us.

I mean,a great dramatic actor in the role is no guarantee of greatness. We had both Gene Hackman and Kevin Spacey, both of whom looked like no brainers on paper...but we got real estate conman Lex.

Michael Rosenbaum was an unknown comedic actor who is as far from Lex Luthor as you can get in real life...and he's one of the best if not the best live action Lex to date. So anything is possible.


But as of now im generally skeptical.

I don't know ... I never fully discount someone surprising us by exceeding expectations, but Jon Cryer has been acting for over 30 years now: he's anything but an unknown quantity at this point. His confirmed strength is comedy, usually the pathetic type played up for laughs. I don't see a serious Lex coming from him.

Berlanti & Co hired him because they have always sought out exactly this kind of stunt casting for the nostalgia factor.

Keep in mind, THIS is the nostalgia they're aiming for:



The absolute nadir of Superman's big-screen career.

On the (very slim) plus side, nowadays Jon is already shaved bald, and does not look bad for a 50something:



So, we shall see. This being a recurring role on SUPERGIRL, I fully expect his Lex to slurp his sister Lena by forcefully and explicitly admitting she was always much smarter and more cunning than he ever could be.

I mean, I presume that's how it'll be. Depends. I haven't watched SUPERGIRL in almost a year now, and if they further mess up Lois & Clark during the crossover next month, I won't be sticking around to check out their Lex episodes.

[KyCoo]

The one who came closest to killing Superman

[Osiris-Rex]

Lex Luthor imo should be a bald, slightly more neurotic and obsessive Xanatos from Gargoyles.

Jon Cryer is bald.

I don't know ... I never fully discount someone surprising us by exceeding expectations, but Jon Cryer has been acting for over 30 years now: he's anything but an unknown quantity at this point. His confirmed strength is comedy, usually the pathetic type played up for laughs. I don't see a serious Lex coming from him.

I assume you don't watch NCIS then. Because he was excellent as Navy Surgeon Dr. Cyril Taft in a dramatic role.

[stargazer01]

So, we shall see. This being a recurring role on SUPERGIRL, I fully expect his Lex to slurp his sister Lena by forcefully and explicitly admitting she was always much smarter and more cunning than he ever could be.

I mean, I presume that's how it'll be. Depends. I haven't watched SUPERGIRL in almost a year now, and if they further mess up Lois & Clark during the crossover next month, I won't be sticking around to check out their Lex episodes.

I fully expect more Superman and now Lex jobbing for Supergirl and Lena Luthor.

At this point, I can't expect more than that. I'm sure we'll have some 'sweet' Lois and Clark scenes, but beyond that, make no mistake, the writers are not here to show Superman or Lex as the great alpha characters they are supposed to be.

[daBronzeBomma]

Jon Cryer is bald.



I assume you don't watch NCIS then. Because he was excellent as Navy Surgeon Dr. Cyril Taft in a dramatic role.

Yes, a dramatic role that was a whopping 3 episodes long. Compared to the rest of 3-decade-plus career, which is about 96% comedy.

When has Jon Cryer ever, in that 30+ year career as a professional actor, demonstrated that he can play a serious villain?

(Checks imdb):

Oh wait, he did voice Felix Faust in JL/U for 3 episodes and again in JLAction for 1 episode! Yup, I'm sold: he can totally do Live Action Lex Luthor justice based on a total of 4 cartoon episodes!

His resume, combined with Berlanti's agenda (Everything Supergirl-connected must explicitly on-screen trump everything Superman-connected because "it's HER show derp derp"), leaves me with the feeling that we're getting Buffoon Lex who will be royally outsmarted by Lena.

Maybe he and Berlanti will surprise me. But I doubt it.

[daBronzeBomma]

I fully expect more Superman and now Lex jobbing for Supergirl and Lena Luthor.

At this point, I can't expect more than that. I'm sure we'll have some 'sweet' Lois and Clark scenes, but beyond that, make no mistake, the writers are not here to show Superman or Lex as the great alpha characters they are supposed to be.

QFT^

Well said!

[llozymandias]

It could turn out that Jon Cryer will be playing Lionel. That would make more sense than him playing Lex. Unless Lex has been doing some major time travelling.

[Celgress]

For those who may be interested. The current story arc of my "Legion of Superheroes" Avengers/Justice League Crossover will heavily feature Lex. He'll team with Dr. Doom of all people in this one to save Earth from invading aliens when most of the heroes are incapacitated. Can these two legendary egomaniacs work together or will they crash and burn? -

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/1301484...of-Superheroes

If so inclined, enjoy.

[Last Son of Krypton]

‘Supergirl’: Kevin Smith Says Series Will Take Dark Turn With Lex Luthor: https://heroichollywood.com/supergir...th-lex-luthor/

[OpaqueGiraffe17]

‘Supergirl’: Kevin Smith Says Series Will Take Dark Turn With Lex Luthor: https://heroichollywood.com/supergir...th-lex-luthor/

Ok, but let’s all remember, I’m pretty sure Eisenburg was also supposed to be a serious, dark take on the character. And we know how that turned out.