Production of Superman: Man of Tomorrow is officially underway. On April 20, director James Gunn shared an image of a black and red chessboard spread out next to Lex Luthor’s Van Kull Department of Corrections ID badge. At the top of the image, you can see a version of the Superman logo disturbingly reminiscent of Brainiac’s character design.
When we last saw Luthor, he was imprisoned in Belle Reve on the Peacemaker show. With the introduction of the mysterious organization Checkmate on Peacemaker, the striking red and black chessboard may be related to images from writer Greg Rucka’s Checkmate run. Or it may be as unrelated as that crumpled bag of Ruffles on the table next to it.
If you think of superheroes and chess, chances are you’ll quickly conjure up the image of Professor Xavier and Magneto squaring off in the X-Men film franchise. Locked in a battle of wits, these two know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. The differences in their ideologies come out in a philosophical debate during this friendly chess game in a park. But chess has also played a significant role in various Superman stories, and considering his obsessive need to be the smartest guy in the room, it makes sense Luthor is an aficionado of the game.
If you dig a bit through the archives, though, you might be surprised to learn that Superman is an avid player, too. This goes right down to keeping a symbolic over-sized chess board populated by life-sized versions of his friends and foes in the Fortress of Solitude (All-Star Superman). In the Golden Age and Silver Age, Superman had plenty of chess-related hijinks, with images of him playing chess against various villains or simply various robot versions of himself.
Luthor and Superman have partaken in a game of chess from time to time. In Superman: Son of Kal-El 2021 Annual #1, we see both Kal and (son of Kal-El) Jon take on Luthor in the game. While Clark begins a game and adamantly refuses to finish it, Jon takes the time to actually beat Lex. Clark is disgusted by Luthor’s need to control him, but Jon attempts to reason with the supervillain. He says Luthor already has control, but he squanders it. While he’s making this eloquent point, his knight traps Luthor’s king, and the game ends.
Even in the Injustice alternate reality, Superman still finds a way to sneak in a game of chess every now and again. In Injustice: Gods Among Us #9, Superman takes on none other than Barry Allen, The Flash. In the story’s alternate universe, Superman is wracked with guilt and rage over the death of Lois Lane, and he’s become pretty evil as a result. As he lays out his ostensibly pragmatic plan for forceful policing, Barry counters Clark’s arguments by noting how far they would have to go to save humanity from itself. He argues that removing guns would start a slippery slope during which they would eventually be killing people for driving a car or smoking cigarettes. In the first game, Clark uses surprise to his advantage, but he underestimates Barry’s intelligence. As the conversation continues, Barry wins.
We don’t expect The Flash or Superman’s son to show up in The Man of Tomorrow, but it seems likely that a game of chess could serve as a metaphor for the complex dynamics between Clark Kent and Lex Luthor in the DC Universe. And maybe once they find a little common ground over a chessboard, they’ll be willing to team-up to take on an even bigger threat.
Man of Tomorrow hits theaters on July 9, 2027.