So, James Gunn’s Superman will officially get a sequel: Man of Tomorrow, due in theaters in July 2027. Gunn made the announcement with a teasing piece of art by Jim Lee, showing Lex Luthor wearing his Warsuit. Superman leans against him, holding a screwdriver and wearing a wry smile.
You can read this art a couple of ways. In the comics, the Warsuit allows Luthor to fight Superman directly, and maybe Nicholas Hoult’s resentful version of the character would feel inclined to do so after Superman defeated his proxy Ultraman (a clone of Superman) and humiliated him at the end of the first movie.
But the way the characters are posed side-by-side in Lee’s image, and Superman’s relaxed stance, suggest an unlikely team-up between the pair. It also doesn’t seem probable that Gunn would go with the same principal antagonist for two movies in a row. Perhaps Lex and Clark will be thrown together by some external threat.
Of course, these two possibilities don’t necessarily cancel each other out. In the event of a team-up, an eventual or partial betrayal by Luthor — or some other excuse to test the Warsuit against Superman’s powers — seems inevitable. But there’s certainly a strong chance that some third party from Superman’s rogue’s gallery is going to be involved. In which case: Who’s it going to be? There are a few possibilities, but it’s quite easy to rule them out.
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General Zod
Luthor aside, General Zod has probably been Superman’s primary cinematic antagonist; he was the main bad guy in both 1980s Superman 2 and 2013’s Man of Steel. As proven by Terence Stamp and Michael Shannon, the evil Kryptonian provides great scenery-chewing potential for a big-name actor, and would resonate thematically with Gunn’s take on Krypton as having designs on colonizing Earth. But Gunn is likely to want to get as far away from Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel as possible — indeed, the choice of Man of Tomorrow as title for the sequel suggests how different his vision for the character is. So that would make Zod a very unlikely pick.
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Darkseid
The same reasoning would probably rule out Darkseid, who was the ultimate antagonist of Zack Snyder’s Justice League. The ruler of Apokolips was only mentioned in the 2017 Joss Whedon cut of the film, but reinstated by Snyder in his 2021 cut, which arguably makes him even more emblematic of the DCU’s previous era. Also, as perhaps the most powerful villain in the DC Universe, a Superman sequel doesn’t seem the right place to deploy him. If Darkseid is coming back at all, it would more likely be in a future Justice Gang League movie.
Mongul is another powerful alien character who can physically challenge Superman, and an enduring enemy of Superman’s in the comics. He looks not dissimilar to Marvel’s Thanos, a fact acknowledged by comics artist Jim Starlin, who created both Thanos and Mongul (in that order). Gunn might want to avoid that association, as well as pitting his more grounded version of Superman against an intergalactic enemy in cosmic battle. The character’s name and association with the historical Mongol emperor Genghis Khan also play into certain stereotypes that might clash with Gunn’s scrupulously progressive vision for Superman, too.
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Doomsday
Doomsday is one of Superman’s most terrifying adversaries, a monster from Krypton’s prehistoric past. Yet again, there’s a Snyderverse association here: a version of the character appeared at the end of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. But it’s really the essence of the character that makes him an unlikely candidate for Man of Tomorrow’s villain. Doomsday is forever remembered as Superman’s killer in classic 1990s storyline “The Death of Superman,” and it seems far too early in Gunn’s DCU to tackle such subject matter — not to mention this very emo arc clashing with the sunny storytelling style Gunn is leaning toward.
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Brainiac
That leaves one overwhelming favorite to battle Superman and Lex Luthor in Man of Tomorrow: Brainiac. An artificial intelligence from outer space, and a kind of intellectual Galactus, Brainiac comes to planets to absorb their knowledge for his collection before destroying them. The idea of pitting tech bro Lex being against a genius alien A.I. has a contemporary spice that will appeal to Gunn, if his Superman script is anything to go by. Also, the character has ties to Krypton: He stole the city of Kandor before the planet exploded, which could link him to both the first movie and 2026’s Supergirl.
Or maybe it will just be Lex again after all. We’ll find out in less than two years, when Man of Tomorrow opens on July 9, 2027.
