After becoming one of the summer’s biggest blockbusters and inspiring all of us to be a little bit more punk rock, the story of DC Studios’ Superman movie is nowhere near slowing down. The second season of Peacemaker is currently being touted as a direct follow-up to the events of the film, and we still have the Milly Alcock-led Supergirl movie on the horizon for the summer of 2026.
For months, Superman writer, director, and DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn had teased the next follow-up… not quite a proper sequel, but a movie featuring David Corenswet’s take on Clark Kent / Superman. And last week, we got the first official confirmation of what that will entail: a new film titled Man of Tomorrow, accompanied by a trio of art pieces from comic legends Jim Lee, Mitch Gerads, and Jorge Jimenez. The art showed Superman and Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor (now decked out in his comic-accurate warsuit) in poses ranging from adversarial to a bit more friendly… and apparently, that dynamic will carry over to the movie itself.
During a recent appearance on The Howard Stern Show, Gunn not only confirmed that Man of Tomorrow is gearing up to begin production in April of 2026, but that the film is essentially going to have Clark and Lex as co-leads, who reluctantly have to “work together” to protect the world from some sort of massive threat.
Clex to the rescue?
“It’s a story about Lex Luthor and Superman having to work together to a certain degree against a much, much bigger threat. It’s more complicated than that but that’s a big part of it,” Gunn revealed. “It’s as much a Lex movie as it is a Superman movie. I loved working with Nicholas Hoult. I relate to the character of Lex, sadly. I really wanted to create something extraordinary with the two of them. I just love the script so much.”
Fans had already wondered if Clark and Lex would both be major protagonists in Man of Tomorrow, in part because the film’s title could easily also apply to Lex’s industrialist view of himself in the DCU. But the confirmation that they’ll have to work together is intriguing, especially given the duo’s rocky history across decades of media.
Some projects have portrayed Lex and his schemes as completely independent of Superman, only for their rivalry to spark once the Man of Steel starts to get in his way. Others, meanwhile, have retroactively established Clark and Lex as childhood best friends, who had some sort of falling out that led to them becoming enemies as adults. In both cases, the concept of the two of them having to work together, either for the greater good or for their own personal reasons, has been rich with narrative potential. (Just look at years of Smallville, as an example.) There’s also the whole thing with Conner Kent, who has more recently been canonized in the comics as a clone made from both of their DNA samples.
The events of Superman cast Lex’s outlook much more in that first category, with him being profoundly jealous that Superman has essentially stolen the world’s attention and praise away from him. And Superman, despite the film being two straight hours of Lex conspiring to ruin his life, still walked away from the third act wanting to see his rival as a real person with potential for goodness. The idea of Man of Tomorrow evolving that relationship into full-on frenemy territory is honestly thrilling.
Man of Tomorrow is currently set to be released exclusively in theaters on July 9, 2027.
(featured image: DC Studios)
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