It has already been three years since we saw Robert Downey Jr. in the superhero universe. And now, all of a sudden, fans want DC to recast RDJ as the new Lex Luther, but why? RDJ shaved his head for his upcoming HBO series The Sympathizer, and after DC fans saw his bald look, they realized that RDJ would be perfect Lex Luther.
Robert left a massive impact on the superhero world, portraying the Marvel character Tony Stark (Ironman), the genius billionaire. And although in Avengers: Endgame, we could see that Tony sacrificed himself to save billions of people, fans still hope that he’ll somehow come back. Whether we’ll see him play Ironman again is another thing, but for now, fans want him to play DC supervillain.
RDJ’s sons helped him shave his head
Variety reported that RDJ would be co-starring and producing in the HBO series The Sympathizer, and it’s been evident that he had to shave his head clean for his role. Robert took help from his sons to shave his [RDJ] head, and he shared a video in October where we can see his sons Indio and Exton shaved his head. He wrote in the video’s caption, “The things we do for our work… and our kids. #Sympathizer set ready.”
And after watching his bald look, several fans compared him with Jeff Bezos, while the majority of them reached him with DC supervillain Lex Luther. Chris Killian from ComicBook.com wrote on Twitter, “But seriously. The internet would shit its pants if RDJ were the DCU’s new Lex Luthor.”
Furthermore, if we talk about The Sympathizer, it is based on Vietnamese-American professor and novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen’s novel of the same title. And while the production of the series started this year in June, it is expected to release next year.
RDJ was considered for Lex’s role in the early 2000s
Way before fans compared him with the DC supervillain, he was considered for the role in the Superman movie. In the early 2000s, J.J. Abrams wrote a story for a canceled Superman film titled Superman: Flyby.
However, before the cancelation, the pre-production had already begun, so many actors, including Paul Walker, Henry Cavill, Brendan Fraser, Brendan Fraser, and more, went for Superman’s role. At the same time, RDJ and Ralph Fiennes were considered for Luthor’s role. Sadly, the project was abandoned and remade as Superman Returns, where Kevin Spacey portrayed the position opposite of Superman.
Would RDJ play Lex Luthor’s role?
Well, it’s all up to the filmmakers and RDJ. However, actor Jesse Eisenberg is currently the Lex Luthor of the DC universe which we’ve seen in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Recently, in the post-credit scene of Black Adam, we also saw Henry Cavill reprising his role as Superman.
Furthermore, as per the reports, we will see Ben Affleck’s Batman in Aquaman’s sequel Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Eisenberg might return to the DC universe as Lex Luthor unless the filmmakers recast him.
However, there might also be another way. The upcoming DC movie The Flash will also feature Michael Keaton’s Batman, which means there are different universes or multiverses in the DC universe. If the filmmakers and RDJ agree, we might see RDJ playing the supervillain’s role.
But even if they agree, we can’t expect to see Robert playing Lex Luthor’s role anytime soon. Moreover, since fans have started calling out DC, we may get further updates on this news in the coming years.
