Casting Call: Lex Luthor

With Man of Steel coming to theaters next summer, the most conspicuous member of the Superman Mythology that appears to be missing is his (arguably greatest) enemy Lex Luthor.  Since the first Christopher Reeve movie, Lex has appeared in every feature Superman film except one, and even then you could make the argument that the Robert Vaughn character was essential Lex.

There have been many Luthors.  I would argue that the one who best captured the comic character was Michael Rosenbaum from TV's Smallville.  The others were in some way silly.  Luthor is not silly.  He is a wonderful Superman villain.  Like the Joker to Batman, Luthor poses no physical threat to Superman.  But it is his evil mind that always keeps the Man of Steel at bay.

Whoever plays Luthor should be someone who can project not only great evil, but also be a believable genius and master tactician.

Denzel Washington

Photo by Falkenauge, cropped by Machocarioca

He is smart, charaismatic and he went toe to toe with the original Lex in Crimson Tide

Michael Fassbender

Photo by Gage Skidmore

While he may not want to do the whole super villain thing again, his turn as Magneto showed all of the qualities needed in a good Lex

Gary Oldman

The man can do anything.  Watch him as Dracula, Sirius Black, Stansfield from The Professional...  

Benedict Cumberpatch

pic by RanZag

His work as Sherlock Holmes might be the best interpretation of the character: smart, arrogant, and always dangerous

Nathan Fillion

pic by RavenU

This one is a bit out of the box.  But if they wanted to show a Lex who was charming to the public, but had a secret hidden rage, Fillion's work on Firefly showed he could pull this off.

Thoughts?