Lex Luthor

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Alexander Joseph 'Lex' Luthor Jr. was born in 1984 in Metropolis to an unnamed mother and father Alexander Luthor Sr., a scientist from East Germany and founder of LexCorp. Despite coming from a wealthy family, young Lex was subjected daily to physical and emotional abuse by his father, which caused him to have a completely monotheistic view on God. Sometime in the year 2000, Alexander Sr. passed away of unknown causes, and Lex inherited and became the new owner of LexCorp, industrializing it into a more electronic and futuristic Fortune 500 company and technology giant. Screenwriter David S. Goyer described the character in the Man of Steel sequel as a Bill Gates-like billionaire, while director Zack Snyder saw a modern take as a combination of Richard Branson and Brad Pitt. Eisenberg's Luthor presents himself in public with a welcoming, but frantic tech bro persona, similar to Mark Zuckerberg, but is in reality a scheming, paranoid figure with sociopathic tendencies obsessed with bringing Superman down. He is characterized as a misotheist, hating God and other god-like beings such as Superman, as he perceives the gods failed to protect him from abuse received from his father.

In Their Own Story

In Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Luthor is introduced as a young, eccentric businessman obsessed with destroying Superman. He secretly manipulates events such as hiring Russian mobster Anatoli Knyazev to plant evidence of Superman mass-murdering an African warlord's soldiers while Superman rescues Lois Lane, leading to the Man of Steel coming under heavy scrutiny. He seeks kryptonite created from General Zod's attempt to xenoform Earth and makes a request to U.S. Senator June Finch for an import license. When Finch denies his requests, Luthor persuades Senator Barrows to grant him access to a Kryptonian scout ship, developing a grudge against Finch. He covertly smuggles the kryptonite after being refused the license. Luthor holds a gala in Metropolis, inviting reporter Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne, and manipulates the two against each other. He also manipulates Wallace Keefe, a former Wayne Enterprises employee crippled during the Battle of Metropolis, by intercepting his compensatory payments. After Keefe vandalizes a statue of Superman and is arrested, Luthor pays his bail and gives him a high-tech wheelchair, but hides a bomb in it that detonates during Superman's trial at the U.S. Capitol Building, killing hundreds including Finch, Barrows, Keefe, and Luthor's personal assistant Mercy Graves. Luthor later kidnaps Lois and Clark's adoptive mother Martha Kent to draw Superman out of hiding, and rants about his disdain for the Kryptonian 'god,' revealing he has Martha held hostage and threatening to kill her unless Superman kills Batman.

Reader's Guide

The DCEU iteration of Luthor, as portrayed in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, is noticeably different than in most comic depictions as well as Gene Hackman's portrayal in the 1978–87 Superman film series. Eisenberg made an effort to differentiate his take from that of Hackman and Kevin Spacey, and states that his character views Superman as a genuine threat to humanity rather than simply someone to destroy. Unlike most depictions, Eisenberg's version is depicted with authentic, shoulder-length hair as opposed to being naturally bald, though he gains his comic-accurate bald look after being clean-shaven in prison at the end of Batman v Superman and retains it in both versions of Justice League. Film critic Jordan Johnson writes that Eisenberg's Luthor represents meaninglessness and the ego of mankind, which is jeopardized by the existence of the godlike Superman, and updates Luthor as 'perhaps the first truly millennial movie villain: secular, arrogant, entitled, narcissistic, obsessive in his quest to tear down the values of the old guard.' Travis Bean of Forbes opined in 2020 that Luthor's characterization was part of a 'commentary on our society's seemingly perpetual moral-spiritual-cultural conflict,' and that Luthor specifically represented 'the younger generation's rampant ego and lack of faith in humanity.'

Did You Know?

• Jesse Eisenberg revealed he had 'no idea' which character he was auditioning for at first and expressed doubt when Zack Snyder later revealed it was for Lex Luthor.
• Eisenberg's Luthor is characterized as a misotheist, hating God and other god-like beings such as Superman because he perceives the gods failed to protect him from abuse received from his father.
• Unlike most comic depictions, Eisenberg's version of Luthor has shoulder-length hair, only becoming bald after being clean-shaven in prison at the end of Batman v Superman.
• Luthor's father, Alexander Luthor Sr., was a scientist from East Germany and the founder of LexCorp, and young Lex was subjected daily to physical and emotional abuse by him.
• Luthor hides a bomb in Wallace Keefe's wheelchair and detonates it during Superman's trial at the U.S. Capitol Building, killing hundreds including Senator June Finch and his own personal assistant Mercy Graves.