James Gunn Might Have Just Confirmed Man of Tomorrow’s Underrated Villain
He’s a brainiac, brainiac on the floor...
Any superhero movie is only as good as its villain. From the iconic, like Batman’s Joker or Spider-Man’s Green Goblin, to the more obscure, like Taskmaster and Mole Man, a villain can make or break a caped adventure. So when James Gunn announced his next DC film, Man of Tomorrow, fans immediately started speculating about who Clark Kent will face off against now that he’s defeated Lex Luthor.
One name immediately stuck out: Brainiac. The cybernetic villain has appeared in lots of Superman media, including Smallville, Superman & Lois, and countless animated series and video games, but he’s never been in a live-action film. Man of Tomorrow could change that, and James Gunn seems to have all but confirmed his involvement.
In an Instagram post, James Gunn revealed the cover page of Man of Tomorrow’s now-finished script, which is set to premiere in July 2027. On it is an anatomical cross-section of a head, including the brain. It’s the closest thing we have to a clue of Brainiac’s involvement, but it’s far from the first time Gunn has alluded to him. Brainiac appeared in concept art featured in a leaked behind-the-scenes look at Superman, and Gunn even discussed how he considered including him.
Brainiac definitely deserves the spotlight. Character details vary between iterations, but he’s usually depicted as an ultra-intelligent and often cybernetic being who shrinks whole cities down to study before destroying the planets they came from. In some tales, he’s even responsible for the destruction of Krypton, the event that brought Superman to Earth in the first place.
Superman and Brainiac in Geoff Johns’ “Brainiac” arc.
Unless this is a red herring unlike any we’ve seen before, it looks like Brainiac will take center stage in Man of Tomorrow. But there’s one big wrench in this plan: Lex Luthor. Gunn’s first tease for the film featured Luthor in his big green warsuit, and in a recent conversation with Howard Stern, he described the movie as “as much a Lex movie as it is a Superman movie.”
Gunn said Man of Tomorrow is about “Lex Luthor and Superman having to work together to a certain degree against a much, much bigger threat.” Could Brainiac be this bigger threat? All signs point to yes, but to be fair, we thought it might have been Brainiac the first time around, too.
