Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor Suiting Up for War in First ‘Man of Tomorrow’ Set Footage
James Gunn’s DC Universe has been building real momentum since its debut, and the upcoming ‘Superman’ sequel is already delivering the kind of set footage that sends fans into full-on speculation mode. With production actively underway in Atlanta, the streets of Georgia have become a playground for some of the most ambitious sequences the new DCU has attempted so far.
Officially titled ‘Superman: Man of Tomorrow’, the film began principal photography in April 2026 under the working title “Exodus,” with David Corenswet returning as the Man of Steel and Nicholas Hoult back as Lex Luthor. The sequel is scheduled to arrive in theaters on July 9, 2027, and represents the next major chapter in Gunn’s growing DC lineup.
The footage that has everyone talking arrived on June 3rd, when bystander clips began circulating online showing a major nighttime action sequence being filmed on location. DC Film News shared the clips, which were originally captured by @Tristen_Smith12, and the reaction online was immediate. What fans saw was not just crew and equipment, but Lex Luthor’s iconic green and purple warsuit fully in action on a real city street.
The new videos show the armor in a full action sequence rather than just a still image, and James Gunn himself was spotted on set walking around with coffee while directing the scene. Additional footage showed Nicholas Hoult’s stunt double in the Lex Luthor warsuit flying out of a hole in a wall, with David Corenswet also confirmed back on set the same night. What makes all of this even more impressive is that the suit is entirely real. Gunn confirmed on Threads that the warsuit will be “100% practical” and praised Hoult’s mobility in the armor, noting that the actor “can move incredibly well” while wearing it.
This marks the first time a live-action Superman film has featured the classic comic book warsuit design in such a prominent way, despite decades of theatrical releases going back as far as 1950. The suit also carries at least one notable story detail baked right into its design. Rather than bearing a LuthorCorp logo, the warsuit carries an ARGUS emblem across the chest, hinting at a possible connection between Luthor and the government organization within the new DCU.
The presence of the warsuit ties directly into where Luthor’s arc appears to be heading in the sequel. Speaking on The Howard Stern Show, Gunn described the film as “a story about Lex Luthor and Superman having to work together, to a certain degree, against a much, much bigger threat,” adding that it is “as much a Lex movie as it is a Superman movie.” That much bigger threat is Lars Eidinger’s Brainiac, who serves as the film’s main villain, with Milly Alcock also set to reprise her role as Supergirl.
Fans who attended multiple nights of filming have begun piecing together the various shots being captured, with some speculating that the imposing figure seen pushing back a group of civilians in the footage could be Brainiac rather than Lex, given where Superman’s story left Luthor as a public pariah after the events of the first film. Whether Lex is fighting Superman, fighting alongside him, or both remains the question fans are desperately trying to answer from these grainy but thrilling street-level clips.
With a warsuit that is already turning heads just from set footage alone, and an enemy-of-my-enemy premise that could redefine how the DCU handles its most iconic rivalry, ‘Man of Tomorrow’ is shaping up to be one of the most anticipated comic book films in recent memory. Are you sold on Nicholas Hoult suiting up in the warsuit, or were you hoping for a version of Lex who relies entirely on his genius rather than raw firepower?
