Before asking Jesse Eisenberg to rock a bald head, Zack Snyder considered Leonardo DiCaprio for the role of Lex Luthor.
While chatting recently with Josh Horowitz on his Happy Sad Confused podcast, Snyder admitted that he discussed the 2016 film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice with the Oscar-winning star of Killers of the Flower Moon.
“I think, in the end, he was like, ‘eh, I don’t know.’ But he was really smart about the material and really smart about the character,” said Snyder, who added that DiCaprio “had a lot of great ideas, actually, just in the meeting … I think he was the one that mentioned to me this idea about Superman fighting the Justice League at some point.”
Snyder went on to say he also talked to Adam Driver about the role of the cunning billionaire.
In 2022, Josh Brolin told the same podcast that he almost was cast as Batman in Snyder’s superhero films but lost out to Ben Affleck in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice and the Justice League follow-up. Brolin said the idea “was interesting” to him, but as for Snyder’s eventual choice, “That was his decision, that wasn’t my decision.”
“Honestly, that would have been a fun deal,” Brolin added. “And maybe I’ll do it when I’m 80.”