The whispers have been in the wind for a while, but now we finally know it: According to an exclusive The Wrap story published on November 13, Brainiac is indeed on his way to the DC Universe.
To be fair, it’s not what I’d call the surprise of the century, seeing as James Gunn himself seemingly confirmed the “Superman” sequel villain in September when he posted a copy of his “Man of Tomorrow” script with a cross section of a man’s brain on the cover. Combine this with the plot teases about the sequel and the fact that Brainiac was Gunn’s original villain of choice for “Superman,” and there was more than enough to start making educated guesses about the “Man of Tomorrow” antagonist game. (For instance, here’s /Film’s list of actors who could play Gunn’s take on Brainiac.)
Let’s just assume that the dance is well and truly over and Brainiac really is going to be the Big Bad in “Man of Tomorrow.” Apart from the matter of who’s going to play him, this leaves us with one important question: Which Brainiac is the movie going to feature?
Apart from being traditionally depicted as some form of the hyper-intelligent Coluan scientist known as Vril Dox, Brainiac is one of the most malleable Superman villains out there. His comic book incarnations range from Milton Fine — a flamboyant sideshow psychic who becomes the murderous host of Vril Dox’s mind — to with various green-skinned, technologically enhanced green aliens. Some of those alien incarnations are passably humanoid, some are techno-organic abominations, and some are outright robotic constructs. Even intrepid reporter Lois Lane (played by Rachel Brosnahan in the DCU) has been known to play host to the villain.
Brainiac’s many faces might become James Gunn’s secret weapon
Brainiac and his iconic Skull Ship vessel are among the most iconic sights in Superman lore. Considering how faithful Gunn is to keeping his DCU characters’ look comics-accurate, it’s probably a safe bet that “Man of Tomorrow” will feature the classic, green-skinned Brainiac design — glowing cranial enhancements and all. That being said, the character’s power set is effectively ‘vast psychic powers and the ability to do just about anything with technology,’ which gives Gunn plenty to play with, and an ability to feature multiple versions of the character within the confines of the same movie.
Since blockbuster films can only cram in so many characters and events, we can probably forget the many non-Vril Dox versions of Brainiac, as well as joke entries like Bizarro Brainiac. However, his tendency to use tech and human proxies means that we may well see Brainiac bots that look a lot like his Earth-One design — think a robot with a visible brain and a face that looks like the Skull Ship. Perhaps we’ll get a human host-slash-minion in the shape of Milton Fine (in which case, Mr. Gunn, please don’t hesitate to cast Paul Walter Hauser).
Most importantly, Brainiac’s sheer array of powers and abilities make him a perfect threat for a movie that’s going to feature a team-up of Superman (David Corenswet) and Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult). He can provide a viable physical threat for Superman, and Lex is the perfect evil genius to undermine whatever plot the Coluan has in store for Earth. Regardless of which version(s) of Brainiac Gunn intends to roll out, expect the world to have a bad time … and the audience to have a very good time.
