Leonardo DiCaprio Had ‘Great Ideas’ About Lex Luthor Role

Leonardo DiCaprio’s famous aversion to starring in comic book movies made him a hero among cinephiles who resented the genre’s pop culture dominance in the 2010s. But while the Oscar winner never took on a Marvel or DC role, Zack Snyder said he was once willing to consider it.

In a new appearance on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, Snyder revealed that he met with DiCaprio about the role of Lex Luthor in “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” that ultimately went to Jesse Eisenberg. While DiCaprio ended up turning down the opportunity, Snyder was impressed by his thoughtfulness about the comic book source material.

“He had a lot of great ideas actually, just in the meeting,” Snyder said of DiCaprio. “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.”

Even though DiCaprio never suited up as the iconic comic book villain, Snyder said that the actor’s creative influence was still felt on his DC movies. The “Rebel Moon” director explained that DiCaprio pitched him on the idea of Superman turning against his fellow heroes, a storyline that Snyder ultimately worked into “Justice League.”

“He was the one that mentioned to me this idea about Superman fighting the Justice League at some point,” he said. “I was like, ‘Oh, that’s cool… that’s good, I’m going to put that over there, that’s gonna happen.’”