Why Nicholas Hoult Lost Superman Role to David Corenswet: He’s a ‘More Controlled Actor’ and Had ‘Really Good’ Chemistry With Another Lois Lane

James Gunn‘s “Superman” is flying into theaters this month with David Corenswet in the title role and Nicholas Hoult as the villainous Lex Luthor. But that wasn’t the role Hoult auditioned for. The “Nosferatu” and “X-Men” star originally sought the role of Superman but lost out to Corenswet in auditions. Why? Gunn opened up about the casting decision during a recent interview on “Jake’s Takes.”

“A lot of time casting is finding the right person for the right role,” Gunn said. “Most people [auditioning for Superman] weren’t doing anything wrong, they just didn’t fit how I envisioned this Superman to be. Nicholas Hoult auditioned. He’s a great actor. Some might say he’s better than David in certain ways, but he just didn’t fit the role. That’s why he didn’t get that.”

Related Stories

Academy Appoints Three New Governors-at-Large: Haifaa Al-Mansour, Effie T. Brown and Annie Chang

Tom Cruise, Dolly Parton, Debbie Allen and Wynn Thomas to Be Presented Honorary Oscars

“As much as you can transform yourself as a person, Nicholas is just more controlled,” the writer-director continued. “One of the things we were doing was mixing and matching Lois and Clark actors when we were auditioning them. I wanted to make sure we had that chemistry right. The truth is Nicholas, who is a more controlled actor, had a really good chemistry with another Lois who was less controlled. They were opposites. David had better chemistry with Rachel [Brosnahan] because she’s a very controlled actor and Davis is a little bit more loose. That creates a different dynamism on screen.”

It appears Gunn’s script paired a looser Superman with a more controlled Lois Lane and Lex Luthor, hence Hoult missed out on the Man of Steel but was seen as the perfect actor to bring Lex to life in Gunn’s new DC Universe.

Hoult is no stranger to going out for big superhero roles. He auditioned to play Batman in Matt Reeves’ “The Batman” but lost the role to Robert Pattinson. Speaking to GQ España in 2023, Hoult admitted: “I don’t think I could have fit as well into the world that Matt created as Rob did.”

“When they tell you for the first time that it’s not you, it’s painful, but then you have to accept it as normality,” Hoult continued. “I think that’s probably a strength of mine as an actor as well. I can accept that they didn’t cast me pretty well and when I see the chosen actor doing a great job, and I enjoy it, and it’s good, I’m like, ‘oh yeah, they made the right choice. They knew what they were doing.’ So it’s not like I’m sitting there like, ‘Oh, I’m not going to watch it now.’ It’s a good movie and Rob is brilliant in it.”

Watch Gunn’s full interview with “Jake’s Takes” in the video below.