The Superman Villain Henry Cavill Wants For Man Of Steel 2

Brainiac comics

Seven years after Superman Returns served as an homage sequel to the Christopher Reeves Superman movies, DC and Warner Bros rebooted the Man of Steel with, well, Man of Steel. Henry Cavill donned the cape for the first entry in the DC Extended Universe, and he's since reprised the Kryptonian hero in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League. But many DC fans are eager for Cavill's Superman to lead another standalone adventure in the form of Man of Steel 2, and the actor has also expressed such eagerness. Should Man of Steel 2 get off the ground, Cavill wants his Superman to face off against Brainiac. When asked why, Cavill responded:

Brainiac, he's a big threat and a lot of fun. There's a lot to him, there's a lot of storylines to him.

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Like Batman and The Flash, Superman boasts one of the largest rogues gallery in comic book history, and Brainiac ranks as one of his greatest enemies. Whether he's portrayed as a denizen of Colu, a rogue Kryptonian AI or something in between, the technologically advanced antagonist has not just given Superman troubles countless times, but he's also graduated to being a threat to the entire DC universe, much like Darkseid. It would have been difficult to properly adapt Brainiac in the days of the Christopher Reeve Superman movies, but with today's moviemaking technology, the timing is finally right to bring him to life on the big screen. As Henry Cavill told Fandom, he sees a lot of potential in Brainiac, and since we've already met Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor and there's no guarantee yet Superman will cross paths with Darkseid in the DCEU (Ava DuVernay's New Gods now seems like the best bet for introducing the leader of Apokolips), Brainiac is arguably the next best villainous candidate to bring in.

Fortunately for fans of Brainiac, they needn't wait for Man of Steel 2 to see a live action version of Brainiac. The character was first portrayed in live action by James Marsters in Smallville, but a more comics accurate version of Brainiac was recently played by Blake Ritson in the Syfy series Krypton. Nicknamed "The Collector of Worlds," Brainiac travels from planet to planet to shrink one of their cities for his collection, and then proceeding to destroy those planets. The most famous example of this is the Kryptonian city of Kandor, which Brainiac stole before Krypton exploded. It might be cool to see this explored in Man of Steel 2, but whatever storyline the sequel chose, make no mistake: Brainiac would be a worthy adversary for Superman in the DCEU.

While Man of Steel 2 is one of the many DCEU projects in development, there hasn't been any specific details recently about it ranks on the proverbial to-do list. Back in April, Henry Cavill indicated that he has a specific vision for Man of Steel 2, so if the sequel enters production and the DC bigwigs decide to execute this idea, fingers crossed it involves Brainiac.

Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for all the latest coverage concerning Man of Steel 2 and the rest of the DCEU. Don't forget to also look through our 2018 release schedule to learn what movies are coming out later this year.

Adam Holmes
Senior Content Producer

Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.