James Gunn’s Superman wrapped principal photography back in July, but that doesn’t mean we know every single cast member. In a report from Deadline, it seems sci-fi cinema and TV favorite Alan Tudyk has joined the cast in what they’re calling a “secret role.” Tudyk and Gunn go back a long way, as Gunn appeared in Tudyk’s web series Con Man. He’s also voicing the character of Doctor Phosphorus for Gunn in the animated series Creature Commandos. Not to mention, he’s Clayface in the Harley Quinn series, and played Mr. Nobody in Doom Patrol. We know nothing else yet about what this secret Superman role for Alan Tudyk may entail, but we certainly have some ideas.
Alan Tudyk is a very familiar face on screen, thanks to projects like Firefly and Resident Alien. But he is also someone quite famous for his voice acting skills. He’s voiced DC characters in animated shows like Brave and the Bold, Young Justice, and non DC characters in many projects, including Heihei the chicken in Moana. Perhaps his most well-known voice acting role is as the droid K2SO in Rogue One, which he will reprise in Andor season two. We have a feeling that his secret role in Superman might be for another synthetic character, the android villain Brainiac.
Even though Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor is the supposed main villain of Superman, we think James Gunn has something else up his sleeve. As a true comics fan, Gunn knows that Luthor as the sole villain in Superman movies is a tired concept. Superman’s second biggest villain in the comics, the alien A.I. known as Brainiac, has never featured in a movie. It’s high time a Superman film gave us a proper Brainiac. And we see someone like Alan Tudyk absolutely owning this role in Superman.
Of course, Gunn is all about casting the same actors in animation for live-action in his DCU, so Tudyk might just be playing his Creature Commandos character in live-action. We’ll find out for sure when Superman hits theaters on July 11, 2025.