In an interview with Vulture, actor Jesse Eisenberg explained that his version of Lex Luthor in "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" will be radically different from the previous iterations such as those portrayed by Gene Hackman and Kevin Spacey.
"This movie is so different," he said. "It has real psychological underpinnings, and this movie character feels like a real scary person."
Eisenberg also explained that in the comic books, it was very common to see Luthor giving false speeches of hope on a rooftop, promising the masses that he would use his wealth and intelligence to change the city [Metropolis]. Eisenberg stated that he aimed to take these "campy and cartoony" elements and merge them into a "real person."
As stated by a report from Screen Rant, there are graphic novels that stray away from the campy version of the character and use a more realistic take such as "Luthor" by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo.
Meanwhile, Fortune Magazine features a mock featurette article for the character, fully named Alexander Luthor Jr., focusing primarily on the character's background. In the mock article, Luthor is described less like the comedic supervillain seen in previous movies and more akin to real-life tech-based billionaires such as Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.
He is described as a jeans-wearing type of man who has never considered himself a warmonger, although Luthor does acknowledge that his company has the advantage over Wayne Enterprises for dealing with military contracts, which Wayne Enterprises is revealed to have kept away from for at least a decade.
LexCorp is rated below Wayne Enterprises as the world's leading technology corporation and Luthor reportedly addresses this, "It's not a competition. Besides, I can't hold a candle to those guys in the debauched billionaire playboy department!"
The mock article also lists Lex Luthor on its list for the "World's 50 Greatest Leaders" and also named Luthor as "Fortune's Businessperson of the Year."
"Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" opens in theaters on March 25, 2016.
