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Posted on Tuesday, August 27th, 2013 at 04:35pm by BatmAngelus
Rumor Control: Bryan Cranston is Lex Luthor? Not Yet...

 At Batman-Online, we strive to keep fans up to date with the latest official news.  A few weeks ago, we clarified that the "reports" of Christian Bale getting offered $50 million were completely false and, sure enough, Ben Affleck was announced last week to be playing the next Batman in the currently untitled Man of Steel sequel.  

Now the Internet is ablaze with supposedly another bit of casting news: Bryan Cranston will be playing Lex Luthor.  

But is it really true?  

While major news sites like Rolling Stone and UK's The Independent have reported this, there's been no official press release from WB, like with the Affleck announcement.  Nor have industry trades, such as Deadline, Variety, or The Hollywood Reporter, picked up on the story.  

In fact, the sites who have reported the news all cite one source: Cosmic Book News, a comic book movie fan site.

If you visit Cosmic Book News in the source above, you'll find that their exclusive report on Cranston contains several other "tidbits" for WB's potential DC Cinematic Universe:

- Cranston has signed up to appear as Luthor for six, possibly ten, films

- Affleck has signed on to appear in 13 movies

- DC is considering Matt Damon for Aquaman and Martian Manhunter

- Mark Strong reprise his role from Green Lantern as Sinestro.

These are big, bold claims for a fan-run site.  

Looking at CBN's track record, they also claimed, after the Man of Steel sequel was announced to include Batman, that Teen Wolf actor Tyler Hoechlin was up for the part of Batman.  

After the news of Affleck hit, they reported that Hoechlin was under heavy consideration and that Affleck was the #3 choice behind Hoechlin and Karl Urban.

In all respect to Hoechlin, it's hard to buy that an up-and-coming, 25-year old television actor would have been the #1 choice over an established name like Ben Affleck, especially since the latter's casting confirmed that WB wanted an "seasoned crimefighter" version of the Dark Knight who was older than Henry Cavill's Superman, while Hoechlin is much younger than Cavill.

With so many supposed "exclusives" that either seem far-fetched or turn out to be completely false, one must take their "exclusive" on Cranston's Luthor with a grain of salt and wait for more official sources on the story.

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