‘Batman v Superman’ Still Wants to Prove Lex Luthor Is Real

Of all the marketing for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, the viral content surrounding Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor has to be the silliest. Eisenberg (or a very game WB intern) already gave one interview as the famous Superman villain, and now he’s given us another because Warner Bros. really, really wants us to believe that Lex Luthor — like Santa and The Struggle and pro-wrestling — is real. And in related news, there’s also a new photo of this supposedly non-fictional character.

“Luthor” was previously the subject of a Fortune Magazine (a real, very serious publication) profile where he spoke about his upbringing and his life goals. This week, “Luthor” sat down with Wired (another very real publication) for an interview about his new operating system — dubbed Lex/OS — and how he just wants to make the world a better place. Lex Luthor is the kind of hip millionaire tech genius who says things like “What I want is to leave the planet in better shape for the next generation.”

Obviously, they don’t shy away from talk of superheroes. Here’s Luthor’s thoughts on Batman:

Any objective analyst will tell you that his brand of justice, vigilantism, is painfully outmoded, designed to be effective in an age when the law carried billy clubs because crime carried knives. The most dangerous guy on the street worked in the shadows because he was cowardly and superstitious. That’s all you needed to play upon in order to disrupt their operations. You want to clean up the streets? Dress up like the boogeyman, switch on a fog machine and lower your voice.

Okay, he does make a fair point about Batman and his whole voice thing. And here’s where Luthor starts hinting at what he’s up to in Dawn of Justice:

Look at it from the other side: today, there are more criminals than ever. If you’re a criminal, that means more competition. So if you’re going to survive in that economy, you have to be better; you have to edge out your rivals. Shouldn’t the same be true for those on the side of the law? If justice is going to survive in the new global paradigm, we have to get better, invest in new disruptive technologies, think outside Pandora’s Box. Who has the resources to do it? The government? No; the only thing holding that old purse together is a thick layer of impenetrable red tape. Vigilantes like the Batman? Not unless they have access to vast amounts of untold riches.

If you read the rest of the interview, you’ll see that Eisenberg is basically playing another version of his take on Mark Zuckerberg from The Social Network — which is about what we expected. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but he comes off less cartoonish and maniacal in this “interview” than he does in the most recent trailer.

And here’s the new image of Eisenberg’s Luthor from the film, looking appropriately villainous:

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice hits theaters on March 25, 2016.