Film and Television
- Superman and its sequels presented Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) as a criminal mastermind and egomaniac. He is obsessed with real estate and his plans usually involve him stealing large amounts of property and land because it is a commodity that will always be in demand. He causes an earthquake on the West Coast in the first movie, negotiates with General Zod for Australia in Superman II, and in Superman Returns (in which he is portrayed by Kevin Spacey), he tries to create a new continent.
- Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman presents the CEO version of Lex Luthor (John Shea) from The Man of Steel in live media for the first time.
- Superman: The Animated Series was created by picking and choosing various aspects of Superman's many incarnations. The Machiavellian Luthor (voiced by Clancy Brown) is also used as the main antagonist for Superman. He also appears in Justice League and Justice League Unlimited.
- Smallville begins with a teen Clark Kent saving Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum). His father Lionel Luthor has most of the personality and ruthlessness of Lex in the comics as an analog of what Lex will become. In the series, exposure to kryptonite can give humans superpowers. During the kryptonite meteor shower that brought Clark to Earth, Lex lost his hair, but gained a super-immune system. Clark and Lex start out as friends, but as the series sees Clark ascend to the hero he appears destined to become, it also shows Lex's descent to the villain he will become, driving him to commit various questionable actions in the belief that he is 'protecting' the world.
- Lex Luthor reappears in an episode of The Batman, voiced again by Clancy Brown. This version of Luthor is very similar to the one appearing on Superman: The Animated Series. The episode The Batman/Superman Story is filled with numerous homage to the DC Animated Universe as Lex Luthor, Lois Lane and Superman are voiced by the same actors who voiced them on Justice League.
Read more about this topic: Alternative Versions Of Lex Luthor
Famous quotes containing the words film and/or television:
“I’ll be right here.”
—Melissa Mathison, U.S. screenwriter, and Steven Spielberg. ET, ET The Extra-Terrestrial, saying goodbye to Elliot as he touches Elliot’s forehead—ET’s final words in the film (1982)
“It is marvelous indeed to watch on television the rings of Saturn close; and to speculate on what we may yet find at galaxy’s edge. But in the process, we have lost the human element; not to mention the high hope of those quaint days when flight would create “one world.” Instead of one world, we have “star wars,” and a future in which dumb dented human toys will drift mindlessly about the cosmos long after our small planet’s dead.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)