After James Gunn’s Superman, This Fan-Favorite Villain Is Perfect for the Movie’s Sequel

Superman has had several movies throughout the decades, but he’s usually fought the same foes. This consistently means reruns of Lex Luthor and General Zod, with Doomsday sometimes thrown in for good measure. One iconic villain has sadly escaped a big screen adaptation, but he might be a great fit for the second feature film featuring David Corenswet’s Superman in the new DC Universe.

From the looks of things, Brainiac is not at all involved in the 2025 Superman movie. This makes it the latest movie to go without using the notable bad guy. While this might disappoint fans, it actually creates the perfect opportunity to properly build up to the intergalactic threat.

Brainiac Still Hasn’t Been Adapted Into a Live-Action Movie

Debut: Action Comics #242 by Otto Binder and Al Plastino

Ever since the Silver Age of Comics, Brainiac has been a recurring foe for the Man of Steel and the other survivors of the explosion of Krypton. As originally portrayed, he’s an alien scientist named Vril Dox from the planet Colu, which is full of similarly green-skinned humanoids. Dox was ousted by Coluan society for his amoral experiments. Most of these involved his attempts to “catalog” data and collect information on entire worlds, namely by shrinking them down to minute size and “bottling” them. Such was the case with the Kryptonian city of Kandor, with its preserved citizens being some of the few remaining Kryptonians.

Different interpretations of Brainiac have changed him over the years, namely by playing with his connection to technology. In most incarnations, he’s merely an organic alien or cyborg with technological enhancements, but in some cases, he’s entirely robotic. Such was the case in the Bronze Age of Comics, wherein Brainiac was redesigned with a completely robotic body that had a skeletal appearance. This reflected in his iconic “Skull Ship,” which houses many of his collections and experiments. Superman: The Animated Series further altered his nature by making him a Kryptonian AI that was similar to the then-new comic book character, The Eradicator.

Despite this prestige and the fact that he’s usually as ubiquitous as Luthor, Brainiac has never been adapted to the big screen in a live-action Superman movie. It was rumored that he was going to be the villain in Superman III, which was finally brought to fruition in the comic book series Superman ’78. Similarly, some hoped that Henry Cavill’s return as Superman at the end of Black Adam would have resulted in another solo film featuring the DC Extended Universe version of Brainiac. The DCEU is now over, with the DC Universe reboot replacing it. The first movie in this new continuity is James Gunn’s 2025 Superman, but it won’t feature Brainiac as the villain.

Why Brainiac Wouldn’t Work In James Gunn’s Superman

It appears that Lex Luthor and The Engineer from The Authority will be the main villains in Superman, along with a mysterious figure who may be based on the New 52 character Ulysses. This means that Brainiac won’t be anywhere in sight, which is actually for the best. Brainiac is a must-have villain for any continuity that’s supposedly going to do justice to the Man of Steel, but he can’t be the first major villain that he faces in this new world. For one thing, the idea of Brainiac or any other alien invader being the villain in Superman would be far too much like 2013’s Man of Steel. While that movie and the continuity it spawned definitely have their fans, it’s a good idea if the new DCU cements the fact that it’s nothing like that many times controversial timeline.

Additionally, having Brainiac as essentially a retread of General Zod doesn’t seem like a good way to handle the villain. The new Superman film is not an origin story, and it features a take on the Man of Tomorrow who’s been a superhero for at least a little bit. At the same time, this will be the audience’s introduction to the new Superman, with some still more used to Henry Cavill or even Tyler Hoechlin from the TV show Superman & Lois. Thus, it’s essentially a rookie version of the hero in everything but name. Superman will need to be more firmly established before he faces Brainiac, who might feel too rushed otherwise. Ironically, this build up to the villain could be done across two DCU films featuring different Kryptonians.

A Superman/Supergirl Teamup Movie Can Feature Brainiac

Brainiac Story Arc Creators: Geoff Johns and Gary Frank

Superman will likely be the first Kryptonian seen in the new DC Universe, but he won’t be the only one. His cousin, Kara Zor-El, is already poised to have her own movie. Titled Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, the film will adapt the Tom King series of the same name. It’s rumored that Kara will appear in Superman in some way, possibly through a post-credits scene. If that’s the case, both movies can also build up to another character related to their shared mythos: Brainiac. Even if Brainiac isn’t the villain in the Superman reboot movie, there can still be elements that build up to his debut. Said elements can continue in Woman of Tomorrow, with Kara perhaps even mentioning a “rogue scientist from Colu.” This can even pivot toward a loose adaptation of the “Brainiac” story arc.

There, Kara (who had already come to Earth in the story) knew good and well who Brainiac was, as he had razed Krypton’s cities years beforehand. This gave her trauma concerning the villain, building him up into a major threat. These story points can be used in a future DC Universe movie that acts as a sequel to both Superman and Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. Doing so would naturally build upon the themes in both movies, which deal with the idea of legacy in different ways. If James Gunn and others involved in the DCU handle things correctly, the development towards the introduction of Brainiac could emulate a certain success story for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Brainiac Can Be the Thanos for the DCU’s Superman

One of the best successes for the MCU was how the Infinity Saga built up to the threat of Thanos, the Mad Titan. First teased at the end of The Avengers, he had brief appearances afterward that finally took the forefront in Avengers: Infinity War. Thus, when he actually won at the end of that film (all after beating many Avengers one-on-one), it felt like a danger that was more than earned. Brainiac might not have a gauntlet full of Infinity Stones to collect, but he can be slowly developed through multiple movies, as well. In fact, doing this to have him introduced in either the second or third Superman movie could create a similar trend for the DC Universe as a whole. Instead of an overarching villain like Thanos for the entire DCU, the shared universe can instead have Thanos-equivalents for each superhero “family.”

For instance, Brainiac can serve in this role for the Superman and Supergirl series, while The Brave and the Bold might do the same with either the Court of Owls or Ra’s al Ghul. Likewise, the eventually rebooted Wonder Woman might only face Ares in her third film, whereas the DCU Wally West could face Eobard Thawne (masquerading as Wally’s predecessor) in an adaptation of “The Return of Barry Allen” after the first Flash reboot movie. This way, each film series feels like a series unto itself and not simply a commercial for a universe-wide crossover, as is the criticism for many Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. Doing so will also make each of these villains into major threats that are as popular with mainstream audiences as they are with comic book fans.