Kurt Russell Reacts To Jor-El Casting Rumors For Superman: Legacy
As former Marvel Cinematic Universe filmmaker James Gunn continues to assemble his cast for the DC superhero movie "Superman: Legacy," one of his key "Guardians of the Galaxy" cast members, Kurt Russell, is being rumored to play the pivotal role of Superman's Kryptonian father Jor-El. Russell, of course, played Ego — the father of Peter Quill, aka Star Lord (Chris Pratt) — for the writer-director in "Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2."
The rumor about Russell's potential involvement surfaced on the DCEUleaks thread on Reddit, where u/wholikesanimations — who claims to have seen and worked on some of the concept art for "Superman: Legacy" — gave a detailed description of the concept art of Jor-El for the film. According to the user, that art featured Russell's visage. "Take this with a grain of salt, as a ton of concept art uses random actors' faces on characters, but the specific art I've seen features Kurt Russell's face on Jor-El. Which would be great casting IMHO," u/wholikesanimations wrote.
During a joint interview with his son, Wyatt Russell, for Comic Book, Kurt Russell responded to the Jor-El rumors by calling out the name of the film icon who played the character in director Richard Donner's 1978 classic, "Superman: The Movie."
"Yeah! Yeah, I'll take on Marlon Brando," Russell told Comic Book with a laugh. "I mean there was something awesome about the way he was just looking around — I don't care that he was looking at his lines — he's crazy-great to watch!"
Russell appears game to work with Gunn again
The casting news for "Superman: Legacy" kicked off in June 2023 when DC Studios found its Clark Kent and Lois Lane in David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan. Since then, writer-director James Gunn cast his frequent film collaborator Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern and "Barry" star Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho. "The Righteous Gemstones" star Skyler Gisnodo has also joined the cast as Lane's Daily Planet sidekick, Jimmy Olsen. In addition, Gunn eyed Bradley Cooper to play Superman's nemesis, Lex Luthor, before Nicholas Hoult was cast as the key DC supervillain.
If Kurt Russell gets the call to play Jor-El, he will have two big pairs of cinematic shoes to fill. In addition to Marlon Brando embodying the role in "Superman: The Movie," Russell Crowe played Jor-El in Zack Snyder's 2013 blockbuster, "Man of Steel," which stars Henry Cavill in the title role.
Claiming he knows nothing of the rumors of his potential casting as Jor-El for "Superman: Legacy," Russell did note for Comic Book how he'd like to see more of the character's back story. On top of that, Russell appeared excited about the notion of working with Gunn again. "You know what — we don't know a lot about Jor-El. Maybe there's a version... I never heard this, so I don't know," Russell said while addressing the Jor-El rumor. "James Gunn was a blast to work with, though, so you never know."
"Superman: Legacy" is scheduled for a July 11, 2025, release.