DC and Marvel are known for dropping small teases in images. We’ve seen it in the Avengers: Doomsday set posts and in Zack Snyder’s cryptic cinematic black and white images. James Gunn plays the game too. And this time, he’s done it with a set photo from Man of Tomorrow that serves as an announcement that filming has begun and also teases the film’s new villain: Brainiac. A prop in the background reveals the film’s new logo, inspired by Superman’s “S” and Brainiac’s three-pronged symbol.
David Corenswet returns as Clark Kent, with Nicholas Hoult back as Lex Luthor. But in the Superman (2025) sequel, the two enemies must work together to defeat Lars Eidinger’s Brainiac, a hyper-intelligent alien android from Colu who travels the galaxy shrinking cities and collecting knowledge.
The chessboard in the image points to Brainiac’s strategy: he studies, calculates and then attacks. Supes isn’t playing a game of checkers as he did with Lex. This time he’s playing chess.
And while the logo is new and unique, variations of Brainiac‘s three-pronged emblem has showed up plenty of times over the years. It was right on his forehead in Smallville, stamped across his chest in animated series like Harley Quinn, and reworked plenty of times in the comics, depending on the artist. Seeing it here means that Gunn has plans to add it too, although it seems flipped upside down here.
Man of Tomorrow will include a lot of the cast from the first DCU film, like Rachel Brosnahan and Isabela Merced. But it will also include new faces like Aaron Pierre, and Adria Arjona.
July 9, 2027, is a long way away. It feels far. But if Gunn’s already planting clues like a Man of Tomorrow logo this early, you can bet Brainiac is going to be special.
