It is fair to say that fans of comic book movies have pretty strong opinions about how said movies should look. The phenomenon known as “fan-casting” (essentially, fans deciding who should play various characters in adaptations) is pretty hit-and-miss, with every Ryan Reynolds who turns out to be a perfect fit as Deadpool contrasted with John Krasinski’s anemic cameo as the Fantastic Four’s Reed Richards in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022). However, one Batman star turns out to have some pretty strong opinions of his own when it comes to being fan-cast in projects: Bryan Cranston.

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The Batman: Year One (2011) star recently gave an interview to the Happy Sad Confused podcast, in which he opined that he thinks the frequent fan-cast of him as the DC Universe‘s biggest bad is, in a word, “lazy.”
Bryan Cranston Thinks Casting Him as Lex Luthor Is Lazy
In the interview, Bryan Cranston was asked about his thoughts on being frequently fan-cast as the iconic DC Comics villain Lex Luthor (as well as Commissioner Gordon, who he voiced in Batman: Year One). The Breaking Bad actor said “There should be a, like, ‘lazycasting.com.’ And I was like ‘what is it?’ Because I had a bald head, they go ‘Ah! Lex Luthor!’ It’s like, come on. Let’s think about this a little bit.”

Sounds like Bryan Cranston doesn’t have very high regard for this potential bit of casting for future Superman projects.
Lex Luthor May Play a Role in Superman Reboot
While Bryan Cranston has not been announced as even being up for consideration to play Lex Luthor, there is a good reason for that. As new co-head of DC Studios, James Gunn has announced that one of the first projects in his new DC Universe will be the upcoming Superman: Legacy, which will serve as an introduction to a new version of the Man of Steel.
Gunn seems to be playing his cards close to the chest, with no confirmations of any actors up for consideration as Clark Kent, Lex Luthor, or any of the presumable major players in the film. The former Marvel Cinematic Universe director has said that his version of Superman will be a younger character than previously seen, but no word about his billionaire mad scientist former U.S. President nemesis.
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Bryan Cranston’s sole foray into DC Comics adaptation (so far, anyway) was in Batman: Year One, in which his Commissioner Gordon first faced off against and then became an ally of an inexperienced Dark Knight (voiced by Ben McKenzie). Coincidentally, McKenzie himself portrayed a younger version of Gordon for five seasons of the Fox series Gotham.

Of course, being a major part of the Batman mythos, Commissioner Gordon has been portrayed numerous times over the years. Pat Hingle played the character for the Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher movies until he was replaced by Gary Oldman in the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight trilogy. Following that, JK Simmons played the character for several appearances in Zack Snyder’s DC Extended Universe; a live-action version of Gordon was played by Jeffrey Wright in Matt Reeves’ The Batman (2022) and is expected to return for the sequel.
It seems that Bryan Cranston thinks that people pretty much want him to be Lex Luthor because he had a bald head in Breaking Bad for a while, rather than his commanding screen presence and literal decades of acting experience. Hard to argue that he thinks that’s a bit lazy.