In a blunt response, Gunn made it clear the rumor is false and says the speculation has gotten ahead of reality. Gunn even goes so far as to suggest Brainiac might not even be the villain (if not, our guess is The Centre<\/a>).<\/p>\n Gunn Says Brainiac Was Never Confirmed<\/p>\n Gunn opened by pointing out that he has never publicly said Brainiac is even in the movie. <\/p>\n While recent reporting identified Brainiac as the villain, Gunn emphasized that he personally has not confirmed the character\u2019s inclusion and warned against treating rumors as fact.<\/p>\n His comment immediately throws cold water on the rapid-fire casting speculation that has dominated the conversation over the past few days.<\/p>\n No Talks With Bautista, No Casting Discussions<\/p>\n Gunn said he loves Dave Bautista and has many ideas for characters Bautista could potentially play in the DCU. <\/p>\n However, he stated clearly that he and Bautista have never discussed Man of Tomorrow, nor has Bautista\u2019s name come up internally at DC for the film.<\/p>\n Gunn also addressed the wider rumor mill, saying that none of the actors rumored so far \u2014 which he said now totals six or seven names \u2014 have auditioned, been discussed, or even considered at this stage.<\/p>\n The names include Matt Smith<\/a>,\u00a0Claes Bang<\/a>, and Sam Rockwell.<\/p>\n What James Gunn said<\/p>\n Via Threads, Gunn responded:<\/p>\n Oh boy. Let\u2019s forget a moment I\u2019ve never said Brainiac was in the movie. I freaking love @davebautista & I have many ideas for who he could play in the DCU. But he & I have never discussed a role in Man of Tomorrow, nor have we discussed it amongst ourselves at DC. In addition, truly, NONE of the names, from the six or seven I\u2019ve seen rumored for a role, have auditioned or been discussed at all.<\/p>\n In general I\u2019m just letting the silly rumors go \u2013 and this is certainly not the silliest I\u2019ve heard recently \u2013 but Dave is a friend and that makes it more irritating. Btw I\u2019m not blaming the poster here \u2013 I imagine this is coming from other places.<\/p>\n Release info<\/p>\n Man of Tomorrow\u00a0gets released in theaters on July 9, 2027, written and directed by James Gunn.<\/p>\n Starring includes David Corenswet as Superman, with Nicholas Hoult returning as Lex Luthor, teaming up to take on a much bigger threat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Gunn has responded directly to the latest casting rumor surrounding Man of Tomorrow, pushing back hard on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[27912,146,85,46,12959,397,13818],"class_list":{"0":"post-185163","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-dave-bautista","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-james-gunn","13":"tag-movies","14":"tag-superman"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"dave](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/dave-bautista-brainiac-fan-art-man-of-tomorrow.webp.webp\" "\\"dave")
Fan art<\/p>\n![\"Dave](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/dave-bautista-drax-dc-marvel.webp.webp\" "\\"dave")
<\/p>\n![\"james](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/james-gunn-responds-dave-bautista-brainiac-rumors.jpg\" "\\"james")
Screenshot via Threads<\/p>\n