A new villain will be joining Titans season 4 as Titus Welliver signs on to play Lex Luthor.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Titans showrunner Greg Walker announced that Welliver – best known for starring in Bosch and Bosch: Legacy – has signed on to play Lex Luthor. However, talks with the actor apparently went a bit easier than they normally do.
“You usually have to do this whole dog-and-pony show to get an actor to do the show,” said Walker. “But when I called to kind of lure him in, I could barely get a word in. We were talking on the phone and he was just walking through his library, telling me about all his Wolfman/Perez Titans editions. He’s a giant, giant fan. He’d watched every episode of the show, and could tell me about certain stories, certain shots. It was the most unexpected call I’ve ever had.”
There will be one unexpected change for this version of Luthor, however, and that is he will be sporting a full beard.
“He has a very sensitive, thoughtful approach to evil and power. You know what he’s done, what he’s capable of doing, except like many of those people, he’s personable. He doesn’t have a cat on his lap. Yeah. He’s curious, which I think is very interesting about his character. He wants to know about people and what makes them tick, and how they’re different from him. He sees the world through the lens both of his own power and his own inadequacy, and tries to compensate for both.”
And as to how Luthor appearing will impact Conner (Joshua Orpin), it will lead to some questions for the Superman clone. “What shakes Conner up is an identity story. He’s explored his Superman self, but he has not really explored his Lex self. What does that mean when you do? What happens when you give that self the keys to the car? Does it start driving the wrong way at rush hour 100 miles an hour?”
Titans season 4 will debut on HBO Max in November.
