Nicholas Hoult’s journey to becoming the iconic Lex Luthor in the upcoming Superman movie was far from the norm. Specifically, because the respected actor was initially auditioning to play the lead role in the highly anticipated film.

"That's a really bolstering sort of thing to happen," Hoult tells EW. One of the first Lex Luthors that Nicholas Hoult remembers seeing as a kid is the one played by Michael Rosenbaum on Smallville, the CW series featuring Tom Welling as Clark Kent/Kal-El in a high-school coming-of-age setting.

James Gunn's Superman may have found its perfect Man of Steel in David Corenswet now, but there was another actor who was almost set to play the Kryptonian hero, and surprisingly, it was Nicholas Houl