Nicholas Hoult’s next two major characters may exist in very different worlds, but the actor sees a useful connection between them: fixation. Hoult plays Ryan, the masked-vigilante leader at the center of How to Rob a Bank, before returning as Lex Luthor in DC’s Man of Tomorrow. In Hoult’s view, both characters are defined by how completely they pursue a goal.
“For both of them, I think there’s this element of, like, the end goal,” Hoult said when discussing the comparison. “They got so fixated on it.”
That is a deceptively broad character trait, but it can be dramatically powerful. A character with a single, consuming objective has an immediate sense of direction: decisions, alliances, arguments and risks can all be measured against the same desired outcome. Hoult described that clarity as part of the appeal of playing people with “this set goal and obsession,” because it creates a clear route through both the story and individual scenes.
Ryan’s public-facing crusade in How to Rob a Bank
In How to Rob a Bank, Hoult’s Ryan leads a group of masked vigilantes that also includes characters played by Pete Davidson, Anna Sawai and Rhenzy Feliz. The group has become social-media famous through elaborate bank-robbing schemes, with Ryan appearing in YouTube videos or livestreams that give instructions related to robberies, avoiding police and other illegal conduct.
The supplied setup frames Ryan’s actions as being motivated by what he believes is the greater good. That does not make the group’s actions harmless or lawful; rather, it establishes the moral logic Ryan uses to justify his campaign. The mask, the online audience and the vigilante identity all place his actions in a deliberately public arena. Ryan is not simply pursuing a private objective. His operation is designed to be watched, circulated and understood by an audience.
That distinction matters when comparing him with Lex Luthor. Ryan’s stated orientation is outward: he sees his cause as serving something beyond himself. Lex, by contrast, has been presented as substantially more self-interested. The two men can therefore share determination without sharing ethics, methods or emotional stakes.
Obsession is the overlap, not the equivalence
Hoult’s comparison should not be read as a claim that Ryan and Lex are the same kind of person. It is more revealing than that. Both characters appear to have a powerful internal compass, but that compass points in different directions.
- Ryan: a masked leader whose vigilante project is framed as working for a greater good.
- Lex Luthor: a villain whose interests are notably more personal and self-serving.
- The shared quality: an intense commitment to a final objective that shapes how each man moves through the plot.
For an actor, that shared structure can provide continuity across wildly different genres and settings. The external details change—one role is connected to a viral vigilante crew, while the other belongs to a superhero conflict involving Superman—but the performance can begin from the same essential question: what does this person need badly enough to organize every choice around it?
That approach also helps explain why fixation works so well in antagonistic or morally unstable characters. Obsession narrows perspective. It can turn compromise into weakness, make other people seem like obstacles or tools, and encourage a character to interpret every setback as proof that they must press harder. None of those outcomes are guaranteed by ambition alone, but they are familiar dramatic pressures when a goal becomes central to someone’s identity.
What Man of Tomorrow is set to explore for Lex
Man of Tomorrow will place Hoult’s Lex Luthor alongside Superman in an uneasy team-up against Braniac, a supervillain the Man of Steel cannot defeat alone. The premise creates an immediate tension: Superman and Lex have reason to cooperate, but cooperation does not erase the conflict between them.
Hoult was careful not to reveal plot specifics, but he emphasized that the film’s version of Lex has “a lot” to understand about himself and the world. That suggests the sequel’s interest in Luthor extends beyond his role as an obstacle for Superman. The character may be confronting questions about his own worldview, his place in a larger reality and the implications of pursuing control or certainty when the stakes escalate beyond him.
That is particularly significant in a story where Lex must work with Superman. A forced alliance is not the same as a redemption arc, and nothing provided about the film establishes that Lex will become heroic. But an alliance can expose a villain’s priorities under pressure. It can test whether the character’s principles are genuine, whether they are merely rationalizations, or whether they collapse the moment survival and self-interest come into conflict.
Nathan Fillion has likewise indicated that audiences will learn more about who Lex is in the sequel. Taken together with Hoult’s remarks, the available picture is of a film using a massive external threat not only to challenge Superman, but also to deepen its understanding of Luthor.
A team-up does not settle the Superman-Luthor conflict
The important word in the setup is “together,” not “resolved.” Superman needing Lex’s help against Braniac gives the pair a shared practical problem, but it does not mean they share values or trust. In narrative terms, this kind of arrangement creates two simultaneous conflicts:
- The visible conflict against the threat neither side can overcome alone.
- The personal and ideological conflict between partners who may need one another while still expecting betrayal, disagreement or competing agendas.
Hoult’s focus on Lex’s obsession gives that second conflict extra weight. If Luthor is defined by an uncompromising end goal, then a team-up can become a pressure test rather than a simple partnership. The question is not merely whether he can assist Superman; it is how the necessity of that assistance interacts with what Lex ultimately wants.
For readers interested in the wider comic-book landscape around characters such as Superman and Lex Luthor, recent comic reprint news is another reminder that superhero stories continue to circulate across new editions as well as new screen projects.
Two releases, one performance thread
How to Rob a Bank reaches theaters on November 13, while Man of Tomorrow is scheduled for July 9, 2027. The releases will give audiences the chance to see Hoult apply a similar character foundation to two sharply different roles: Ryan’s public, supposedly altruistic vigilantism and Lex’s more inward-looking villainy.
The comparison is not about collapsing their differences. Ryan’s group is built around an overt social-media presence and a claimed larger purpose. Lex operates in the orbit of Superman and a threat serious enough to demand an unlikely collaboration. What connects them is the engine Hoult identifies beneath the surface: characters who are so focused on reaching their destination that the pursuit itself becomes one of the story’s defining forces.
