13 Hyped Movie Roles That Were Total Cop-Outs

5. Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) - Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice

You could make a pretty reasonable argument that Batman (Ben Affleck) and Superman (Henry Cavill) have both been badly served throughout the DCEU (by the scripts, not the actors), but the most stunning missed opportunity to date is Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor.

Eisenberg was a bold, forward-thinking choice to play the megalomaniacal supervillain, and given Eisenberg's brilliance playing Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network, there wasn't much reason to doubt his suitability for the role.

Sadly Batman v Superman's jumbled trainwreck of a script and excessive studio meddling combined with some of Eisenberg's more "adventurous" acting choices to make Luthor even more of an eyebrow-raising weirdo than he was in the later Christopher Reeve movies.

Eisenberg gets a lot of heat for "butchering" the character, but honestly with a better script and more competent director his interpretation could've easily worked. This was an unfortunate collision of elements which just didn't mesh well together.

Justice League's post-credits scene did at least tease a more comic-accurate, suited-up and serious Luthor, but with the DCEU basically in tatters at present, it's possible Eisenberg will never get another opportunity to reprise the role.