"What makes good men do cruel things?" the first look trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice asks us. What psychological and moral conditions must exist for evil to take control? Aside from tracing the physical origins of its superheroes and villains, Zack Snyder's movie is really dealing with the moral question of why they should exist in the first place: what conditions bring a Batman or Superman to light, both in the fictional reality of comic pages as well as in the social present in which they're constantly reimagined. For director Zack Snyder, Batman v Superman is also an opportunity to trace the mythological dimensions of his superheroes as well. Jesse Eisenberg, for his part, has attempted to rewrite Lex Luthor as a silicon valley tech geek-turned corporate megalomaniac, and for him, this moral dilemma is exactly why Batman v Superman is "the best, most advantageous role I’ve ever been given."

In a career-spanning conversation with Observer, Eisenberg mentioned that "Luthor is more of a stretch than any character you would do in an independent movie," because of the chance to explore the character's psychology. "So in that way it was not at all compromised. The opportunity to do an interesting character on a movie of that scale is incredibly rare," he continued, for being "as enigmatic as he is emotionally honest." This is in large part due to "the phenomenal writing" that went into the character, which Eisenberg previously revealed. "The character is written by the phenomenal writer Chris Terrio," he told Observer. "His background is not in comic books so he was coming at it from emotion and story and created this really wonderful character." But don't get us wrong: psychological reality aside, this guy is absolutely nuts. Are you excited to see Jesse Eisenberg portray Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice?