Wendell Pierce Cast as Perry White in James Gunn’s ‘Superman’ (Exclusive)

Great Caesar’s Ghost, Perry White has been found.

Wendell Pierce, perhaps best known for his work as a detective on HBO’s seminal crime series The Wire, has been cast as the iconic editor-in-chief of The Daily Planet in James Gunn’s Superman.

The new feature based on the DC Comics character began rolling in Atlanta on Thursday. It was previously titled Superman: Legacy.

David Corenswet is starring as Clark Kent/Superman, with Rachel Brosnahan playing Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane. The cast also includes Nicholas Hoult as classic villain Lex Luthor.

The character of Perry White is a Man of Steel fixture, first introduced in a Superman radio serial in 1940. He is the boss of both Kent and Lane, and depending on the incarnation, can be a tough-as-nails boss, the harried-by-his-reporters boss, or a father-figure boss. The character has been played on the big screen by Jackie Cooper (in the Christopher Reeves movies), Frank Langella (in Bryan Singer’s take) and Laurence Fishburne (in the Snyderverse movies of the 2010s).

Rounding out Gunn’s cast is Skyler Gisondo (Jimmy Olsen), Sara Sampaio (Eve Teschmacher), Edi Gathegi (Mister Terrific), Terence Rosemore (Otis), Anthony Carrigan (Metamorpho), Isabela Merced (Hawkgirl), Nathan Fillion (Guy Gardner) and María Gabriela de Faría (The Engineer).

The feature marks the first solo Superman project in more than a decade following Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, which starred Henry Cavill. Warner Bros. has set a July 11, 2025, release date.

Pierce was most recently seen in the Amazon series Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, where he played Clancy mainstay character James Greer. He also did a stint on Starz’s Power Book III: Raising Kanan. The actor is repped by Paradigm and Essential Talent.