Matthew Lillard has just landed an exciting new role in Superman: Man of Tomorrow.
Role in Man of Tomorrow
The Scream star will be appearing onscreen for the sequel to James Gunn’s 2025 reboot of Superman, starring David Corenswet as the titular superhero. Lillard returns after previously putting his career comeback down to “nostalgia.”
Deadline reported that Lillard has joined a stacked cast for Man of Tomorrow, including Nicholas Hoult, Lars Eidinger, Rachel Brosnahan, Skyler Gisondo, Sara Sampaio, Isabela Merced, and Nathan Fillion. As of now, Lillard’s specific role is unknown.
Superman: Man of Tomorrow is in production and is slated to premiere on July 9th, 2027.
Lillard’s Career Resurgence
Matthew Lillard launched to stardom as Stu Macher in 1996’s Scream. Then, the star played Shaggy in 2002’s Scooby-Doo and its sequel, Monsters Unleashed two years later. His more recent appearances include William Afton in Five Nights At Freddy’s, The Life of Chuck, and Daredevil: Born Again.
Talking with the Phase Hero podcast, Lillard believes a new wave of fan nostalgia has helped propel his career reboot.
He said, “Scooby-Doo 1 and 2 are more popular now than they ever were when they came out. So I do think there’s a weird nostalgia thing happening in our industry and in the zeitgeist because I think that people are longing for ye olde times.”
“I think that’s one of the reasons I’m having this moment to be honest, is because I was identified in that moment, so people are hiring me again.”
He believes movie fans “miss the old times” rather than just him as an actor, stating, “I think that’s why I’m working. I don’t think anyone really likes me. They just miss the old times.”
Ups and Downs
In 2024, Lillard revealed he once thought the Scooby-Doo live-action movies would keep him “on the call sheet for the next 10 years of movies.” However, when the film became a box office flop, “the exact opposite happened.”
He admitted to Business Insider, “I’ve gone through good patches and bad patches. I’ve been irrelevant and thought I was never going to work again.”
Matthew Lillard realized he wasn’t irrelevant recently. He thanked fans for their support after Quentin Tarantino bashed the actor, stating he was one of the stars Tarantino doesn’t “care for” on The Bret Easton Ellis podcast.
As fans stood behind Lillard, he compared the experience to dying and being “in heaven watching everyone send out their RIP tweets.”
He said to People, “I mean, it was really being a part of your own wake, sort of sitting there living through all the nice things people say after you die. So it was really, really lovely. It was something that happened that was, who cares, really? But I spoke out. I mean, I got caught on a hot mic talking about it, and then it sort of went viral from there.”