Superman Villains: Every Foe from the Films, with Actors

Superman's main villains on screen are Lex Luthor, General Zod, Doomsday and Nuclear Man, with Zod's Kryptonian crew of Ursa, Non and Faora-Ul close behind. Luthor is the one who keeps coming back, with Gene Hackman, Kevin Spacey, Jesse Eisenberg and Nicholas Hoult each playing him in a different era of the saga.

The ten films that feature Superman run from Superman (1978), directed by Richard Donner, to Supergirl (2026), directed by Craig Gillespie. Zod's two biggest showdowns with Superman are in Superman II and Man of Steel. Each villain below comes with the actor, the film and what the villain does to Superman, so a face is easy to match to a film. For the full release sequence of the films themselves, see superman movies in order.

Spoiler warning: the villain entries describe plot after the first act, including how each fight ends.

Superman villains in release order run from Lex Luthor and General Zod in Superman (1978) to Krem in Supergirl (2026). Here is the main antagonist line up for each film, by US release year.

1. Superman (1978): Lex Luthor and the Kryptonian criminals led by General Zod, with Non among them.
2. Superman II (1981): General Zod, Ursa and Non, with Lex Luthor joining them.
3. Superman III (1983): Ross Webster, with Gus Gorman, Vera Webster and Lorelei Ambrosia.
4. Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987): Lex Luthor and Nuclear Man.
5. Superman Returns (2006): Lex Luthor, with Kitty Kowalski in his circle.
6. Man of Steel (2013): General Zod and Faora-Ul.
7. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016): Lex Luthor and Doomsday.
8. Justice League (2017): Steppenwolf, with Lex Luthor in the post credit scene.
9. Superman (2025): Lex Luthor, the Hammer of Boravia and the Engineer.
10. Supergirl (2026): Krem and his Brigands.

Lex Luthor appears in more Superman films than any other villain, played by Gene Hackman in Superman (1978), Superman II and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, by Kevin Spacey in Superman Returns, by Jesse Eisenberg in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and by Nicholas Hoult in Superman (2025). He also turns up in the post credit scene of Justice League. The lex luthor superman page covers the character in more depth.

In Superman (1978) Luthor plans to sink the western United States by hitting the San Andreas Fault with a missile, while his henchman Otis accidentally sends a second missile toward New Jersey. He traps Superman with Kryptonite, and Eve Teschmacher frees him. In Superman II, directed by Richard Lester, Luthor escapes prison with her help and offers to lead Zod's group to Superman in return for Australia. In Superman IV he is freed by his nephew Lenny and steals a strand of Superman's hair to build the genetic matrix behind Nuclear Man.

Superman Returns, directed by Bryan Singer, has Luthor steal crystals from the Fortress of Solitude, cause a blackout along the East Coast and grow a new landmass in the Atlantic. Eisenberg's version in Batman v Superman, directed by Zack Snyder, is a young tech billionaire who bombs a Senate hearing, kidnaps Martha Kent and Lois Lane, and unleashes Doomsday. In Justice League he escapes Arkham Asylum and recruits Slade Wilson.

In Superman (2025), directed by James Gunn, Hoult's Luthor holds Superman in a pocket universe prison with Metamorpho, uses Metamorpho's infant son as leverage and opens a rift that splits Metropolis. He finally admits he staged the Boravia conflict out of envy, and Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen expose him.

General Zod is Superman's main villain from Krypton, played by Terence Stamp in Superman (1978) and Superman II and by Michael Shannon in Man of Steel. In Superman (1978) the scientist Jor-El sentences Zod and two followers to the Phantom Zone, which sets up everything that follows. The general zod superman page follows the character across all three films.

Superman II (1981) frees Zod when a hydrogen bomb that Superman throws into space breaks open the Phantom Zone. Under Earth's sun Zod, Ursa and Non gain powers equal to Superman's. They take over the White House and demand that the world kneel to Zod, then force Superman to Metropolis for a large battle. Superman lures them into the Fortress chamber that removes powers, and only the three villains are stripped of theirs.

Man of Steel (2013), directed by Zack Snyder, makes Zod a general who murders Jor-El in a failed coup and is banished to the Phantom Zone. The destruction of Krypton frees him, and he arrives at Earth demanding that Kal-El be handed over. Zod later learns the codex of Krypton's unborn generations is stored in Superman's cells, and he wants a world engine to remake Earth into a new Krypton. The fight ends when Superman is forced to kill him to save a threatened family, and he is shaken by it.

Ursa is a Kryptonian criminal played by Sarah Douglas in Superman II, where she is billed fourth, ahead of Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor. She is one of the three prisoners, with General Zod and Non, freed from the Phantom Zone when Superman throws a hydrogen bomb into space to save Paris from terrorists.

Once the trio stand in Earth's sunlight they find they have super powers, and they set out toward Earth to conquer it. Ursa is part of the group that takes over the White House and the group that Superman lures into the crystal chamber at the Fortress of Solitude. Luthor tells the villains how the chamber works, but Superman has changed it, so only Zod, Ursa and Non lose their powers.

Ursa is one of the few female Superman villains in the films, and she belongs to the Krypton group alongside Faora-Ul from Man of Steel.

Non is a Kryptonian criminal played by Jack O'Halloran in both Superman (1978) and Superman II. He is billed ninth in the first film and fifth in the second, which reflects his larger role once the Phantom Zone prisoners reach Earth.

In Superman (1978) he is one of the figures sentenced alongside General Zod by Jor-El. In Superman II he is freed with Zod and Ursa, gains powers under Earth's sun and joins the takeover of the White House. Superman defeats the three of them by tricking them into the Fortress chamber, and Non loses his powers with the others.

Non links Superman (1978) and Superman II, carrying the same Kryptonian trio from the first film's prologue into the sequel.

Faora-Ul is a Kryptonian villain played by Antje Traue in Man of Steel, billed sixth in the cast. She belongs to General Zod's group of followers, who are exiled to the Phantom Zone after the failed coup and freed when Krypton is destroyed.

When Zod arrives at Earth, his followers fight Superman in Smallville. The military later uses the scout ship to open a portal that sends Zod's crew back to the Phantom Zone, while Zod is left behind to face Superman alone.

Faora-Ul is the second female Kryptonian villain in the films after Ursa, and she is the only one from the Zack Snyder era of the saga.

Doomsday is a monster made from General Zod's DNA, unleashed by Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), directed by Zack Snyder. Luthor gains access to Zod's body and the Kryptonian ship after the Metropolis battle, and that is where the creature comes from.

By the time Doomsday appears, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman have settled their conflict. Luthor had kidnapped Martha Kent and Lois Lane and demanded that Superman kill Batman. Batman stopped fighting when Superman begged him to save Martha, which is also the name of Bruce Wayne's late mother. The three heroes then fight Doomsday together.

Superman kills Doomsday with the kryptonite spear, but dies from the blow. The funeral that follows sets up Justice League, and the dirt on his coffin begins to rise at the burial. Doomsday is the only Superman film villain whose defeat costs the hero his life.

Nuclear Man is a villain created by Lex Luthor and played by Mark Pillow in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987), directed by Sidney J. Furie. The film ran 90 minutes on a $17 million budget, far smaller than the earlier entries, and it was the last film in the original series.

Nuclear Man is born when Superman throws a nuclear missile into the Sun, carrying the genetic matrix Luthor made from a strand of Superman's hair. He sides with Luthor and grows weak without sunlight. He fights Superman across the globe and in New York, where he is stopped from hurling the Statue of Liberty at Metropolis, and his toxic claws give Superman radiation sickness.

In a second fight on the Moon he beats Superman down and carries Lacy Warfield off into space. Superman recovers, moves the Moon into position to cause an eclipse that cuts Nuclear Man off from sunlight, and traps him in the core of a nuclear power plant, where he is turned into electricity.

Ross Webster is the main villain of Superman III (1983), played by Robert Vaughn, and the film was directed by Richard Lester. Lex Luthor does not appear in it, so Webster, a ruthless tycoon, takes his place as the scheming businessman.

Webster catches the gifted programmer Gus Gorman, played by Richard Pryor, skimming money from his employer and forces him to work on his schemes. They try to corner the world's coffee and oil markets, and when Superman foils the coffee plot, Webster orders Gus to make synthetic Kryptonite. Gus does not know one key ingredient and substitutes tar. The result does not hurt Superman but corrupts him, splitting him into an evil Superman and a good Clark Kent.

The supporting villains include Annie Ross as Vera Webster, who is turned into a cyborg by Webster's supercomputer, and Pamela Stephenson as Lorelei Ambrosia, who seduces Superman. Superman destroys the computer with acid, and Webster and his allies are arrested.

The Hammer of Boravia and the Engineer are the muscle and the brains working for Lex Luthor in Superman (2025). The Engineer is played by María Gabriela de Faría.

Superman halts Boravia's invasion of Jarhanpur, which angers Boravia's president, and is then beaten for the first time by the Hammer in Metropolis. He retreats to the Fortress of Solitude, where robots heal him with concentrated sunlight, but the Engineer has followed him there. Luthor, the Hammer and the Engineer later break into the Fortress, capture Krypto and recover the full Kryptonian message.

The final twist is that the Hammer is a clone of Superman. With Krypto's help, Superman knocks the clone into a black hole beneath the rift, and Mister Terrific closes the rift. Superman also defeats the Engineer in the same stretch of fighting, before Luthor is subdued.

Krem is an outlaw played by Matthias Schoenaerts in Supergirl (2026), directed by Craig Gillespie, and he is the villain of the latest film in the Superman line. David Corenswet appears as Superman, but the story belongs to Milly Alcock's Kara Zor-El.

Krem leads a gang called the Brigands. On the planet Holzherr, Kara meets Ruthye, whose family he killed, and he later hijacks Kara's ship and shoots Krypto with a poisoned dart, leaving the dog only a few days to live. Kara and Ruthye chase him across the galaxy to Bilquis, where his gang kidnaps young women to be forced into marriage.

The bounty hunter Lobo, played by Jason Momoa, ends up fighting on Kara's side. Kara stops Ruthye from killing Krem at first, and he escapes and kills a husband and his family. In the end Kara Zor-El kills Krem with his own sword, takes the antidote and saves Krypto.

Steppenwolf is an alien warlord voiced by Ciarán Hinds in Justice League (2017), and he is the villain who arrives after Superman's death. He is hunting three powerful objects called Mother Boxes, which together would form a force called the Unity.

Bruce Wayne and Diana Prince recruit Barry Allen, Arthur Curry and Victor Stone, and the team decides to bring Superman back to life. He returns confused and fights them at first, until Lois Lane and his mother Martha Kent help him recover. Superman joins the others for the final fight in Russia, where Steppenwolf tries to unite the boxes.

The team defeats him and separates the boxes so the Unity is not completed. The film makes him the threat that Superman returns to face.

Brainiac, Darkseid, Metallo, Bizarro, Mongul and Parasite are well known Superman villains from the comics, but none of them drives the plot of any of the ten films that feature Superman. Those films center on Luthor, the Kryptonians, Doomsday, Nuclear Man, Webster, Steppenwolf, the Hammer of Boravia and Krem instead.

That gap is one reason the movies lean so heavily on Luthor and Zod. The comics supply a much larger rogues gallery than the films have used, and the next entry, man of tomorrow, is dated for July 9, 2027, according to ABC News. For the comics versions, Brainiac and Darkseid are the names most worth searching first.

Four villains in the films come from Krypton: General Zod, Ursa, Non and Faora-Ul. Zod appears in Superman (1978), Superman II and Man of Steel, Ursa in Superman II, Non in Superman (1978) and Superman II, and Faora-Ul in Man of Steel.

The actors are Terence Stamp and Michael Shannon as Zod, Sarah Douglas as Ursa, Jack O'Halloran as Non and Antje Traue as Faora-Ul. Every one of them comes from the Phantom Zone storyline, where Jor-El or the Kryptonian council sentences them before the planet is destroyed.

The female villains in the films are Ursa, Faora-Ul, Eve Teschmacher, Lorelei Ambrosia, Vera Webster, Kitty Kowalski and the Engineer. Ursa (Sarah Douglas) is in Superman II, Eve Teschmacher (Valerie Perrine) is in Superman (1978) and Superman II, Lorelei Ambrosia (Pamela Stephenson) and Vera Webster (Annie Ross) are in Superman III, Kitty Kowalski (Parker Posey) is in Superman Returns, Faora-Ul (Antje Traue) is in Man of Steel, and the Engineer (María Gabriela de Faría) is in Superman (2025).

Ursa and Faora-Ul are the two Kryptonians, and the other five belong to the circles around Ross Webster and Lex Luthor. Supergirl (2026) puts a female hero in the lead, but its villain, Krem, is male.

Lex Luthor is the greatest Superman villain on screen in this ranking, which is my opinion and orders eight film foes by how much each one tests Superman rather than by screen time.

1. Lex Luthor. No other villain has been recast so often while staying recognizable, from Gene Hackman's San Andreas plan in Superman (1978) to Nicholas Hoult's staged Boravia conflict in Superman (2025).
2. General Zod. Terence Stamp's version in Superman II gives the saga its best set piece, the Metropolis battle, and Michael Shannon's Man of Steel version forces Superman to make a choice that costs him.
3. Ursa. Sarah Douglas holds her own beside Stamp and Jack O'Halloran, and she is the strongest of the female villains.
4. Doomsday. He is thin as a character, but his fight ends with Superman's death, which no other villain manages.
5. Faora-Ul. Antje Traue gives Man of Steel a Kryptonian who matches Superman in the Smallville fight.
6. Non. A silent presence in two films that works best as part of the trio.
7. Ross Webster. Robert Vaughn's tycoon is a fair stand in for Luthor, but Superman III spends more time on the evil Superman than on him.
8. Nuclear Man. Superman IV had a $17 million budget and a 90 minute runtime, and the Moon eclipse finish is the best idea in a film that never quite had the resources.

For one film to watch for villains, I would start with Superman II, which carries three of the top four in a single story.