Rachel Brosnahan: the Lois Lane of James Gunn's Superman

Before Lois: from Milwaukee to House of Cards

Rachel Elizabeth Brosnahan was born on July 12, 1990 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and grew up from the age of four in Highland Park, a suburb of Chicago. She trained in theater at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, graduating in late 2012, and began working on screen while still a student.

Her first film roles were modest: she can be seen in Beautiful Creatures in 2013, an adaptation of a young adult novel. It's television that got her noticed, the same year, with the role of Rachel Posner in House of Cards, Netflix's political series.

Rachel Posner is a supporting character, a young woman caught up in Frank Underwood's manipulations. The role is short, but memorable enough to earn her an Emmy nomination. For an actress of barely twenty-five, it's a strong first signal.

Next came Manhattan, in 2014, a series about the secret atomic bomb project, in which she plays Abby Isaacs. You can already see what would make her Lois: an intelligence visible on screen, and an ability to stand up to the men around her.

Mrs. Maisel: the Emmy that changed everything

In 2017, Amazon launched The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, created by Amy Sherman-Palladino. Rachel Brosnahan plays Miriam "Midge" Maisel, a housewife in late-1950s New York who, after being left by her husband, discovers a talent for stand-up.

The role is huge: entire comedy monologues, a very fast delivery, constant energy. She was immediately acclaimed. As early as 2018, she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, then two consecutive Golden Globes, in 2018 and 2019.

The series ran five seasons, from 2017 to 2023, and made her one of the most recognized television actresses of her generation. When it ended, the question was obvious: what do you do after such an identifiable role?

The answer would come a few months later, in the form of a Metropolis journalist. And the connection isn't so distant: Midge Maisel and Lois Lane are both women who talk fast, think even faster, and refuse to let others decide for them.

The 2023 casting: how she landed Lois Lane

On June 27, 2023, James Gunn and Peter Safran announced the lead duo of what was still called Superman: Legacy : David Corenswet would be Clark Kent, Rachel Brosnahan would be Lois Lane. The film, the first feature of the new DC Universe, was then scheduled for July 11, 2025.

The competition was serious. According to the trade press, she won out over Emma Mackey (Sex Education) and Phoebe Dynevor (Bridgerton), both of whom also auditioned. The choice of a thirty-two-year-old actress, known for a comedy series, surprised some fans who were expecting a younger or more "action" face.

James Gunn explained his choice by the screen tests: he had the candidates act together, and it was the chemistry between Corenswet and Brosnahan that settled it. The director insisted on their preparation and on the energy of their shared scenes. The complete list of the Superman 2025 cast shows that this duo logic guided the entire film.

For her, it's a complete change of register: after five seasons of period comedy, a superhero blockbuster awaited around the world, with all the promotion that entails.

Preparing Lois: talking to real journalists

Rachel Brosnahan explained that she didn't try to talk to the actresses who preceded her in the role. She preferred to meet working journalists, to understand how a reporter works today: how she prepares an interview, how she pushes an interviewee into a corner, where she draws the line between private life and investigation.

This approach shows on screen. Her Lois isn't a damsel in distress or a mere partner: she's a professional, and the film shows her at work. Our article on Lois Lane recalls that the character has been, since 1938, first and foremost a journalist — Gunn's film takes that definition literally.

The actress also mentioned a personal nod slipped into the film, a sentimental detail linked to her own family. This kind of anecdote, widely relayed during the promotion, says something about her relationship to the role: she didn't approach it as a mere franchise contract.

The interview scene: twelve minutes that sum up the film

The most talked-about scene in the film takes place in Lois's apartment. She and Clark have only recently started dating; he agrees to give her an interview "as Superman," and she questions him about his intervention in a conflict between two fictional countries, Boravia and Jarhanpur.

The scene lasts about twelve minutes. James Gunn said it represented nearly ten percent of the film and had been shot in two days. It's a pure dialogue scene, with no special effects, where the interview gradually turns into a couple's argument.

What Rachel Brosnahan does in it is remarkable: she moves from the journalist asking the hard questions to the partner who fears for the man in front of her, without ever letting go of the former for the latter. Her Lois doesn't stop being a reporter because she loves Clark.

For many critics, this scene is the heart of the film, the one that explains what Gunn wanted to do with his Superman: a hero you can contradict. Our review of Superman 2025 looks at this writing success at greater length.

Her Lois Lane versus the previous ones

Every generation has had its Lois, and each has emphasized one facet of the character. Margot Kidder, opposite Christopher Reeve, played the intrepid, slightly scattered journalist. Teri Hatcher, in Lois & Clark, brought romantic comedy to the fore. Amy Adams, in Man of Steel, played a serious, almost solitary investigator.

Rachel Brosnahan sits elsewhere. Her Lois is a woman already established in her career, who knows Clark's secret from the start of the film and therefore has nothing to discover: she has something to decide. The film's question isn't "who is Superman?" but "can I live with this man?".

This choice brings her version closer to that ofElizabeth Tulloch in Superman & Lois, where the couple is also a given from the outset. But where the series told the story of a family, the film tells the beginnings of a relationship, with its doubts and its still-blurry rules.

Finally, her Lois is funny. It's the most visible legacy of Midge Maisel: a sense of comic timing that lightens the scenes with Corenswet and, later in the film, her exchanges with Nicholas Hoult's Lex Luthor. The character thus regains a lightness it had somewhat lost on the big screen since the 1990s.

In theaters alongside: I'm Your Woman and The Amateur

Between Mrs. Maisel and Superman, Rachel Brosnahan built a more low-key but coherent film career. In 2020, she carried I'm Your Woman, a film noir set in the 1970s, in which she plays Jean, a woman forced to flee after the disappearance of her husband, who is tied to organized crime. The film was released on Prime Video in December 2020.

In spring 2025, a few months before Superman, she appeared in The Amateur, a spy thriller with Rami Malek. She plays Sarah, the wife of a CIA cryptographer, killed in an attack in the British capital — a short but central role, since it's her death that sets the whole plot in motion. The actress said Malek had offered her the role directly, during an encounter at the Met Gala.

These two films have one thing in common: women the script could reduce to a function — the widow, the wife — and whom the actress makes present in a few scenes. That's exactly the risk Lois Lane ran in a superhero film, and exactly what she avoided.

On stage, she has never stopped performing: trained in theater, she notably played Desdemona in an off-Broadway production ofOthello in 2016. A way of keeping in touch with live acting between two shoots.

Man of Tomorrow: her return in 2027

The sequel to Superman is called Man of Tomorrow and its release is announced for July 9, 2027. James Gunn has confirmed the return of Rachel Brosnahan in the role of Lois Lane alongside David Corenswet and Nicholas Hoult. Asked about Lois's place in this sequel, he settled for one word: she is "important."

According to the information published to date, the film takes place two years after the events of the first and rests on an unexpected alliance between Superman and Lex Luthor against a greater threat, Brainiac — a first for this character in a live-action film. Filming wrapped at the end of summer 2026.

What exactly Lois will do in it isn't known, and it would be unwise to make it up. Our feature on Superman: Man of Tomorrow is updated as official announcements come in.

What is certain is that the Lois-Clark couple is now the bedrock of James Gunn's DCU, as it has always been in the comics — our article on Superman and Lois retraces this story of more than eighty years.

Conclusion

Rachel Brosnahan pulled off what few actresses manage: leaving a role that defined her to take on another, even heavier one, without giving the impression of being weighed down by it. Her Lois Lane is a journalist first and foremost, funny, demanding, and able to stand up to Superman in a twelve-minute scene without a single special effect.

The woman who preceded her in the role, and who publicly supported her, has her own profile: Amy Adams.

With Man of Tomorrow on the horizon for 2027, she's set to play the character across several films, like Margot Kidder in her day. It's still early to place her in a hierarchy, but one thing is settled: the new DCU has found its Lois.

To go further, our profile of David Corenswet tells the story of the other half of the duo, and our article on Lois Lane goes back to the origins of the character she plays.