Vasil Ghurkos: Boravia's president and Lex Luthor's ally in the 2025 film
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Vasil Ghurkos is the president of Boravia in the film released on 11 July 2025, Lex Luthor's ally in the invasion of Jarhanpur. He is not a comics character catalogued under that name. In this article you find who plays him, what the film has him do, how he ties into Luthor, and what you should not credit him with off-screen. By the end you will know how to tell him apart from a Zod or an Edge.
Key Facts
- Role: President of Boravia, ally of Lex Luthor
- Appearance: Superman, 11 July 2025
- Actor: Zlatko Burić
- Conflict: Invasion of Jarhanpur, stopped first by Kal-El
- Camp: Luthor's apparatus, not the Justice Gang
- Creation: A character of the film — not an indexed reprise of a comic under that name
📋 Contents
Who Ghurkos is in the film
The James Gunn film opens the DCU on a conflict between states, not only on a mad scientist. Ghurkos governs Boravia, a fictional country in Eastern Europe. He wants Jarhanpur. David Corenswet steps in, stops the army, and creates a diplomatic incident. The rest of the story shows him on screen feeding the campaign against the Man of Steel, in the wake of Nicholas Hoult.
Wikipedia and the cast notices list him among Luthor's allies, alongside Angela Spica and Otis Berg. He is not the « Hammer of Boravia »: that mask covers Ultraman, Lex's creature. Confusing the president with the metahuman means missing the credits.
The story needs a head of state so the interference has a diplomatic cost. Without Ghurkos, Kal-El stops an anonymous army. With him, the stop becomes an incident, then a campaign. This is not Lex becoming president in the comics: here Lex stays the scientist, and the state has another face. Two files, one camp.
Zlatko Burić
Zlatko Burić, a Croatian-Danish actor born in 1953, plays Ghurkos. The cast announces him clearly. Some of his lines come across as an Eastern European language; Croatian audiences recognized Croatian. That is not a plot fact to turn into « Boravia = Croatia »: Boravia does not exist.
We do not credit him with a solo film, or a comics arc attached after the fact. The file stops at the 2025 credits, and at what the film shows.
Burić is not a face already tied to the myth on screen. Corenswet, Hoult, Hawkgirl, Guy Gardner carry other pages. Here we have the actor who plays the president, not a Metropolis supporting role. If a sequel calls him back, we will add it. Nothing is announced under that name.
The alliance with Lex
Lex Luthor supplies the pretext, the machine and the metahuman. Ghurkos supplies the state, the army, the television. One needs a war; the other needs a hero to smear. The Engineer does the body work. This is not an old comics cabal: it is the film's apparatus.
In Lex's dimensional pocket, the notices describe Ghurkos as a spectator of a violence that Luthor owns. We do not make him the brain. The brain stays Lex.
Angela Spica transforms the body. Otis Berg holds the comic register of the camp. Ghurkos holds the state register: speeches, flags, troops. The trio is not an opposing league. It is logistics. When you sort the film's enemies, you put Lex first, the engineer next, the president apart — human, replaceable, mortal.
Boravia, Jarhanpur, the incident
Kal-El stops the first push. Ghurkos denounces the interference. When the damaged parental message is made public, he restarts the rumor. Later, a second attack runs into the Justice Gang. Reference summaries, including Wikipedia, indicate that Hawkgirl finishes Ghurkos. We hold to that, without inventing a trial or a sequel.
Boravia and Jarhanpur do not exist on a real map. They are states of the film, set down for a contemporary conflict, not to recycle Krypton or Metropolis. The first stop comes from Kal-El alone. The second, from Gunn's team, which is not the Justice League. Ghurkos dies in that second movement. We do not write him an exile, or a trial in The Hague.
What he is not
He is not Zod. He is not Morgan Edge. He is not a Kryptonian general. Boravia is not Krypton. The DCU chose a human head of state to open the conflict, and a Luthor to steer it.
He is not a face from the paper gallery that someone would have renamed either. No Action Comics run, no DC Database entry before the film under that name. If you are looking for a president already in the comics, that is Luthor in the White House, another century, another contract.
Ghurkos in the 2025 film
Three misconceptions
- Ghurkos is the Hammer of Boravia. No. The Hammer is Ultraman, Luthor's creature. Ghurkos is the president.
- Boravia exists in the comics under this government. The film creates that president. We do not invent an Action Comics run for him.
- He is a hidden Kryptonian. Nothing in the film's sources says so. He is a human at the head of a fictional state.
FAQ — Frequently asked questions
Who is Vasil Ghurkos?
The president of Boravia in Superman (2025). He allies with Lex Luthor to invade Jarhanpur.
Who plays Vasil Ghurkos?
Zlatko Burić, a Croatian-Danish actor.
Is Ghurkos in the comics?
Not under that name as an indexed reprise. He is a character of the film.
Is Ghurkos the Hammer of Boravia?
No. The Hammer is Ultraman, created by Luthor.
What does Boravia want in the film?
To invade Jarhanpur. Kal-El opposes it, then the Justice Gang.
What happens to Ghurkos?
Reference summaries indicate that Hawkgirl finishes him during the second attack. Nothing is announced beyond the film.
Conclusion
The DCU opens on a president, a scientist, an engineer, a dog and a team that is not yet the Justice League. Ghurkos is the first on that list, not the most lasting. Hoult and Lex carry the long file.
If you are looking for the state, it is here. If you are looking for the brain, it is the Gunn era on Luthor's side. The president has no announced sequel, no figure, no paper run. He has a film, an actor, a death in the second assault. That is enough for a page. It is not enough to make him a Zod, or an Edge, or a general. A film president, a single feature, a single death, and nothing else.