It may be the Summer of Supergirl, but Kara Zor-El isn’t the only character making her DCU debut. It’s not often the entire internet can agree on a casting choice, but everyone can see that Jason Momoa was born to play Lobo.

Unlike her cousin’s 2025 film, Supergirl explores heavier themes of loss, anger and searching for one’s place in the world. With an intergalactic setting, Kara Zor-El is bound to run into many different characters from many different worlds. One of them is the infamous Czarnian bounty hunter known as Lobo, who parallels Kara’s story in being the sole survivor of his own planet—the key difference here, though, is he was the cause of his people’s destruction. While serving as a trigger-happy wild card in Kara’s quest for a cure for the poisoned Krypto, Lobo has a lot of charm and an undeniable cool factor with his long coat and motorcycle, something that Momoa channels effortlessly.

“I think Craig [Gillespie, the director of Supergirl] built a beautiful world to really let us be free, and didn’t put handcuffs on me,” Momoa says about bringing Lobo to the big screen. “If it didn't work out, he wouldn't use it in the edit. So, they let me just go wild. And I know to stay within my means, but I definitely just start letting it roll out.”

Embodying Lobo has a lot to do with the costume, which as seen in the film’s trailer, is remarkably comics accurate.

“Putting that stuff on, it’s fun because you get to change, and you get to be something different in how you move,” Momoa recalls. “It’s very important. I think physicality is extremely important. You can tell everything through how we move our bodies.”

This isn’t Momoa’s first time playing an iconic DC character. He previously embodied Aquaman in James Wan’s two films focusing on DC’s King of Atlantis. So, which kind of character does he prefer playing? The heroic king or the “morally gray” bounty hunter?

“I’m going to go with the morally gray [bounty hunter],” he says with a smile. “I love that comic. That’s who I would want to be—it’s Lobo. I would not want to be Aquaman, even though he is awesome with his powers and [authority over] the sea—things I identify with that I love. But man, when I was a little kid… Yeah, it’s my dream role!”

Momoa is a lifelong Lobo fan who’s been reading and collecting Lobo comics since he was a kid. While he wouldn’t name names, there are a few Lobo stories that he’d love to see adapted some day.

“Hopefully I get to do a solo movie,” he says. “There are a couple that I’d like to blend. A Little bit of that, and a little dash of this.”

Whether that happens will at least partially depend on the success of Supergirl. But with the excitement among fans at seeing Momoa in the role and early buzz over his scenes (many of which are opposite the young Eve Ridley’s Ruthye), it feels likely we’ll see Lobo on screen again, either once again alongside Supergirl or hopefully in his own solo adventure. After all, considering the physicality of the role, Lobo has no problem commanding plenty of attention on his own.

As Momoa states definitively, “You’ve got to have the swagger… It’s got to ooze through me and that suit.”
 

Supergirl, directed by Craig Gillespie and featuring Jason Momoa as Lobo, is in theaters Friday. Get your tickets now.

Sami DeMonster writes about superheroes, horror and sci-fi for DC.com and reviews comics every week on social media. Follow her at @samidemonster on Instagram and Substack.