Lobo! Jason Momoa's new DCU character in the Supergirl trailer, explained

Momoa swaps a trident for a cigar in this much-hyped recast

The trailer for Supergirl has arrived, with director Craig Gillespie and writer Anna Nogueira adapting Tom King’s 2022 DC comic book, Woman of Tomorrow, for James Gunn’s nascent DC Universe. But while the trailer is largely focused on Supergirl, aka Kara Zor-El (House of Dragons breakout star Milly Alcock), it also offers our first look at another much-hyped DC character making his big-screen, live-action debut: Lobo!

Played by Jason Momoa (shedding his DCEU role as Aquaman for a more villainous performance), Lobo only appears onscreen in the Supergirl trailer for a second or two, but he makes quite an impression in that time. At first glance, you might mistake Momoa's character for a professional wrestler who has a real penchant for KISS makeup and cigars. But in reality, Momoa is playing Lobo, a violent anti-hero from DC Comics and various animated projects.

An interstellar mercenary with a big mouth and an even larger kill count, Lobo was created by writer Roger Slifer and artist Keith Giffen in 1983. He first appeared in Omega Men #3, a comic following a team of extraterrestrial superheroes that fight crime and, sometimes, each other.

Lobo hails from the planet Czarnia, which was once a peaceful utopia before Lobo decided to ruin that peace for good and turned on his people with glee. Despite his genocidal origins, recent iterations of Lobo have made him seem more of an anti-hero than an outright villain. His Czarnian physiology grants him a plethora of powers that usually vary based on the story's writer, the most notable one being a form of functional immortality. Lobo is a true powerhouse who even had scuffles with Superman without breaking a sweat.

Originally conceived as a parody of the gritty superhero stories that were increasingly popular at the time, Lobo was instead thoroughly accepted — to the complete bewilderment of Giffen — and quickly became a fan-favorite among comic enthusiasts. The character has appeared in a variety of comic book adaptations, such as the Injustice video games, Superman: The Animated Series, and the Superman-origin story series, Syfy’s Krypton. Lobo was even supposed to have his own TV series, also on Syfy, but the network scrapped it when Krypton was canceled.

However, it now seems Lobo’s bounty hunting skills will come in handy with his appearance in Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. While plot details have been kept close to the chest, considering that it’s an adaptation of a popular comic book story, we know that Supergirl will meet an alien girl named Ruthye Marye Knoll (Eve Ridley). In the comics, Ruthye asks Kara to help get justice for her father’s death at the hands of a vicious pirate-assassin called Krem of the Yellow Hills.

King has stated that Lobo was intended to be part of the Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow comic. However his editors, Brittany Holzherr and Jamie Rich, told him to take Lobo out and make Supergirl a “Rooster Cogburn character” (a reference to the drunk and loud lawman from the 1969 film True Grit).

With Lobo making his DCU debut — and considering his history as a bounty hunter and willingness to take any job as long as the money is right — the reason for his appearance in Supergirl sparks plenty of questions. Will Lobo replace Krem as the murderer that Supergirl and Ruthye team up to kill? Or will Lobo serve as an informant (or perhaps even an ally) who helps our heroes find their target? Or maybe he’ll just show up at some point in the movie to cause violent havoc and derail the plot. Classic Lobo.

We’re bound to find out more as we get closer to Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow’s release on June 26, 2026.