Superman: Legacy Casts María Gabriela De Faría as The Engineer

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DC Studios has cast Animal Control and The Moodys’ actress María Gabriela De Faría as The Engineer in James Gunn’s Superman: Legacy.

As reported by Deadline, the Venezuelan actress will play Authority member Angela Spica (aka The Engineer), who can modify her liquid machinery body to form different types of weapons.

Gunn celebrated De Faria’s induction into the rebooted DCU in a post on Threads, noting he wouldn’t necessarily call The Engineer a villain as Deadline’s original report did. “Villain is such a disparaging term,” he said. “Welcome to the DCU De Faria, who is not only a wonderful actor, but she laughs in person even more than she does in her Instagram feed.”

Superman: Legacy will otherwise star David Corenswet as the titular Man of Steel and Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, and despite many DC fans being less than pleased with how the cinematic universes have panned out so far, the internet actually seemed happy with Gunn’s casting of the two roles.

Nathan Fillion is also set to play Green Lantern, Edi Gathegi will play Mister Terrific, Isabela Merced will play Hawkgirl, and Anthony Carrigan will play Metamorpho. Gunn confirmed these actors would play the roles in other DCU projects too.

Superman: Legacy will premiere July 11, 2025 and will tell the story of a Superman trying to balance his Kryptonian and Kansan heritage. It will be the first of five films and five TV shows that make up Chapter 1 of the new DCU, titled Gods and Monsters, and while it isn’t an origin story, Gunn has confirmed it won’t be a young Superman film either.

Confusion initially surrounded Henry Cavill’s involvement after the former Superman actor announced his return alongside the release of Black Adam, but he later revealed he wouldn’t be returning after all following Gunn and co-CEO Peter Safran’s shake-up at DC.

Gunn was confirmed to be writing Superman: Legacy but later revealed he would direct too, though assured that it won’t have the “same vibe” as his Marvel superhero offering Guardians of the Galaxy. The film entered pre-production in April 2023, and while details are still slim, Gunn said he’s open to making it more mature but is generally aiming for a PG-13 rating.

Image Credit: Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.