Jon Cryer's Lex Luthor blames Superman for his crimes in Supergirl footage

Back in January, The CW released our first look at Jon Cryer as iconic Superman villain Lex Luthor, who will appear in a fast-approaching episode of Supergirl. Today the network showed off the first footage of the character, whose plan is so dastardly Tyler Hoechlin's Man of Steel is going to have a hand in stopping it.

The never-before-seen promo (courtesy of Entertainment Weekly) shows Lex attempting to bathe the planet in the rays of a Red Sun. Even casual DC fans know that this was the color of the sun on Krypton, the home planet of both Clark Kent and Kara Danvers. While the Kryptonians were more technologically advanced than humans, they did not possess the super-strength or flight of Supergirl and Superman. Rather, both heroes derived their abilities from the rays of Earth's yellow sun.

With that in mind, Lex wants to de-power Clark and Kara with the light of a red sun in order to see if they bleed. Wow, we never thought he'd go full Batfleck in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but here we are, folks. As a result of his twisted little science experiment, Luthor could potentially kill millions of innocent people.

Check out the promo below:

Usually calm, cool, and collected, Lex loses his temper and declares: "I WAS THE MAN OF TOMORROW, NOT HIM!!!" Jeez, calm down there, Luthor. By the end of the ad, the villain is sitting in front of a judge, who asks if he has any closing remarks before she renders the verdict of the jury. Standing up, he claims, "Superman made me do it." If that doesn't earn him a "Get Out of Jail Free" card, we don't know what will.

In January, Supergirl executive producer Jessica Queller promised that Cryer's version of the classic antagonist would strongly resemble what we've seen of him before.

"The character is not that dissimilar to what we’ve seen in canon," she said. "He just [has] a sparkle in his eye and is smarter than everybody in the room and 12 steps ahead of everyone, and just a large, delicious villain."

Cryer's Luthor makes his small-screen debut Sunday, March 17, in the 15th episode of Season 4, "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"