Superman star Edi Gathegi and director James Gunn know all about the fact that Gathegi was done wrong by X-Men: First Class.

Gathegi, who is now starring as Mr. Terrific in Superman, spoke with Blavity/Shadow and Act Managing Editor Trey Mangum about joining a new comic book film after being unceremoniously killed off in the X-Men origin film despite his mutation making him invincible.

What Edi Gathegi says about Mister Terrific

“Mister Terrific is a self-made intellectual powerhouse and where the promise of my Marvel stint said you can be the most powerful mutant in the world and we will still kill you, the message of this movie is you can be one of the most intelligent people on the planet and you can still help change the world,” he told us. “So this is a character that, I think, is being handled with tremendous amounts of respect, and I am so grateful that I get to step into this role.”

James Gunn explains how Edi Gathegi was cast as Mister Terrific

Gunn described Mr. Terrific as “the hardest role to cast in the whole movie.”

“I saw easily 200 actors read for the role and I couldn’t find the right guy,” he said in our interview. “I had known Edi a little bit. I’d met him in other places, and I was a big fan of his acting and other things.”

He arranged for Gathegi to read for the role and, as they say, it was history.

“Edi came in and just nailed it from the beginning,” Gunn said. “He was able to do that staccato sort of way that he talks, but it’s still incredibly humorous. That overly dry character that Mr. Terrific is…he really was far and away the best person who auditioned for the role.”

Watch the full interviews with the cast of Superman above. Superman comes to theaters July 11.