The website Cosmic Book News is claiming a couple major castings in the wake of last week’s announcement that Ben Affleck will play Batman in the upcoming Man of Steel sequel, as well as in Justice League, with potential appearances in a number of other DC/Warner Bros. movies. Foremost among the stories is that Bryan Cranston of Breaking Bad fame has been cast as Lex Luthor. He figures to be the key villain in at least one upcoming film, but a source is apparently saying that the deal involves a six-picture appearance clause, meaning that he’s likely to show up in a number of movies, perhaps building to and through Justice League.

While Cranston is apparently confirmed, and Warner Bros. is just waiting until the season finale of Breaking Bad to make the official announcement, rumors are flying about on casting for several other characters.

Perhaps, in the wake of Affleck’s casting you’ve seen this meme, or one of the many like it, flying around:

Well, apparently while this isn’t quite correct, it’s not as far off as you might expect. DC apparently wants to bring Damon into the project, and is considering him for both Aquaman and the Martian Manhunter. While we might could see Damon as Aquaman if we really tried, Martian Manhunter seems more of a stretch. If Warner Bros. doesn’t make the character CGI, which it sure seems like they would unless it’s a fairly drastic revision of the character, Damon might be able to carry out the physical part of the role. But his voice seems all wrong for the character. He didn’t come up for either role back when we were throwing around some suggestions in early July. (To be fair, neither did Affleck, but he’s at least a little closer to who we were suggesting.)

But the last bit of casting news is perhaps the strangest of all. Zack Snyder apparently wants Timothy Dalton to play Alfred. Now, that’s not so strange in and of itself; we think Dalton would be a magnificent Alfred.  What we can’t figure out is the scenario under which Alfred is anything more than a tiny bit part in any of the upcoming films. The story is, of course, yet to be revealed, but our guess would be Affleck’s going to spend most of his time as Batman rather than Bruce Wayne, and there’s a very good chance the majority of the film is set in Metropolis, not Gotham. Again, all speculation at this point, but any way you slice it, it’s hard to imagine a story in which Alfred being a key character is a good thing. There are two big heroes that are going to need lots of screen time already.

At any rate, the movie seems to be taking shape, and fast. With a July 17, 2015  release date, expect production to start by next summer, and certainly more details on future DC films, including the Flash film already announced, to come to light as well.