Justin Hartley Opens Up About Playing Superman In The Injustice Animated Movie

In 2013, DC, Warner Bros., and the video game developer behind the legendary "Mortal Kombat" series, NetherRealm Studios, made a major splash with the fighting game "Injustice: Gods Among Us." In addition to its MK-style combat, the first "Injustice" featured a multiverse-shattering story that saw alternate reality versions of DC's top heroes teaming up to stop a Superman gone fascist. The concept was a hit with fans and critics, logging favorable audience and critical review scores on Metacritic.

This month, "Injustice" finally makes its way to a new medium as a full-length, animated feature directed by DC veteran Matt Peters ("Justice League Dark: Apokolips War" and the "Lego DC" series). Playing the pivotal role of the Man of Steel in the movie is an actor who has arguably attained TV royalty status — "This Is Us" star, Justin Hartley. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Hartley spoke glowingly about getting to play this particular version of the iconic hero.

Justin Hartley revealed something telling about his particular Superman while catching up with Entertainment Weekly. "Everybody always says it's tough a play a character [like Superman] that is considered perfect. He's got no flaws, and there's nothing wrong with him. I was lucky to have been blessed with a script where it's actually the opposite," he told the news outlet. "You see him in a completely different way where he obviously is not perfect and making rash, draconian decisions about things that are going on. I think it was very interesting where they put him and how he got himself into and how he got himself out of it."

Hartley is no stranger to Superman, the Justice League, or the DC Universe as a whole. That particular corner of the comic book world has weaved its way into his acting career on multiple occasions now. In 2006, he starred as Arthur "A.C." Curry, aka. Aquaman, in a pilot based on DC's aquatic super-being of the same name. The show was developed by "Smallville" creators Al Gough and Miles Millar for the WB and was expected to go to series until a merger with UPN and the subsequent creation of the CW resulted in the show being sent to the chopping block (via Wizard Entertainment).

Later that same year, though, he found his way back to the DC Universe through the role of a pre-"Arrow" Oliver Queen/Green Arrow on "Smallville." On the show, Hartley's Queen served as a Batman-esque confidante to Tom Welling's Clark Kent, whose journey to becoming Superman was the driving force of the series. Queen was a recurring character during Seasons 6 and 7 of "Smallville" before Hartley finally joined the main cast for its final three seasons. According to IMDb, Hartley appeared in a whopping 72 episodes of the show.