Fans heard "Heisenberg," but director Zack Snyder and Warner Bros. were thinking "Eisenberg" when it came to casting Lex Luthor for their upcoming Man of Steel sequel.

While Breaking Bad legend Bryan Cranston was long rumored to be shaving his head again to play Superman's arch-nemesis, the studio went in a very different direction by casting The Social Network star Jesse Eisenberg. How did it go from Cranston to Eisenberg? Simple: Lex was never in Cranston's hands to begin with.

"In the minds of fans, it's true," Cranston said when asked on The Howard Stern Show whether there was ever any truth to the rumors. "In the minds of the hierarchy at Warner Bros., it's not true."

Not to say that Cranston wouldn't have jumped at the chance to play the iconic villain. On the contrary, the erstwhile Walter White said playing Luthor would have been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

"I was not involved in any of that whatsoever," he said, "[but] I would have welcomed it."

(via mlive.com)