Add another name to the list of contenders for the lead role in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy: Smallville alum Michael Rosenbaum.

The 40-year-old actor and director, who played Lex Luthor for seven seasons on Smallville, revealed last night on Twitter that he read for the part of Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord, for his "pal," director James Gunn. "What a treat!" he wrote. "Thanks Jimmy."

Rosenbaum's announcement came only hours after a report surfaced that The Dark Knight Rises co-star Joseph Gordon-Levitt is "in the mix" for the role, joining such rumored contenders as Zachary Levi (Chuck, Thor: The Dark World), Jim Sturgess (Cloud Atlas), Lee Pace (Pushing Daisies, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey), Eddie Redmayne (Les Misérables) and Joel Edgerton (Animal Kingdom, Zero Dark Thirty). Gunn has called those earlier casting reports "inaccurate."

Created by Steve Englehart and Steve Gan, Peter Quill was introduced in 1976′s Marvel Preview #4 as the child of a human mother and an alien father who grows up as an orphan to become a NASA astronaut and then to assume the mantle of the interplanetary police officer Star-Lord. He eventually recruited the likes of Drax the Destroyer, Gamora and Rocket Raccoon to form a new version of the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Rosenbaum, who most recently appeared in the action comedy Hit and Run, provided the voice of Wally West/The Flash on the Justice League animated series and, last year, Barry Allen on Justice League: Doom.

Guardians of the Galaxy opens Aug. 1, 2014.