LOS ANGELES  - Kevin Costner has closed a deal to join the cast of Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures' new "Superman" movie being directed by Zack Snyder.

Costner will join a group of actors that so far includes Henry Cavill as the Man of Steel and Diane Lane as Martha Kent, Superman's adopted Earth mother. Costner will play Jonathan Kent, the hero's adoptive father.

In comics lore, the Kents are portrayed as the two people who most influence Superman, helping give direction to his moral compass and teaching his honorable values. In varying runs of the many comic books, Jonathan Kent is portrayed as having passed away after Clark Kent graduated from high school to being alive and well when the older Clark has his adventures as Superman.

The part of Pa Kent was famously played by Glenn Ford in the Richard Donner Superman movie; the character suffered a heart attack, lending the movie some of its poignancy.

Whether Costner will have an on-screen death is being kept very tightly under the cape by Warner Bros. and producers Charles Roven, Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan and Deborah Snyder.