The dynamics of the classical Lorenz system is well studied in 1963 by E. N. Lorenz. Later on, there have been an extensive studies on the classical Lorenz system with the complex variables and the discrete time Lorenz system with real variables. To the best of knowledge of the author, so far there is no study on discrete time Lorenz system in complex variables. In this article, an attempt has been made to observe and understand the discrete dynamics of the Lorenz system with complex variables. This study compares the discrete dynamics of the Lorenz system with complex variables to that of the classical Lorenz system involving real and complex variables.• There are three fixed points of the Lorenz systems Eq.(3, 4, 5) and there are certain parameters r, a, and b (examples are given) such that the fixed points are stable (sink).• The system Eq.(3, 4, 5) possesses higher order periodic solutions too (few examples are given).• The system Eq.(3, 4, 5) has chaotic and transient chaotic solutions.• The system Eq.(3, 4, 5) has single and double coexisting chaotic attractors and existence of the chaotic attractors has been assured through examples.• A comparison have been made with other existing real and complex classical Lorenz systems.