Now We’re 99% Sure a Justice League Movie Is Happening
In the latest issue of Empire Magazine, which hit store shelves yesterday, there’s all kinds of Man of Steel goodness going on, and included in it is a near-confirmation that a Justice League movie will be forthcoming, sooner rather than later.
Empire says that, if Man of Steel is a success, its director Zack Snyder will be offered the director’s chair for Justice League. Due to the fact that Man of Steel is about as sure a bet as you can get, this almost guarantees us a chance to finally see Justice League come to fruition.
Snyder is also quoted as saying:
I have to say that it is everything that I could have hoped for. Touch wood that I am not insane, but it feels really good.
This is on top of the teaser quote from Snyder that Empire released Tuesday, concerning possible Man of Steel sequels:
We didn’t design the movie like Batman [i.e. as a trilogy] but I don’t think anybody would say you design a Superman movie as a one-off.
This is all pointing to DC/WB, at long last, properly constructing their film universe (beyond their fantastic animated universe, that is), and it only took Marvel doing the exact same thing years beforehand to get the ball rolling. To be clear, I’m not complaining, at all, about the best trilogy of all time (aka The Dark Knight Trilogy), but it’s undeniable that DC/WB have kind of dropped the ball on every other possible addition to their canon (I’m pretty sure it’s me and three other sad fans who actually liked the Green Lantern adaptation)
Now, really, the only thing left open to speculation is whether DC/WB will build toward their team-up film (a la Marvel with their Phase 1), or if they will lead right off the bat with Justice League (after Man of Steel, of course). As successful as Marvel has been with their strategy, I think I’d like DC/WB to differentiate themselves a bit by going the latter route; it will help DC/WB get out of their decades-long shadow of Marvel and has the added benefit of reintroducing characters that people may not necessarily want to see in a standalone movie yet (like Flash and Martian Manhunter—sorry, I just got lost for a moment in how awesome it would be to see Benedict Cumberbatch as J’onn J’onzz). Anyway, I think that could be a smart move.
If they were to have a lead-in, beyond Man of Steel, it would almost certainly be Wonder Woman, since that’s the next-most recognizable name (after Superman and Batman), and there already exists the perfect actress to play her: Gina Carano. You’ve got Gina Carano, you’ve got Henry Cavill, you’ve got Zack Snyder, you’ve got Christopher Nolan producing, you’ve got Benedict Cumberbatch, and you’ve possibly still got Christian Bale? Maybe. Hell, we’ve almost got the entire freakin’ movie, right there. Maybe throw in Michael Rosenbaum as Flash (he did voice the character), find someone to play the John Stewart Green Lantern (Chadwick Boseman?), and someone to play Hawkgirl (Gemma Arteron?). Bam. Done. Hello, 2015.
What do you think?
