The roaring commercial success of The Avengers seems to have been the kick up the backside Warner Bros needed, according to New York Film Academy Staff.
Following a nigh-on definitive 2015 release of the long awaited Justice League movie, the project has now moved from wishy-washy uncertainty and wild speculation to…
… well, further wild speculation.
Making the jump from the universally praised Justice League Unlimited animation on Cartoon Network to a live action spectacle is proving to be a superhuman feat.
By the time the movie comes out, it’ll have been in some form of development for nearly a decade.
The original plan was to give each Justice League character independent movies before bringing them together for a collective romp, exactly as Marvel did with The Avengers Assemble.
That plan was kinda put into place with last year’s shoddy Green Lantern movie (which we don’t talk about) and next year’s Man of Steel, but for the most part Warner are tripping over themselves to get Justice League out with the intent on worrying about the ancillary movies later.
Whether the film will ultimately do justice (for want of a better word) to the League remains to be seen. In the mean time, let’s not only look at the very latest rumours surrounding the project, but also examine their plausibility:
Darkseid will be the Villain
This one is very hot off the press. Latino Review have announced that they know the terrifying god will be the main bad guy, and the theory does hold water; in fact, as soon as the news broke, every DC fan in the world ushered a collective ‘oh, of course.’
While we can’t think of anyone more suitably powerful to pose a credible threat to the Justice League, the plausibility here is dampened by the fact that nobody knows the root source of this info.
Plausibility: 8/10
Christian Bale will return as Batman
No he won’t.
Plausibility: 0/10
Batman will be rebooted
It’s pretty much the only other obvious option in tackling the seemingly impossible Batman problem, but even this is an uneasy problem. We can almost guarantee that somewhere in the world, there’s a room full of officials right now giving this issue some serious thought.
The idea of a Batman reboot rankles even more than the Spider-Man reboot did, especially given that by 2015 there will have been, absurdly, less of a gap between The Dark Night Rises and the reboot than there was between the last two Nolan movies. And let’s be brutally honest - nobody is going to come anywhere close to topping Nolan’s incarnation? The trilogy was so good, it’s virtually canon.
Plausibility: 5/10
That’s not to say that Nolan’s Batman won’t return in a different guise, however…
Joseph Gordon-Levitt will Return
Firstly, the chances of Joseph Gordon-Levitt entering the line-up as Robin is a bit of a stretch. As far as superheroes go Robin is, quite frankly, a bit rubbish. In addition, this Forbes article makes a very compelling argument as to why John Blake is Batman (and no longer Robin) at the very end of The Dark Knight Rises.
So let’s consider the possibility that Gordon-Levitt will don the cowl. It’d certainly be a good get-out for the studios wanting to segue between Nolan’s universe and a world in which Christian Bale is out of the picture entirely.
As for the likelihood of it happening? The jury’s out, despite numerous sites claiming to “know” with “certainty” that JGL will be in the film (according to “close sources”). Straight from the horses’ mouth, the response from the man himself is a rather dampening “meh”… he’s not seen the script, he’s not been to any meetings, and his agents are quashing any rumour to the contrary.
Plausibility: 5/10
Michael Caine reprise his role as Alfred
Here we’ve got a reversal of the JGL scenario: the great man himself has very recently expressed vocal interest, but whether the studio will capitalise on that is another matter altogether.
Sir Michael has always been fairly candid about his earnings, and will consider anything if the price is right. When asked for a response over his part in the godawful Jaws: The Revenge, Caine quipped: “"I have never seen the film, but by all accounts it was terrible. However I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific."
Even in the recent soundbite, he’s alluded to the fact that it’ll take a pretty penny to make him step back into Alfred Pennyworth’s shoes.
And while Hollywood has a history of having more money than sense, is it likely that they’ll shell out many millions to secure what will almost certainly be a bit-part, especially when the character can be written around anyway?
If Joseph Gordon-Levitt does happen to return, Caine would be useful to help bolster the continuity, but now we’re just piling one uncertain scenario on top of another.
Plausibility: 3/10
Snyder’s Man of Steel may be in Justice League Afterall
When the news of Justice League first broke, Snyder was also grilled alongside Nolan with regards to continuity. And the answer was essentially the same: the superhero in my movie won’t return for the Justice League.
However, as of last month he has now virtually confirmed there will be ‘some link’ as can be seen here. Warner Bros. are also ‘keeping him on course’, which is thinly-veiled code for ‘if Man of Steel performs well and they want to put Henry Cavill in Justice League, I’ll do what I’m told’.
Snyder’s role as director is also hinging on the success of Man of Steel, and following the disastrous Sucker Punch and Legend of the Guardians, he’ll be moving heaven and earth to make sure it’s a winner.
Unless it totally bombs, Snyder is still the most likely candidate for the director’s seat (with Brett Ratner, the Wachowski duo, Ruben Fleischer and a million others queueing up behind him.)
Plausibility: 7/10
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