With the enormous success of The Avengers, it seemed quite obvious that the nascent Justice League movie would be revived, and sure enough, Warner Brothers has managed to resurrect the lucrative franchise.
Ben Affleck, who’s currently hot from Argo, was even reported to be a potential director, but that rumor was shot down pretty quick. Warners also apparently wanted Christopher Nolan to produce, but he passed.
The Avengers has definitely helped Marvel come out ahead of DC, but now the competition is about to get a little more even, because as Cinema Blend and a number of other websites report, the Justice League film is currently slated to hit theaters in 2015, the same year as Avengers 2. It won’t be on the the same weekend of course, that would be suicide, but this is definitely a shot across the bow from DC where the #2 comics giant wants to prove they can be a force at the movies post-Batman.
The L.A. Times broke the story, revealing that Warners is hoping to shoot Justice League next year for a summer 2015 release. Will Beall (Gangster Squad) is writing the script, but Warners is currently focusing on getting a director and the cast together. It will certainly be interesting to see who will be picked to play who, and whether Superman will tie into Man of Steel, or if Justice League will exist in its own parallel universe where different people will play Batman and Superman.
This may indeed be what Justice League will do because the Times reports that after League, the heroes will branch off into their own movies, instead of going in and out of a movie where they’re all gathered together, like The Avengers.
This development was reported right after Warner Brothers won the rights to Superman in a long running court battle, which also means that sequels to the Man of Steel can go ahead relatively hassle free. The Avengers certainly proved you can bring superheroes together in one film and have it be a huge hit, but can Justice League pull off similar magic?
Even with this a top priority at Warners, it could still be a long ways away before we see a Justice League movie, if it indeed finally makes the finish line. Stay tuned…
