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It’s another stormy night in Gotham City as Commissioner Gordon waits on a rooftop, the bat-signal’s familiar beacon splitting the darkness. Soon, he is joined by a collection of costumed superheroes sure to set fan hearts aflutter. First come Batman, Wonder Woman, and Flash. Then, Cyborg arrives. Gordon wonders aloud how many of these masked characters there are. The answer is, of course, more even than Gordon realizes. But he takes it in stride. After all, they have far more important, ominous things to discuss…
Image courtesy of Warner Bros.
It's day 31 of a 111-day shoot on the set of Justice League, Warner Bros.' superhero team-up extravaganza. Following up this year's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad, and next year's Wonder Woman, Justice League is the film that takes everything in the DCU so far and sends it into overdrive.
An elaborate production mixing superheroes, intense sci-fi, fantasy, and religion, Warner appears determined to deliver a superhero picture the likes of which we’ve never seen before. Just for starters, the film tells us the background stories of ancient religions — mortal, Atlantean, Amazonian, and Kryptonian for starters — and how ancient alien contact delivered devices called Mother Boxes into the hands of these four distinctive civilizations. We’re getting Atlantis in all of its deep-sea glory, Themyscira as a true magical realm, an underground lair where extraterrestrial demons dwell, outer space and alien worlds, and an array of incredible powers on display in each setting. We’ll see the heroes and villains who inhabit these worlds. We’ll see an alien invasion, a sci-fi mystery playing out across the planet, and more than a couple of big surprises. And most of all, we'll see the historic banding together of some of the greatest, most famous superheroes of all time.
Image courtesy of Warner Bros.
The cast assembled for filming on the day of the set visit includes most of the Justice League team itself — Ben Affleck as Batman, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Ray Fisher as Cyborg, and Ezra Miller as the Flash — plus J.K. Simmons as top cop Jim Gordon. The cast and crew seem in good spirits, still energetic after several takes and reviews of the footage. There's plenty of laughter, including on camera as Gadot and Fisher can't stop breaking up when they look at one another. But they soon regain composure and press ahead, and Snyder finishes his scene.
An iconic rooftop meeting is a perfect way to get a first glimpse of the Justice League, as this is in large part an "assembling the team for a mission" sort of story. But it's also a significant sequence for moving the plot forward. We find out the heroes and police have been tracking a series of eight kidnappings around the world. The culprits are Parademons, soulless minions of Steppenwolf, God of the alien world known as Apokolypse. This invading hive of Parademons are snatching scientists, and Cyborg’s own father at STAR Labs has just become the ninth victim of the disappearances.
The team determines to hunt down the hive, leading Batman to deploy his Knight Crawler — an older military vehicle that’s like a tank walking around on metal legs — into underground tunnels beneath Gotham City and Stryker's Island. Imagine the Tumbler from The Dark Knight, crawling around on Doc Ock’s mechanical legs from Spider-Man 2, and you get some idea as to what it looks like, albeit with a more retro sort of mechanical feel (the vehicle is supposed to be an older one adapted to Batman’s needs). Later, the Justice League will take to the skies in the Flying Fox , Batman’s more modern mode of flying transport (it’s also capable of moving underwater) built specifically for a large team. Direct battle with the Parademons — and, eventually, their leader Steppenwolf — is inevitable, with plenty of action on that front.
Image courtesy of Warner Bros.
As fans will already know, Steppenwolf is uncle to the infamous DC Comics super-villain Darkseid. Producers Deborah Snyder and Charles Roven tell us Steppenwolf is the big bad of the story, but no concept art of him was revealed (aside from a dark silhouette). We know casting is ongoing for the role, but what we don’t know for sure is how much of an on-screen role Darkseid plays in Justice League. My guess is this: Steppenwolf is indeed the main villain in Justice League and Darkseid won’t appear apart from perhaps a shadowy cameo (as the mysterious puppet master behind the scenes) — or will appear only at the end (maybe in a post-credit scene); Steppenwolf will be stopped and most likely destroyed, leading to the sequel in which Darkseid is the main villain.
And yes, despite some initial confusion among press during the junket, there is still a planned follow-up to Justice League. During the set visit, Deborah Snyder and Charles Roven explained that there is no “Part 1” and “Part 2” anymore for Justice League (which is what the original announcement of release dates said) because this film is now a self-contained story. Their remarks led some of the assembled press to interpret this as suggesting the planned follow-up has been cancelled. But director Zack Snyder explained that Justice League is indeed a single story without a cliffhanger story continuing into a second half, but that there is still another film with an existing release date and Justice League sets up a future for the DCU and the team.
After some digging, I can say a follow-up is still on the schedule, and the change is a switch to individual movies instead of a two-parter as was previously announced. Meaning, in part, that a sequel could have a unique title -- purely for example, Crisis On Infinite Earths or Injustice: Gods Among Us are hypothetical sequel movie titles that don't feature the team name.
Image courtesy of DC Comics
Whether I’m right about Darkseid being saved for a follow-up or not, time will tell. Regardless, this film sets up not only the Justice League team, but also the potential for a round 2 where the stakes are raised. Be it Darkseid or Brainiac (whom I actually believe will arrive in Man of Steel 2), if Justice League is a hit (the barometer of success and of whether a sequel in any franchise gets made), then rest assured the Justice League will be called to duty again.
For director Snyder, this is an important second half to the story began in Batman v Superman. Justice League was always destined and intended to move farther toward hope and optimism, even before any reviews of Batman v Superman came out (if you doubt this, go read my interviews with Zack Snyder and Deborah Snyder during the junket, prior to Batman v Superman's release). The point of Batman v Superman was to start off with a cynical world and ask, "Is there a place for symbols of hope in a world that has lost its faith and doesn’t trust hope anymore?" And the answer in the end was, “Yes,” so much so, in fact, that even cynical Batman regains faith and hope, and he determines to create the Justice League to honor Superman's hopefulness and to demonstrate faith in the potential for good in meta-human heroes.
Image courtesy of Warner Bros.
Justice League is the fulfillment of that arc. Batman is now recommitted to symbolic hope and believes the world needs heroes it can believe in, and is recommitted to being a hero more in the mold of Superman, at precisely the time the threat level increases and it's harder to adhere to stricter codes of conduct. Tonally, while it will retain plenty of seriousness and intense action, it will also portray heroes who believe in their righteous mission and even enjoy using their powers for good. There will be more sense of humor, more friendship, more teamwork, and more confidence that good will triumph over evil.
To help get the story even more toward those tonal goals, Geoff Johns and Ben Affleck have contributed additional rewrites to Chris Terrio’s script, also ensuring certain necessary continuity and setup for the solo Batman movie is in place. A great deal of work is going into fine-tuning the story and film, and while we got a glimpse of that in the rooftop sequence (notably, in Flash's behavior and dialogue), we saw it on full display when the director showed us an almost-finished scene from the film (the only thing missing were a couple of final CGI effects).
Image courtesy of Warner Bros.
Barry Allen returns to his home/headquarters, which is filled with computer screens and all manner of makeshift electronic hardware (some bearing the name and logo of Wayne Enterprises). To his surprise, he has a visitor waiting inside -- Bruce Wayne, who seems aware of the fact Barry is the superhero known as the Flash. Tired of Barry's joking denials, Bruce spins around and hurls a batarang at Barry. Instantly, time slows down as Barry looks at the batarang, processes the fact Bruce is Batman, and then easily plucks the slow-moving weapon from the air.
When Bruce begins his sales pitch by saying he's putting together a team, Barry smiles and instantly replies, "I'm in!" There's a moment when, like a fanboy meeting an idol for the first time, Barry holds up the batarang and asks, "Can I keep this?" Bruce's sober approach and Barry's playful enjoyment of the situation make it the superhero teammate equivalent of a meet-cute, their banter humorous and Ezra's charm instantly winning you over.
The shift in tone isn't just apparent in the dialogue, though. Visually, Justice League appears rooted far more in the sort of sci-fantasy style and feel of the early Krypton scenes from Man of Steel. Atlantis looks like Game of Thrones under water, with large stone buildings and everyone fitted in elaborate armor and leather-like clothing sporting a sea motif. Themyscira is all earth tones and classic mythology with a warrior edge. The Greek Gods will be featured in the film as well, albeit in a sort of history flashback explaining the provenance of the four Mother Boxes. So where Batman v Superman was more grounded and tried to attain a constant sense of a real world setting, Justice League is all about the sci-fi and fantasy dominating the proceedings.
Image courtesy of Warner Bros.
That sci-fi/fantasy sensibility is present in many of the costume designs. The Flash's suit is a prototype -- and he apparently winds up in a more finished costume later -- assembled from stolen tech, including from Bruce Wayne's company. The idea is that Flash isn't just moving fast, he's moving through time and space in a way that exposes him to energies and subatomic particles. So, the costume includes little flaps like on an airplane for slowing and turning, swooping shapes to direct wind and particles away from his body, and coils to absorb and direct energy generated by his speed. It's a beautifully strange design, and was probably the costume I'm most impressed with so far.
Cyborg instantly reminded me of the robots from Pacific Rim, with a sort of biomechanical sensibility not dissimilar to H.R. Giger in some places. It's extremely faithful to the comic design, which will make fans very happy. Fisher's cybernetic body will be rendered entirely in CGI, so on the set he was wearing a body stocking and dots, the only hint of his Cyborg persona being a light rig standing in for his cybernetic eye and another on his chest. But the concept art for Cyborg is detailed and realistic, so we could see precisely what's going to wind up on the screen.
Batman is getting a redesign, as he augments his uniform for the increased dangers he faces as a mortal man fighting alien gods alongside a team of superhumans. He has a mech-armor enhancement on his right arm, armor strapped to parts of his torso, and eye shields. The effect makes the costume look like a more comic book version of the bat-suit from The Dark Knight, particularly the torso. Another, more armored bat-suit was also being created, although not as large and robotic as the battle armor in Batman v Superman. There are minor differences in the cowl as well.
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