14 DAY TRIAL // Zack Snyder directed the Superman reboot “Man of Steel,” will helm the sequel “Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice,” and has already been confirmed for a “Justice League” movie for 2017. Warner Bros. is set on making him a fixture, clearly.
A short while ago, the studio announced the full name of the 2016 release and, contrary to the public belief that it would be called “Batman V. Superman,” it was officially dubbed “Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice.”
Now, if you know anything about Warners’ plans with the superheroes from this comic book universe, you probably know that it’s been trying for some time to come up with a proper rival to Marvel’s “The Avengers.”
“Man of Steel” was the first stone in that foundation, which “Batman V. Superman” would consolidate ahead of the release of “Justice League,” which would also feature other beloved heroes, like the always-neglected Wonder Woman.
So you probably know that the title “Dawn of Justice” is neither an accident nor really that subtle in terms of venturing a guess on Warners’ plan: this is the “dawn” of the “Justice League” franchise.
Writer and director Kevin Smith, who is a good friend of Ben Affleck’s and also has a certain way of digging up juicy stuff, says in his latest Batman podcast that Warners is eyeing 5 or 6 such movies, so “Batman V. Superman” should set up all of them.
“It’s a bit of a mouthful,” he says of the name, as cited by ComicBook.com. “Honestly, every comic book fan on the planet, who is a DC comic book fan, I think we all wanted to see Batman/Superman: World’s Finest.”
“But look, they’re obviously beginning something, and there’s a stretch of these flicks. And so this is the beginning of the Justice League, as we all suspected as they were announcing that cast. We were like, ‘This is the beginning of a Justice League movie.’ From what I understand now, it’s no longer like, ‘This is Superman 2.’ They’re not doing these things,” Smith continues.
“They’re doing like, ‘Here’s Man of Steel. Here’s Batman/Superman: Dawn of Justice.’ The next one is not like a sequel to one of the characters. They’re just going to keep building their universe for about five or six movies… But all of them… it’s supposed to tell one massive story, which is all Justice League oriented,” he explains.
Those 5 or 6 movies could also include a standalone Wonder Woman film, which Warners long expressed interest in, and maybe even a Batman flick as well. The Wonder Woman one is long overdue.
Of course, fans of the Batman character will argue that it’s much too soon to bring him back after Christopher Nolan’s superb “Dark Knight” trilogy and we can’t but feel the same: just look at how Spider-Man fared with a reboot just 10 years after Sam Raimi’s original if you want an example of a negative precedent. Give the Bat a rest before telling his story again. Give the fans a rest too.