Now that the strike is over, the Justice League movie can go forward, right?
Not according to Moviehole. The site is reporting that the film has been pushed back to a 2010 start date, which reads to me like the project is just getting dumped*. If it’s not getting dumped, it’s certainly getting a major overhaul; Moviehole says that Superman and Batman are being written out of the movie. Superman will be dead at the hands of Doomsday while Batman will have been ejected from the League after Martian Manhunter used his psychic powers to skirt the ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy.
This seems like a weird solution to me. I am guessing that the characters are getting removed because the studio doesn’t want to shit on other franchises (the latest rumor is that Superman may be getting a Hulk-style reboot, and of course Heath Ledger’s phantasm is in the running for next year’s Oscars already for his Joker role), but killing Superman just complicates things in unnecessary ways. Why not just have Superman and Batman not be in the League? Holy shit, I’ve solved the problem, pay me royalties. It’s this level of overthinking that makes me wonder if this rumor isn’t truth peppered with fanwank.
The best thing about the 2010 start date, should it be true, is that it will give the rumored cast of the film time to develop secondary sexual characteristics. Look on the bright side!
*other ways it could be dumped: Warner Bros promises to make it as soon as Bryan Singer finishes Superman: The Man of Steel, it is greenlit to go into production the moment Nathan Lane discovers sexual feelings for women or it is given the okay on the condition that Mitt Romney is elected president.