In hindsight, Zack Snyder's Man of Steel wasn't quite the bridge to a Justice League movie that we all thought it would be. While the film did contain some hints at a larger DC Cinematic Universe, with references to Batman's Wayne Enterprises, Supergirl and Cyborg, it didn't have anything nearly as epic as, say, Nick Fury appearing in the post-credits sequence of Iron Man to try and recruit Tony Stark for the Avengers Initiative. The truth is that at this point we really have no idea when or even if we will ever see the Justice League united on the big screen. According to Man of Steel star Henry Cavill, however, that may not be the worst thing in the world.
The star was recently featured on Peter Travers’s Popcorn webcast for ABC News (via ComicBook.com) and during the 15-minute interview touched on the possibility of getting to see Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and The Flash unite on the big screen in live-action for the first time. Discussing the future of the franchise, Cavill admitted that he doesn't really know what's going on in terms of sequels or a larger comic book movie universe, but expressed hope that the folks over at Warner Bros. and DC Comics will really take their time with the property and build something really special with it. Said the actor,
"Justice League–more movies, I have no idea. Justice League could be great if done correctly. It’s a very tough one to do because the DC Comics heroes are all godlike in their power so in the real-world setting we’re telling our story in it’s going to be tough to achieve that and it has to be done very delicately and a lot of thought. So it won’t be right away, certainly not, or I hope not anyway. It may take some time building other movies and other characters and then introduce them together in one way or another."
Unfortunately, in the last year or so it has been suggested that "slow and steady" isn't exactly in the WB/DC playbook. Rather than taking the Marvel Studios path, building a roster of superheroes with solo movies before jumping into the big event film that was The Avengers, in June of 2012 it was reported that the studio had actually hired Gangster Squad screenwriter Will Beall to pen a draft of Justice League back in 2011, with plans to have the movie in theaters for summer 2015. That plan seemed to start falling apart in February of this year when it was said that Beall's script had been scrapped.
As much as I desperately want to see a Justice League movie actually happen - and I promise you that's a whole lot - I have to side with Cavill in his assessment. Part of the reason why we haven't seen a DC superhero team up movie yet is because they are working with characters that aren't tremendously easy to write for, and need time to be developed on the big screen. At this point it feels doubtful that we will actually see the project come together in any real way in the next few years, but that may be for the best.
