The Justice League has been around in comics since 1960, but it wasn't until last year when DC's superhero team was finally formed in a live action theatrical setting in Justice League. But the Zack Snyder/Joss Whedon film was not the first attempt at bringing the Justice League to life. A decade earlier, Mad Max: Fury Road director George Miller was working on Justice League: Mortal, which would have beat The Avengers to theaters. Armie Hammer was set to play Bruce Wayne in the film and when it was shut down, the actor took himself a little souvenir of what might have been, as he explained:
We got a call one day from the producers and they go 'We need everybody to come in and bring all of your material, bring all of your scripts, bring your notes, bring everything. We were like 'Ok' and we show up and they had big bins and they go 'Put it all in here.' And I was like 'Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure, sure, sure.' And I quickly snuck a CD out of my computer and put in my back pocket. I turned [all my materials] in and managed to basically steal a script, but other than that, I had nothing to show for it. I'm sure there's pictures floating around out there somewhere of all of us in our costumes.
Armie Hammer deduced what was going on and had the stealth skills and sleight of hand to make off with a script for the film. Man, this guy would have been a good Batman. Based on Armie Hammer's comments at a Sundance Panel, as reported by Syfy, it seems like this was basically on the honor system, too, without a sort of checklist for what everyone had been given and was required to turn in. I imagine such subterfuge would be much harder to pull off in a big comic book film today. So the script is still out there and likely stuffed away at Armie Hammer's house next to his Lone Ranger mask. But while we may never know the full story, we do know some details about the the Justice League movie that wasn't.
Darkseid was set to be the villain in George Miller's film, and Batman and Wonder Woman would have had a child together. There also would have been a brutal fight between Superman and Wonder Woman. So yeah, wild stuff, and I would expect nothing less from George Miller. Justice League: Mortal was also pre-DCEU, so who knows how our current superhero age would have been different had it come to fruition. Perhaps DC would have been on top with Marvel playing catch up, or perhaps it would have been an absolute mess. But ultimately, the film was running up against the Writer's Strike and a new government in Australia, where the movie was set to film, pulled the plug on the film's tax credits. So, much like the Nicolas Cage Superman film, the George Miller-helmed Justice League movie will always be one of those great 'what if's' of cinematic history.
Armie Hammer has expressed his own doubts about playing Batman when he was 19, but he may yet get another shot at a DC hero. The actor has long been rumored for a number of DC heroes, especially Green Lantern. The actor seems ideally suited to a superhero role and he would make a great Hal Jordan. With so many superhero films on the horizon and new characters being cinematically introduced all the time, hopefully he'll get the chance to take one on someday. And hey, I hear the role of Batman might be open again, so maybe Armie Hammer will be the once and future Bruce Wayne.
