You’d think that it couldn’t get much worse for Justice League ahead of its debut in theaters this month. It had a legendarily troubled production that has left many fans doubting the version of the movie that will actually make it into theaters. Thor: Ragnarok — the movie’s chief competition — is absolutely running away with the box office: making a staggering $431 million in the week following its international release. Now there are doubts about whether or not the movie can even make back what it cost to produce during its theatrical lifetime.
That’s basically what rock bottom looks like for an expensive, major studio blockbuster, at least before crashing and burning at the box office. What should by every right be the most anticipated movie of the year is being preemptively written off as a loss by Warner Bros and is likely going to play second fiddle to the Magic Space Viking, a team that includes and talking raccoon and the second Spider-Man reboot this decade.
But Justice League still evidently has a way to go before its finished. A recent round of bizarre news stories have come out in the last couple of days that, if true, detail a series of bizarre creative decisions for Warner Bros regarding their latest superhero blockbuster.
For one, The Flash — one of the cornerstone members of the titular Justice League — evidently will not be called The Flash in the movie. “Flash” actor Ezra Miller insists that fans will have to wait for the upcoming Flashpoint movie. In a recent interview, he revealed that:
“Barry is just Barry at this point and there’s even a scene that was cut from the movie where he is going on and on and on trying to figure out who he should be, and what he should call himself, so yeah he doesn’t have a superhero name yet.”
That’s just weird, right? He’s not The Flash — one of the coolest and most iconic heroes in the genre’s storied history — he’s just some poor shlub named Barry. He’s just a dude.
Even in the rival Marvel Cinematic Universe, where the entire heroic lineup has done away with the idea of secret identities and everybody’s real name is a matter of public record, heroes still have code names. Steve didn’t just punch out Johann: Captain America just clocked the Red Skull. Tony didn’t shoot Ivan: Iron Man blasted Whiplash.
But that’s not all. In an especially head-scratching reveal, Aquaman was revealed to not have his iconic trident at the time of Justice League. Never mind the fact that we see him fighting with it in the recently released trailer for the movie. Justice League stars Ray Fischer and Ben Affleck clarify that:
“I didn’t call it a trident. It’s a quindent. We don’t call it that in the movie and when you watch Aquaman you’re going to see him go for the trident, so everyone’s just got to stay tuned for a hot minute. He’s not the king yet. He looks to Mera and he goes ‘I need to borrow something. I need you to do me a favor’ so that’s when she gives him the equipment.”
It might just be a matter of semantics by this point, but it gets at the heart of Warner Bros confusing, fractured approach to their own movies. They change things up not because it makes sense for the characters or the story, but because it looks good on paper and because it makes them look superficially more adult than Marvel.
At any rate, we’ll find out for ourselves just what the Hell is going on with Justice Week in a couple of weeks. Whether enough of us care enough to find out remains to be seen, however.
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