Rumor: Justice League movie’s heroes have been revealed

Justice League -- Alex Ross — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Though Warner Bros.’ Justice League movie won’t hit theaters until 2015, the Internet has been churning out rumors since the film was first announced. This too is one of those rumors, as denoted by the headline, so please take everything you’re about to read with an appropriately-sized chunk of salt.

Now, on to the story. Given the lengthy history of the Justice League superteam — at this point the team is older than the parents of most people reading these words — the key problem with adapting the group for film lies in deciding which characters to prominently feature. Obviously there’s Superman and Batman, and you’d probably want to have Wonder Woman in there, both for purposes of gender equality (or as close as a film based on a comic book can come to actual equality) and because she’s certainly a big name among both comic readers and the mainstream audience, but beyond that who do you include?

A site called Cosmic Book News hopes to answer this question by laying out a series of cinematic character biographies that it claims come directly from an anonymous source at Warner Bros. Again, all of this is unfounded, and we’re only going on the word of this one website, but otherwise the info looks legit. Have a look:

• Superman is essentially the same character from Man of Steel, and Zack Snyder is consulting regarding the writing of the character.

• Batman: The strategist of the group. Batman doesn’t really want to be involved with these super powered beings he considers too powerful. Easily the most complex written.

• Wonder Woman: She has only been in man’s world a few short months. The Wonder Woman script Michael Goldenberg is developing will be set before the Justice League movie.

• Green Lantern: Will be Ryan Reynold’s character from the Green Lantern movie, but will be freshly written with a more serious tone.

• Flash: The most popular hero in civilian eyes who loves media attention, but when called upon is very serious.

• Martian Manhunter: Alien who has lived on Earth in secret for over a hundred years who has knowledge of Darkseid and his reign.

• Aquaman: Will be the King of Atlantis who has a key role in the film.

Further, the site goes on to point out that a number of other, less-notable characters could also appear in the film:

• There will also be a heavy military presence in the film which in future rewrites could include characters featured in Man of Steel or even Amanda Waller (Angela Bassett) of which neither are included in the first draft.

• Alfred Pennyworth is in the film in a minor appearance.

• Lois Lane is also in the film in a cameo.

• Darkseid’s Elite will be featured who go up against the Justice League early on in the film.

While we made sure to denote this information as rumor, it does match up with everything we know (or think we know) of the film so far. This earlier rumor claims that Social Network star Armie Hammer might find himself playing Batman in this film (which nicely coincides with this rumor’s no-duh conclusion that the Dark Knight would appear in Justice League), while this one claims that Darkseid will be the film’s antagonist (which ties in with that mention of his Elite). Otherwise the list reads like a roster of the heroes most likely to strike a chord with your average movie-goer, and that’s almost certainly what Warner Bros. is aiming for.

It may be months before we receive any official confirmation on any of these characters being in the film, but in the meantime it seems safe to assume that this will be the roster for the eventual Justice League movie. Our condolences go out to anyone who was hoping to see Vibe in a starring role.

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