Justice League movies get new good guy in Willem Dafoe

By Stephanie Topacio Long Published April 19, 2016

justice league willem dafoe casting — Andrea Raffin/Shutterstock

Willem Dafoe plays a convincing villain, but he’ll be fighting on the side of good instead of evil in the upcoming Justice League movies. The actor has been cast as a good guy in the DC Comics and Warner Bros. superhero flicks, according to THR.

Production on Justice League Part One kicked off last week, so Dafoe’s casting announcement came close to the wire. The actor is new to the DC Comics Extended Universe, but starring in a major superhero franchise is old hat for him. Dafoe made for a very convincing supervillain in the Sam Raimi-directed Spider-Man trilogy. With the last of the three films being released in 2007, we’d say it’s high time for him to battle it out with superhumans again.

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Details are being shrouded in secrecy, so we don’t have much information on Dafoe’s character to go on, but he’ll star alongside a who’s who of DC Comics superheroes. Batman (played by Ben Affleck), Superman (Henry Cavill), Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), the Flash (Ezra Miller), and Cyborg (Ray Fisher) are all set to join forces to take on a dangerous threat. Just who the villain will be is also unknown at this point, but there have long been rumors that it will be Darkseid, which fits clues dropped in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

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Like Batman v Superman, Justice League has Zack Snyder at the helm, again directing from a screenplay written by Chris Terrio. The pressure will be on to win over critics and moviegoers after Batman v Superman turned out to be less than a smashing success. Snyder produces alongside Charles Roven and Deborah Snyder. The cast also includes Amber Heard as Mera, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, and J.K. Simmons as Gotham City Police Commissioner Gordon.

Justice League Part One is set to open on November 17, 2017, while Part Two is scheduled to hit theaters on June 15, 2019.

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Stephanie Topacio Long

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Stephanie Topacio Long is a writer and editor whose writing interests range from business to books. She also contributes to…

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