Casting Reboots
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| Billionaire playboy or slacker trustfund baby? |
We have two major superhero franchises with major casting news today -- but one comes in a bag of rock salt labeled Morton's.
First, the reasonably trustworthy site Hitfix reports that trusted sources confirm Joseph Gordon-Levitt will play Batman in Justice League, the Warner Brothers superhero team film scheduled for the summer of 2015. Of course, Gordon-Levitt's character in The Dark Knight Rises -- John Blake -- was essentially handed the keys to the Batcave at the end of that film.
At the time, Warner Brothers had been quick to assure audiences that Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy would stand alone, but that of course the cash cow would be revived and revisioned because, well, let's be honest, it's Batman. And even the Joker loves Batman, really.
So while these "trusted sources" say JGL will be Batman, they don't say he will be Robin John Blake. So why couldn't this charismatic and extremely popular actor just be Bruce Wayne in a new brighter toy-friendly version of Batman? In a press junket for Lincoln, the actor did say that of course he would be willing to play Batman if the director and script were interesting. Maybe even if the size of the check were interesting...
Officially, the studio has stayed quiet. Earlier this week, Superman: Man of Steel director Zack Snyder implied that his film will set up the vision of Superman (played by Henry Cavill) that would roll into Justice League, and as Man of Steel is produced by Christopher Nolan, fans are connecting dots to form a picture -- but let us be honest: we do not even know if there ARE dots to connect.
When Snyder stepped in to direct, most people assumed that really meant that Nolan's involvement was ceremonial, just like Tim Burton "producing" Batman Forever. Maybe Man of Steel would follow Nolan's aesthetic of trying to keep the superhero concept grounded in a more plausible manner, but that was it. It just happened to be two distinct talents (for good or bad) whose names would both appear on the poster.
But now the buzz forgets every piece of speculation that happened for months before Thanksgiving, and it's all connected because of course Warner Brothers wants to have a multi-film franchise the likes of what Marvel is doing. Well, of course. That's good business sense.
But the other piece of good business sense is putting a character named Bruce Wayne into a batsuit, because no matter how you slice and dice your vision of Batman, to the general public, he's billionaire playboy BRUCE WAYNE. Nolan ended his trilogy by making a statement about the persistence of legend, but the persistence of marketing says BRUCE WAYNE.
So, if Joseph Gordon-Levitt is going to be Batman, and you want to believe that it's Robin John Blake, the Justice League script can't reference his secret identity at all. And that's not going to happen. Even an actor as enthusiastically committed as Gordon-Levitt wants his face to be shown. (This is why I'm still impressed that Karl Urban did Dredd with the helmet on the whole time.)
On that one, then, I think we have to call shenanigans. I've talked myself out of it.
However, we can trust the trusted source on the other big casting news, because it came directly from the director. Bryan Singer tweeted earlier today that he is excited to begin work on X-Men: Days of Future Past, the sequel to X-Men: First Class. Oh, that's not the news. He mentioned James MacAvoy and Michael Fassbender, and then casually added that he also has Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellen in the mix.
This does not preclude fan theories that First Class didn't just revive the franchise, it rebooted it. Of course we needed to see older versions of Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr (Magneto), though in the classic Chris Claremont/John Byrne comics storyline, both had died before Kitty Pryde was sent back in time to prevent her apocalyptic future. This is film continuity; we needed those actors.
But because of that title, we have to assume some characters are going to come from the future and alter things in the 1960s. A future Xavier and Magneto could go back in time and show their past selves just what their enmity leads to, just as in the current comics the original five X-Men have come forward into the present day to see what their actions have wrought.
Yes, I'm indulging in exactly the nerdy speculation I just decried with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, but the great thing about being a fanboy is the hypocrisy of it all. I'm excited to see both films -- Justice League and X-Men: Days of Future Past, but it's hard not to play "what if."
Hard reboots within the franchises aren't unheard of; it certainly didn't hurt James Bond, and if Fox ever gets Deadpool off the ground with Ryan Reynolds, it's certainly best to pretend that X-Men Origins: Wolverine didn't happen. Who knows if The Wolverine will even acknowledge anything from that film?
Really, though, I just want Alan Cumming back as Nightcrawler.
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