Yesterday Warner Bros. secured a major legal victory against the heirs of Superman co-creator Joe Shuster, who were attempting to reclaim Shuster's 50% share of the rights to the Man of Steel, and with the long-running dispute now finally closed, it's been reported that the studio will move forward with its proposed DC Comics epic Justice League, going head-to-head with Marvel Studios' own superhero team-up The Avengers 2 in 2015.According to The Los Angeles Times, Warner Bros. "is expected to accelerate development of a planned Justice League movie that would join Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman and other characters, according to a knowledgeable person not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Warner hopes to shoot the film next year and release it in the summer of 2015. The studio already has a Justice League script in the works. Next it needs to attach a director and then cast the lead roles."
Over the past few months there's been a tonne of speculation surrounding the Justice League movie; with Christopher Nolan firmly ruling himself out of contention following the release of The Dark Knight Rises, a host of filmmakers have been linked to the project, including Ben Affleck (Argo), Brett Ratner (X-Men: The Last Stand), Zack Snyder (Man of Steel), Ruben Fleischer (Gangster Squad), Lana and Andy Wachowski (Cloud Atlas), Frank Miller (Sin City) and McG (Terminator: Salvation). Meanwhile, it's also been suggested that Armie Hammer (The Lone Ranger) could be in line to succeed Christian Bale as The Dark Knight, with Hammer having previously been cast as Batman in George Miller's (Mad Max: Fury Road) ultimately aborted Justice League: Mortal.
Should this news prove official, it's certainly a brave move by Warner Bros. to go up against Joss Whedon's Avengers sequel. Marvel will have unleashed a further four movies by the time that Earth's Mightiest Heroes return to the screen (with 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy likely to serve as a direct Thanos-related set-up), whereas Justice League will need to establish an entirely new line-up of characters - especially if the rumours of an entirely separate continuity turn out to be correct. Maybe it's time to sign Henry Cavill up, and shoot a last minute post-credits sequence for next year's Man of Steel.
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