Thomas Roach on whether Justice League Part Two could be a standalone Batman movie….
Warner Bros. and DC have announced their line up of movies through to 2020. It starts with 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and is ending with a Green Lantern movie in the summer of 2020. Of course, it will continue beyond that if the films remain successful. Surprisingly in the original line up there was no confirmation of standalone Batman or Superman movies, but Warner Bros. have stated that both the Dark Knight and Man of Steel will have standalone movies within this time period, although there are no dates set for these as of yet.
In the line up two Justice League movies have been announced – Justice League Part One in 2017 and Justice League Part Two in 2019. I am very curious at the Justice League movie being split into two and the fact that we will have to wait two years in between these. For a sequel that is a direct continuation of the story, two years is a long time to wait. This has me wondering if Justice League Part Two is just a smoke screen to cover up the release date for a standalone Batman movie.
Maybe it really is just the second part to a Justice League movie, but it seems excessive for Warner and DC to split a team up movie before they have even seen how well Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice will do at the box office. I also believe that 2019 would be the perfect time to do a standalone Batman movie.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice will show us Ben Affleck’s version of the character for the first time. The previous incarnation of Batman was in 2012 with The Dark Knight Rises as portrayed by Christian Bale. So when we see Affleck’s Batman it will have been four years between the versions, which is shorter than the seven years in between George Clooney’s version in Batman & Robin and Christian Bale’s first portrayal in Batman Begins in 2005.
Warner Bros. clearly want to leave it a bit longer before they give Batman another solo film in order to differentiate the two franchises. However the fact that Batman’s name in first in the title of Batman v Superman – despite the audience not being introduced to him yet – means that he will likely play a big role. But to have a solo Batman film completely, 2019 would be a good bet as that would be the same time difference between Clooney’s and Bale’s versions.
As Aquaman and The Flash movies have also been announced for 2018, we can assume that both characters will appear in the first Justice League movie and maybe even 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but what if these characters are poorly received? If both of these characters prove to be unpopular in the team up films could Warner Bros. and DC replace the 2018 movies with standalone Batman and standalone Superman films?
Overall though, with Warner Bros. stating Batman and Superman will both having standalone films that are yet to be unannounced, it probably means that Justice League Part Two will likely be a Justice League movie. There was already a backlash that Batman and Superman didn’t have solo films announced and within hours Warner Bros. corrected it. So that to me implies that Justice League Part Two is simply a smoke screen to hide the Batman or possibly Superman solo film. However it is important to ask yourself, why did they not announce standalone movies for the two most popular DC characters when they have films planned until 2020? Because it’s a smokescreen…
Do you think one of the Justice League movies may be a standalone Batman movie? Let us know…
Thomas Roach
Originally published October 17, 2014. Updated April 12, 2018.
