DC back on solid ground
Studio comes back swinging at Comic-Con with panels, trailers
SAN DIEGO — After Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice put the launch of the DC Comics/Warner Bros. universe on shaky ground, the studio came back swinging at Comic-Con Saturday armed with movie stars, brand-new footage and a sense of humour.
Some 6,500 fans in Hall H got a glimpse of never-before-seen footage from the superhero all-star film Justice League from director Zack Snyder, as well as the actionpacked first trailer for Wonder Woman, starring Gal Gadot. Snyder and the cast flew in from London to tease Justice League, currently in production and not set to hit theatres until November 2017.
The lively Justice League footage highlights Bruce Wayne’s recruitment of what will be the Justice League team, including The Flash (Ezra Miller), Cyborg (Ray Fisher) and Aquaman (Jason Momoa). Ben Affleck, who plays Bruce Wayne/ Batman, hyped the film with his fellow cast mates, including Gadot and Superman actor Henry Cavill — putting to bed any lingering suspicions (spoiler alert!) that his character was actually killed off for good at the end of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. The lighter touch in the Justice League reel is likely a direct response to the widespread criticism of the self-seriousness of Batman v Superman and will be a pivotal moment for the studio in bringing together all of the personalities it hopes will also stand on their own, much like Marvel and Disney have done with The Avengers. Warner Bros. has 10 films pegged to the interconnected universe over the next few years including Suicide Squad, which comes out in August, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Flash and the stand-alone Batman film, which Affleck is directing and starring in.
To kick things off, Affleck was joined on stage by all of his fellow directors David Ayer (Suicide Squad), Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman), James Wan (Aquaman), Rick Famuyiwa (The Flash) and Snyder.
“DC is the foundation of what we all know about comic books and heroes. To have my voice be a part of that is really exciting,” Famuyiwa said.
Wan, who made his name in horror films like the Saw and Conjuring films, said that he bring some of that sensibility to Aquaman as well.
Neither Wan nor Famuyiwa had any footage to show, since The Flash and Aquaman don’t come out until 2018, but fans did get a first look at Jenkins’s Wonder Woman, which highlights the romance and First World War-era adventure of Diana Prince’s origins. The movie comes out in June 2017 and will be the first time the iconic superheroine has had her own film in her 75-year history.
“Knowing how many people care so much for this character ... it was important to portray (her) in a way everyone can relate,” Gadot said, seated alongside co-stars Chris Pine and Connie Nielsen, who plays her mother. Audiences first met Gadot’s Wonder Woman in Batman v Superman. The baddies of Suicide Squad, out Aug. 5, took the stage too, including stars Will Smith, Margot Robbie and Jared Leto.
“This is not a movie about good vs. evil,” Smith said. “This is a movie about bad vs. evil.”
It wasn’t all comic books and superheroes in the studio presentation, though. Audiences saw the first trailer for Kong: Skull Island, a 1970s-set King Kong story starring Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, John Goodman and Straight Outta Compton’s Jason Mitchell and Corey Hawkins. From director Jordan Vogt-Roberts, it comes out in March 2017.
“Kong is film history. Kong is where genre met mainstream,” Vogt-Roberts said of the classic character.
The studio also unveiled a trailer for The Lego Batman Movie, an irreverent, joke-packed spinoff of the breakout Lego Movie character voiced by Will Arnett set for February 2017.
Charlie Hunnam was also there to tease King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, which looks as frenetic and deadpan as most of director Guy Ritchie’s films, as was the cast and director of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, coming to theatres this November.