Is A New 'Justice League' Film In Development For 2013?

The short answer to the headline question: probably not in any realistic level of reality.

Several years ago there was a Justice League film in development at Warner Bros that, while well-intentioned and headed up by Mad Max director George Miller, would have gone about the team film in all the wrong way. That is, with a young cast of actors playing heroes like Batman, Superman and so forth that would have been different from the actors playing the same characters in their standalone films. (In other words, Christian Bale wasn't playing Batman. Ironically, Armie Hammer, now a much bigger name, would have played the part had the film not been killed by the writer's strike, Australian tax laws and other factors.)

Now, in a big profile on incoming Warner Bros. studio president Jeff Robinov, there is a slight indication that a new Justice League film is in the works and that WB wants to schedule it for 2013.

Specifically, about a third of the way through the profile, the LA Times says,

He's then aiming to release new "Batman" and "Superman" films in 2012 and "Justice League," a teaming of DC's top heroes, in 2013.

There's no other mention of the project in the article, and I've seen some speculation that the title could have snuck into the piece simply at the behest of the writer. But this profile is by Ben Fritz, whose reporting in the past has always been quite detailed and not subject to whim. And he knows what Justice League means in this context — it's not just another superhero flick — so for the time being we'll cautiously take this as indication the mention of a Justice League film came from Warners, and wasn't plucked out of the air by the LAT.

But for 2013? How can that possibly happen? Given the timetable it takes to put such a project together, that date seems like it has to have come out of some wildly optimistic wormhole. So, really, we can likely take this to mean that DC and WB might want to develop a team film to match The Avengers, but that's hardly a surprise. There is a lot of work to be done on that front — not least the casting of Batman, given that Christian Bale has made it clear that he's done after The Dark Knight Rises — so don't plan on seeing a Justice League film in 2013 just yet.