Rumor: Warner Bros. Developing 'Legion Of Super-Heroes' Movie

With Guardians of the Galaxy topping box-office tallies so far in 2014, you can be sure that other studios are looking at their options for new space-based action films. There are some obvious ones in development including Star Wars and Star Trek, but what about studios that don't already have franchises going? The latest rumor is that Warner Bros. is in the early stages of development on a Legion of Super-Heroes movie.

The Legion is a long-running DC hero team that could, in a very (very) loose manner be considered the equivalent of the Guardians. The team has appeared in decades of comics through several big reboots, and also has a presence in animation, and even live-action via Smallville. Just as the Guardians and Avengers are potentially going to be in opposition with Thanos, the Legion has a solid history with Darkseid, the Jack Kirby character who actually inspired Thanos.

The Legion Of Superheroes made its debut in 1958, and while the time-traveling characters exist in the 30th and 31st centuries, they have been associated with Superman and exist in several different incarnations over the years. How many Legion characters are kicking around DC back issues? A lot.

There are so many iterations of the Legion that I could spend the rest of the night writing even a quick summary. The Wikipedia page already has that work done.

Latino Review has the origin of the rumor, saying that WB is going out to writers — which basically means that they're in the window of time where there could be a lot of different pitches flying around. Perhaps WB has a basic directive, like "Superman or Supergirl must be involved" or "build towards Darkseid." But we have no idea what story might be told. That said, we've heard that Darkseid could be a DC movie possibility, so there's reason to believe that the Legion has at least been on the whiteboard of possible DCU films.

The most obvious place to build to, therefore, is The Great Darkness Saga, a five-issue story originally published in 1982. That story, which set the Legion against Darkseid, is so thick with characters from decades of prior continuity that it would most likely be adapted in a loose manner akin to the way Fox used Days of Future Past as raw material for an X-Men film.

But, again, this rumor comes early in the process, and it's far too soon to know what might even be the vague intentions on WB's part.