Remember that post-credits scene from Justice League? Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor escapes from prison and is hanging out in princely villainy on board a luxury yacht apparently crewed by sexy ladies. He invites Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke to chat and asks him a question: “Shouldn’t we have a league of our own?”
Seasoned comic book fans will know he’s not talking about the 1992 classic sports comedy, but rather, the tyrannical Legion of Doom! Yup, DC’s future plans are definitely to have their most powerful villains team-up and take down the Justice League. Except now, they’re not.
Revenge of the Fans has revealed that all plans for the Legion appearing on screen have been abruptly terminated as the DCEU becomes Worlds of DC and the concept switches gears from an MCU-style shared universe towards more standalone stories. Apparently, new DC Films President Walter Hamada put the kibosh on it as he “doesn’t see the point in continuing to build towards a team of supervillains” if DC’s focus isn’t on bringing their heroes together anymore.
All this is obviously a reaction to the critical and box office mauling received by Justice League, a plodding Frankensteinian mess of a movie that reeked of corporate interference and had been rewritten and recut into oblivion. Warner Bros. will no doubt be hoping that their new direction pays off, but I have to say, that Aquaman trailer released at Comic-Con didn’t exactly inspire much hope for it being any good.
If Warner Bros. ever need to explain what was going on with that Lex Luthor post-credits tag, then I’ve got a suggestion for them. The scene concludes with what’s supposed to be a rhetorical question hanging in the air – “Shouldn’t we have a league of our own?” So, just dub in Joe Manganiello replying, “No, that’s a terrible idea – let’s just fight our own battles separately and never acknowledge each other’s presence again.” That should solve things, right?