As far as film buzz goes, the remainder of 2017 has quickly boiled down to a three horse race between Thor: Ragnarok, Justice League and a little-known sci-fi movie called Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
The latter undoubtedly stole headlines last week, when Lucasfilm and Disney unleashed the dazzling first trailer in order to tee up the next chapter in the storied Skywalker saga. Even now, the hype and excitement swirling around The Last Jedi is palpable, but whereas Lucasfilm exercised some restraint in its marketing, Warner Bros. has adopted an all-guns-blazing approach for Justice League.
Whether that’ll end up paying off in the end remains to be seen, but the studio seems confident in their product, as we’re now hearing that a sequel is already in development. Granted, the original plan was to always put out two films featuring the titular team, but as the DC Extended Universe has evolved and taken a bit of a different shape than what was first mapped out, we weren’t sure whether a Justice League 2 was still on the cards. Not to mention that we’ve also heard that the studio was hoping to “de-emphasize” the whole shared universe thing.
It seems that the sequel is still very much a part of their plan, though, as J.K. Simmons, who plays Commissioner Gordon, confirmed as much in a recent interview with Total Film:
“Well, Commissioner Gordon wears a trench coat in every scene, so I don’t know that the ‘pumped up’ part is going to be all that evident, especially when you’re standing next to Batman! But this is the first Justice League movie – we hope – of a few. They’re working on scripts for The Batman and for the next Justice League movie. It introduces my incarnation of Commissioner Gordon. I don’t have a lot to do. I feel like I just dipped my toe in the water of who Commissioner Gordon will be.”
Now, it’s important to note that just because a script is being written for Justice League 2 that’s not a guarantee that it’ll go ahead. Like we said above, the DCEU continues to grow in new and unexpected ways and who knows what form it’ll have taken in a few years from now? Plus, we’ve gotta wait and see how the first film does at the box office next month, and how it fares with critics. After all, if it’s a bomb on the level of say Dawn of Justice, Warner Bros. may re-think their plans.
Regardless, it would seem that the studio has faith in the pic and with the final trailer now out in the wild, it won’t be long before they start releasing bite-sized clips and various TV spots, giving us an even better look at Zack Snyder/Joss Whedon’s tentpole. Chances are they’ll be light on spoilers, but you may want to avoid watching every single promo, as Hollywood often risks overexposure while promoting its comic book movies.
Look for Justice League to slam into theaters on November 17th. And despite those extensive reshoots and pick-ups, we understand that this is still very much Snyder’s movie, with Whedon being awarded a writing credit alongside Chris Terrio (Star Wars: Episode IX).