The Kidd here...
...Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and The Flash.
No Martian Manhunter. No Aquaman. No Hawkman, although, according to Latino Review (where El Mayimbe has been an absolute scooping beast the past few days), the former two could get cameo treatment to further expand the Justice League, but there are no promises.
From a logistical point, this makes sense within the model they're using to establish this DC Universe on-screen. At this point, they're only scheduled to have a solo Superman movie on the books before 2015, which limits the amount of characters they're going to include. Yes, I know Green Lantern already got his pic, but there's no guarantee that Ryan Reynolds will be back in the role, or if they might use the four years separating his film with JUSTICE LEAGUE to completely revamp the character for this overall new DC direction. Let's face it... what we saw with GREEN LANTERN doesn't seem to mesh with what we've seen in short bursts from MAN OF STEEL. However, at least we've got his beginning committed to film. And do we really need to cover Batman's ground again, freshly removed from the Nolan trilogy? I don't think we need to re-establish that for JUSTICE LEAGUE, giving them plenty of time to piece these characters together while setting the table for Wonder Woman and The Flash to get set up.
In addition, we already know Warner Bros. has been at work on solo WONDER WOMAN and THE FLASH films, which will most likely now be propelled by the characters' big screen introductions in JUSTICE LEAGUE. In doing the Marvel model in reverse, DC and Warner Bros. have painted themselves into a bit of a corner with what they can do well for this ensemble piece as just throwing a couple of unestablished characters into the story that non-comic fans may not recognize or understand or know anything about is a recipe for disaster. With Marvel, non-Iron Man fans became Iron Man fans...the same for Thor and Captain America. However, if you give people no investment in Martian Manhunter and just throw him into the fire, it can only end badly, as far as I'm concerned.
I know this isn't the ideal plan of action, but DC and Warner Bros. really want at that AVENGERS money, so asking them to follow the proven Marvel model just wasn't going to happen. However, try not to be too disappointed in the roster cuts for JUSTICE LEAGUE. We really should have seen this coming for awhile.
-Billy Donnelly
"The Infamous Billy The Kidd"
Follow me on Twitter.
Like me on Facebook.
