With the release of "The Avengers" to critical and commercial success Warner Brothers must be turning their Sauron like gaze to the biggest team franchise in their comic book arsenal: Justice League. This would not be the first time that they have done so either. A few years ago (2007) a movie tentatively titled "Justice League: Mortal", directed by George Miller, was set to go before camera's only for spiralling costs and the writers strike to do something even Darkseid could not accomplish, defeat the League. Was this a bad thing? We'll never know for sure.
Whereas "The Avengers" have Iron Man, Hulk and Thor, they can still keep the costs of the movie, from a special effects standpoint, manageable. Whereas the Justice League have the likes of Superman and Green Lantern, who themselves are in costly individual movies. But, add the likes of Wonder Woman and Flash and J'Onn J'Onzz... the costs of special effects alone would amount to the budget of a number of films. Take members of the big 7 away and add lesser known characters and you would dilute the Justice League franchise.
So, is there a way for DC/Warner Brothers to match Marvel/Disney with a movie like "The Avengers"? Quite simply, yes. One word: "Trinity".
Back at the turn of the century, before "The Avengers" was even a twinkle in the eye, the Bros. Warner had come up with an equally ambitious film idea: "Batman Vs Superman".
At this point the Batman franchise still had the stink of Schumacher over it, and the Man of Steel had been stuck in Development Hell since the 1990's. Andrew Kevin Walker (later rewritten by Akiva Goldsman) and Wolfgang Peterson were tapped to create a big screen adventure where the two biggest characters in comics meet. The plan was for this movie to act as a catalyst to relaunch each characters movie franchises. However, as you are no doubt aware, this film never got past development. Though, this is not a wholly bad thing as we may never had the Nolan Batman trilogy.
But, with a little bit of tweaking, this idea may still work. But the tweaking brings me back to the one word mentioned earlier:
"Trinity".
With the exception of Spider-Man, Warner Bros. have the biggest three superhero icons in pop culture and world history: Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. Or, to give them their comic book moniker: "The Trinity". Just these three characters alone in one movie will rival the scope of "The Avengers".
Obviously, the first tweak will be to get rid of the "Vs" in the title as, quite frankly, no genre/franchise movie with it in the title has ever been any good. Also, the creators should steer away from the villains that have been used on celluloid prior to this movie (bye, bye Zod, Lex and the Joker). These characters have formidable villains in their own rogues gallery capable of matching the three of them, and that is before you get to the wider DCU villain set. Maybe taking a villain not know to the public (hello, Vandal Savage).
With the Nolan Batverse coming to an imminent end in July, the franchise is gearing up to reboot with a whole new cast. "Trinity" would offer a chance to introduce a new actor in the cowl to the audience. It would also allow a much waited big screen outing for Wonder Woman, hopefully acting as a springboard to start her Development Hell trapped big screen franchise.
A "Trinity" movie, however, should not go into production until the new Superman movie is released. This way the audience will have a familiar actor (Henry Cavill) in one of the lead roles so there is not much of an adjustment to the new Bale-less Batman.
By having three superheroes, only two of which have effects heavy powers, the costs will be kept to a relatively (in these types of movie anyway) low. Plus, sequels could allow for the introduction to other members of the League, eventually leading to a Justice League movie.
Making a "Trinity" movie rather than a League movie also does not make it seem like the studio is riding on the coat tails of Marvel/Disney and, seemingly, try to cash in on their success with "The Avengers". "Trinity" would allow them to something on the same scope whilst being different enough that it would not draw any (perpetually negative) comparisons with "The Avengers".
Of course, the Bros. Warners would have to get the right creative people to be able to pull this movie off, not like the Green Lantern debacle. Just, please, not Michael Bay. Never Michael Bay.
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