According to a new report, Warner Bros. (WB) might be looking to recast former Justice League actors for the DCU.
While 2017's Justice League bombed hard, surprisingly, no major recasts or world-changing shifts came out of its failure—just plenty of delays and the re-shifting of projects.
However, some heroes, such as Ben Affleck's Batman and Henry Cavill's Superman, were sidelined and taken out of the spotlight. While those two have at least one other appearance in the books, Ray Fisher's Cyborg can't say the same.
Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman was given another movie in Wonder Woman 84, before having her third film pulled due to shifting plans at WB. Both Aquaman and Flash have films on the way, but their future after is cloudy at best.
Now, it seems that audiences might want to start saying goodbye to some of these incarnations of DC's iconic heroes.
Justice League Being Recast?
The Hollywood Reporter put out a report raising the possibility that Warner Bros. and DC Studios are considering the option of recasting the DCEU's current Justice League actors and potentially even others. This would include possible recastings for talents such as Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa, and others.
The outlet noted that this plan from the studios "could entail a truly fresh start and [have] no baggage from any previous regimes" which shepherded these superheroic actors into the DCU.
Sources indicated that the DCU might be establishing its own brain trust to help foster a proper interconnected narrative universe for its content. In fact, Peter Safran, co-lead of DC Studios, might have already started meeting with people for this very concept.
Supposedly, the former regime, which was led by Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy, was hoping to get one more Synderverse team-up off the ground. Though, now with James Gunn and Safran taking the reins, that's almost certainly not going to happen.
The Justice League No More?
It feels strange that it's taken Warner Bros. so long to truly start evaluating the possibility of a clean slate. Unfortunately, at this point, it almost feels too late, as fans have come to expect more from every actor who's been part of the Justice League.
Though, when it comes to who could be replaced, at least half of them will likely make for easy transitions.
The Flash was already expected by many to be Ben Affleck's last appearance as Bruce Wayne, especially after the recent rumors regarding Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and the actor's new production company.
Due to all of the controversies surrounding Ezra Miller, their next movie will likely be the last as the titular hero.
While not directly mentioned in the above report, Ray Fisher would be another expected replacement. He has not gotten along with Warner Bros. for a long time. He was once going to return in The Flash, but according to rumors, the character was taken out before filming began.
The other three members are where things get rocky. Henry Cavill just had a Dwayne Johnson-sponsored reveal of his return, which The Hollywood Reporter believes could be a promise WB won't be able to fulfill. Then there's Gal Gadot, who just had her third Wonder Woman movie suddenly scrapped.
It's undoubtedly a messy situation, especially when it comes to the futures of recently introduced characters such as Shazam, Black Adam, and Hawkman. Or even future debuts like Blue Beetle.
Hopefully, DCU co-leads James Gunn and Peter Safran know what they're doing, and this mess will truly be worth it.
