The rise of the superhero movie has never been more apparent than right now. Ever since the release of Bryan Singer’s X-Men (2000), the superhero movie genre has boomed into the fan-driven industry it is today. Just take the summer of 2012 as an example. In May of that year, Marvel’s The Avengers, which featured an all-star cast led by Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man, became the third highest grossing movie of all time, making $1.51 billion during its box office run.
Meanwhile, there was also Warner Brothers’ The Dark Knight Rises, in which Christian Bale made his final appearance as Batman, one of DC’s most iconic characters. The film grossed $1.08 billion, making it the ninth highest grossing movie of all time.
That’s over $2.5 billion on two movies featuring main characters that often possess extraordinary powers (such as Chris Hemsworth’s Thor in The Avengers) or amazing skills (such as Bale’s Batman). Why is it that audiences are willing to go out and spend that much money to go see movies that feature events that will likely never happen? Because the kid in us wants to see our heroes prevail.
The way each of these companies go at the superhero genre is worlds apart. Marvel painstakingly repurchased the rights or held onto its most precious superhero commodities (such as The Avengers) to build a whole cinematic universe that will eventually feature all of its heroes. However, there are still many roadblocks to that vision. 20th Century Fox still holds the rights to the X-Men and Fantastic Four franchises, among others.
The upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past, which is due in late May, is the latest X-Men film to be released. Due to the fact that the X-Men franchise makes so much money, one can see why Fox is so reluctant to let it go. Meanwhile, Spider-Man, who is arguably Marvel’s most important superhero, is still owned by Sony. The web slinger is in the middle of his second franchise with the studio, and it also looks like they aren’t going to release the rights of him or his universe to Marvel anytime soon.
Meanwhile, DC is already set up with one distributor for its superhero flicks: the aforementioned Warner Brothers. After The Dark Knight trilogy ended in 2012, DC and Warner Brothers decided to launch their own cinematic universe with Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, which came out last summer. Snyder worked with Nolan and David S. Goyer, who penned The Dark Knight trio, to map out a brand new cinematic universe in which the members of the Justice League will eventually join forces. But before that can take place, we have the upcoming and untitled Batman vs. Superman film that is slated to come out in May 2016. Unlike the casting for the Superman reboot, which was universally praised, the selection of actors to play the titular roles of Batman, Wonder Woman and Lex Luthor have raised the eyebrows of comic fans everywhere.
First was the selection of Ben Affleck as the new Bruce Wayne/Batman. Anyone can envision him as the billionaire playboy but as the Caped Crusader? Now that’s a different story. Despite his previously disastrous turn as Daredevil, Affleck has the best chance to nail his role and prove the critics wrong. However, Gal Gadot’s selection as Wonder Woman had everyone scratching their heads. Although she can certainly fight and is absolutely beautiful, she doesn’t have the physique of the Amazonian Princess. Time with the trainers that Snyder gave Henry Cavill in order for him to bulk up to play the Man of Tomorrow will hopefully help that.
But the craziest move? Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor. Comic fans everywhere nearly went into nerd comas from rage and shock when this was announced last week. Honestly, who can blame them? Everyone is used to a bald, intelligent and powerful man who coolly plots nefarious plans to destroy the Man of Steel at every turn. But the guy who played Columbus in Zombieland? That might be a stretch even for you, Mr. Snyder.
Nevertheless, there is a pretty good chance that in two years time, Affleck, Gadot and Eisenberg will all prove us wrong and nail the iconic roles that they have been handed. The last time that superhero fans flipped out this much over a casting choice was when Nolan casted Heath Ledger as the Joker in 2008’s The Dark Knight, which is arguably the greatest superhero movie of all time. When May 6, 2016 rolls around, we will see Snyder and DC’s master plan at work. Fans everywhere can only hope that it’s strong enough to stand up to the might of Marvel, which already has a five-year head start.
Jordan Llanes can be reached at jordan.llanes@theminaretonline.com