Last week, Warner Bros. confirmed that it is pushing the release of Batman Vs. Superman from July 17, 2016 to May 6, 2016, giving the filmmakers more time to fully realize their immense vision for the ambitious sequel, which features Superman (Henry Cavill), Batman (Ben Affleck) and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot). Like any production of this magnitude, there has been an abundance of rumors floating around in regards to the Man of Steel follow-up.
Today, we have even more grist for the rumor mill, from a NeoGaf message board user named "James Woods," who reportedly learned a number of plot details from a source who worked in the art department before he was fired last week, which may have stemmed from the release date shift.
Of course, none of this has been confirmed, but if this information is true, there will be massive spoilers below, including new details about the cliffhanger ending we reported about yesterday, which villains are involved and details on how Wonder Woman and Aquaman fit into the story. If you don't want to be spoiled, then stop reading now.
"Time for some possible bullshit. These are rumors I've heard from someone that got fired from the production recently (like the past week). Take this with a grain of salt though, folks. Seriously. Please note that there are some major spoilers here if any of it is true."
***** POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD *****
- The villains are Lex Luthor and Metallo.
- Batman forms a UN type deal to stop Superman from destroying another city.
- Aquaman is in it, but not called Aquaman. He's there because the world engine in the ocean did something to the fish.
- Jason Momoa is definitely up for Aquaman.
- Wonderwoman poses as a Wayne Enterprises investor to retrieve an item that belongs to her people.
- Lex Luthor is in the shadows a lot, a manipulator. Not much face time with Superman.
- Robin betrayed Batman at some point, leading to a falling out between them.
- The Batcave was super cool looking, and the mobile looked similar to (Tim) Burton's
- Lois is investigating Lex.
- Metallo "kills" Clark.
- The Daily Planet is bought by Lex Luthor for PR purposes.
- At the end Superman is living in exile, and the Justice League is an government approved superhero team.
***** END SPOILERS *****
My source is someone from the art department that supposedly got shitcanned (apparently a bunch of them were fired). I confirm nothing. Just passing along what I heard. Take it with the proper amount of salt."
Latino Review dug deeper into the claim that several art department workers have been fired. The site couldn't find any group of employees working for Warner Bros. or producer Christopher Nolan's production company Syncopy Entertainment who were fired. However, there are some union contracts that allow employees to move off a project, if it doesn't meet a certain "trigger date." The release date being moved to 2016 has opened this window for some employees, who the site have confirmed have "moved on," although they can't confirm that anyone was fired.
However, we have heard about Batman's falling out with Robin before, along with Jason Momoa being in contention to play Aquaman, although he was initially rumored to play either Doomsday or Martian Manhunter. We first heard about Metallo's inclusion back in December, with Callan Mulvey rumored to be up for the villainous role, along with another report that Lex Luthor and Metallo will be the sequel's two villains.
We reported yesterday that Joaquin Phoenix is very close to signing on as Lex Luthor. That report also included details about the sequel's cliffhanger ending, which Warner Bros. will employ in all of their superhero films from now on, to differentiate themselves from Marvel and their end-credits teaser scenes. If the details on this ending provided by "James Woods" are true, it most certainly will set the scene for Justice League, which was rumored last week to be shot back-to-back with Batman Vs. Superman.
Of course, it's possible that all of these details came from an earlier draft of the script that isn't being used anymore. We reported last month that Oscar-winning screenwriter Chris Terrio (Argo) has signed on to rewrite the script, although it isn't known if he is simply polishing David S. Goyer's original draft, or if he is performing a bigger overhaul.