New Justice League trailer makes Ezra Miller’s Flash the Spider-Man of the DCEU

And other ways that DC has changed their material to suit fans…

How much do Warner Brothers and DC Films want Justice League to hit with fans come November? Enough to spend $25 million dollars on reshoots so onerous they include the digital removal of Superman’s moustache. Personally, I’d love to see the Man of Steel rockin’ a Tom Selleck-level bullet proof ‘stache, but that’s just me.

The expensive reshoots are part of a long upward battle for the DCEU to become as respected as the rival Marvel Cinematic Universe. At every turn, Warner Bros. has shown remarkable, if occasionally misguided, flexibility to right the ship.

When the dour Man of Steel didn’t wow fans or critics, WB added Batman to the sequel.

Unfortunately, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice made bank but was reamed by critics and audiences alike. Ditto Suicide Squad. The killer marketing campaign somehow successfully sold one of the worst mainstream movies ever made. They’re lucky it made any money at all.

Warner Bros. constant maneuvering and marketing prowess is fascinating if highly unsustainable. At some point, you need to deliver a movie as good as your promise.

Then Wonder Woman happened.

Wonder Woman garnered the kind of acclaim, pop culture impact, and box office might that comes along quite rarely. Warner Brothers didn’t just make a good movie, they made many people’s new favorite movie of all time.

And suddenly, Warner Bros. are operating from a position of relative power.

The latest trailer for Justice League released at San Diego Comic-Con showcases WB’s current plans to keep up the momentum. As usual, the trailer demonstrates that the savvy studio has absorbed common complaints of their films and is aiming to deliver this next time out.

I wanted to highlight some of the strategies they used to make Justice League more appealing.

A) Highlight Wonder Woman

With Wonder Woman snagging the most popular super-hero debut in years, it only made sense to emphasize the Amazon princess’ role in the proceedings.

While I’m sure that Wonder Woman was always a key figure in Justice League, it’s notable that this preview starts by showcasing her kiss-ass moves. It’s a quick way to associate Justice League with the qualities people liked in Wonder Woman.

B) Make The Flash an audience surrogate aka DC Spider-Man

Ezra Miller’s Flash has tested well with audiences even though his incarnation only has a few minutes of total screen time.

In this trailer, The Flash appears to wield the defining sense of humor for the gang of heroes. In addition, he’s depicted as a younger outsider to the whole “superhero” thing. The Russo brothers wrote a similar role for Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War.

In that film, Spider-Man was funny, but also consistently amazed at his fellow, more experienced heroes. He was a good audience surrogate to help make sense of the complex inter-hero drama.

Better yet, Spider-Man: Homecoming recently clicked with fans and critics. It’s not at Wonder Woman levels, but that’s not the fault of the well-made film. Thus, aping the character type makes sense both from a story and a marketing perspective.

The main advantage of The Flash is that he is a relatively under-developed property. Spider-Man: Homecoming is the sixth take on Spider-Man since 2002 and features the third actor in the red and blue suit. It has only been three years since Andrew Garfield last played the web-slinger in a solo film!

The Flash is going to get a major chunk in Justice League. Why not highlight him as wise-cracking teen? If the MCU gets one, DC can have one too.

C) Use Batman while you’ve got him

Rumors abound that Ben Affleck and Batman will part ways soon. Affleck shot down the gossip at Hall H, but the drama isn’t necessarily a bad thing for Warner Bros.

In all likelihood, Affleck will stick around (especially if Warner Bros keeps funding his passion projects). As long as we wonder about Affleck’s fate, it helps make any film with Batman that much more special

How many more films do we have left with Affleck as Batman? Is it possible that the character could die in one of these? Only one way to find out…

D) Joss Whedon can smooth it over

Sadly, Zach Snyder had to step down from the directing chair following the suicide of his daughter in March. Warner Bros. tapped none other than Joss Whedon (The Avengers) to handle. According to some sources, he’s mostly there to punch up the dialogue with his witty touch, which could be enough to keep Justice League on the right side of fun.

The circumstances surrounding the director swap are tragic. It’s not likely that Joss Whedon will receive a director’s credit and arguably he shouldn’t. I wonder how much his name will even enter the marketing.

Nonetheless, his brand significantly helps the film’s chances with critics. DC films are often called dour, and that’s just not his thing. Warner Bros. was lucky to find one potential antidote to the biggest criticism they face.

E) No origin? No sweat

Justice League is always going to be negatively compared to The Avengers. The Avengers was the culmination of many films, ensuring that the main cast was fully introduced to audiences prior to the team up.

Not the case here. We haven’t seen a lick from Aquaman or Cyborg.

From the looks of this trailer, it shouldn’t matter. Warner Bros. just wants their characters to look good and they’ll do the explaining later. If nothing else, selling Justice League as accessible to a wider audience and not just comic book fans shouldn’t hurt.

Final Thoughts

For the last few years, Warner Bros. didn’t want to be the studio that cried wolf (“We promise this one is good!”). Now they need to make sure that Wonder Woman isn’t a fluke. It makes sense they’d do everything in their power to make sure Justice League is a crowd-pleaser. It’s not a good long term strategy to bend in every breeze, but if they can get a track record of consistent quality then maybe we can see what a normal, non-reshot DCEU film looks like.

Justice League comes out November 17, 2017.

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