Rumor: Warner Bros. Developing ‘Legion Of Super-Heroes’ Movie
WithGuardians of the Galaxytopping box-office tallies so far in 2014, you can be sure that other studios are looking at their options for new space-based action films. There are some obvious ones in development includingStar WarsandStar Trek, but what about studios that don’t already have franchises going? The latest rumor is that Warner Bros. is in the early stages of development on aLegion of Super-Heroesmovie.
The Legion is a long-running DC hero team that could, in a very (very) loose manner be considered the equivalent of the Guardians. The team has appeared in decades of comics through several big reboots, and also has a presence in animation, and even live-action viaSmallville. Just as the Guardians and Avengers are potentially going to be in opposition with Thanos, the Legion has a solid history with Darkseid, the Jack Kirby character who actually inspired Thanos.
TheLegion Of Superheroesmade its debut in 1958, and while the time-traveling characters exist in the 30th and 31st centuries, they have been associated with Superman and exist in several differentincarnations over the years. How many Legion characters are kicking around DC back issues?Alot.
There are so many iterations of the Legion that I could spend the rest of the night writing even a quick summary. TheWikipedia pagealready has that work done.
Latino Reviewhas the origin of the rumor, saying that WB is going out to writers — which basically means that they’re in the window of time where there could be a lot of different pitches flying around. Perhaps WB has a basic directive, like “Superman or Supergirl must be involved” or “build towards Darkseid.” But we have no idea what story might be told. That said, we’ve heard that Darkseid could be a DC movie possibility, so there’s reason to believe that the Legion has at least been on the whiteboard of possible DCU films.
The most obvious place to build to, therefore, isThe Great Darkness Saga, a five-issue story originally published in 1982. That story, which set the Legion against Darkseid, is so thick with characters from decades of prior continuity that it would most likely be adapted in a loose manner akin to the way Fox usedDays of Future Pastas raw material for an X-Men film.
But, again, this rumor comes early in the process, and it’s far too soon to know what might even be the vague intentions on WB’s part.
