“Justice League” has become the cinematic trainwreck of the year that remains impossible to look away from. We’re only just starting to understand how the picture went sideways, and like any blockbuster movie, there were a lot of cooks in the kitchen. In fact long before Chris Terrio and Joss Whedon earned screenwriting credits on the movie, with Terrio and Zack Snyder nabbing story by credits, it was “Gangster Squad” scribe Will Beall who took the first crack at the material in 2011. And his take was certainly….interesting….
The Wrap has dug up the details about on Beall’s “Justice League,” a screenplay which earned him a two-picture deal at Warner Bros. There’s a lot to unpack, but this synopsis of sorts by Slashfilm is a good overview:
The story begins with a battle between Desaad, one of Darkseid’s minions, and Killer Croc. Desaad kills Croc and steals Kryptonite from Lex Luthor. Batman and Superman are friends who regularly hang out at a coffeeshop, and are spurred to recruit the Flash after Desaad’s attack.
Meanwhile, John Stewart and Hawkman battle Green Lantern Corps. foe Kanjar Ro in space, trying to foil Kanjar Ro’s attempts to weaponize Kryptonite with Desaad. They fail, and Superman gets kidnapped by Darkseid, who spirits him away to Apokolips with the help of Steppenwolf and the Parademons. Down a member, Batman recruits Wonder Woman, with whom he shares a romantic history, and the Justice League hold their first meeting in the Batcave. But their union is too late — under Darkseid’s mind control, Superman kills all of the Green Lantern Corps. except for John Stewart, and Darkseid invades Earth.
After a fight with Batman (donning the ‘Batman v Superman’ armor), Superman breaks free from Darkseid’s control and accidentally travels 11 years into the future. There he finds Wonder Woman and a wizened Batman leading the revolution against Darkseid alongside their son, and 80% of the world’s population dead due to his actions. Batman leads the “Berzerkers,” which feel like the prototype to 2016’s Suicide Squad, while Lex Luthor has turned to the side of good. With Luthor’s help, future Flash travels back in time to warn of the future and die in his younger self’s arms, and the Justice League manage to foil Darkseid’s scheme to control Superman and invade Earth.
To call this ambitious is an understatement — the scale is huge — but when you’re competing against the likes of Marvel (see their massive “Avengers: Infinity War“) it’s not a surprise. If the outer space elements seem wacky, the time travel is a bit too far. Also, this is some bleak stuff — 80% of the world’s population dead in the future timeline? Yeah, that likely would’ve changed as DC Films realized that superhero flavor was not what the fans wanted. Frankly, lots could’ve changed, because that’s generally how the development process on these things go.
However, it’s always fun to imagine what if, and some of these script details are pretty amazing and mind-boggling, sometimes simulataneously:
While 2016’s “Batman v Superman” would pit the heroes against each other, the 2011 script imagined them as allies who know each others’ identities and have coffee at Metropolis Diner, where they chat about other DC superheroes like Diana (Wonder Woman), Green Lantern, Green Arrow and Aquaman. They soon travel to Central City to recruit Barry Allen, aka The Flash.
Superman goes through a Boom Tube and travels eleven years into the future to find that Darkseid has wiped out 80 percent of the Earth’s population. Diana leads the last of the human resistance with an aged and grey-haired Bruce Wayne as her second-in-command. They have a son named Clark Wayne, and one surprising member of the resistance is Lex Luthor.
The Future Batman leads a dozen fighters known as Batman’s Berzerkers. They include Slade Wilson (Deathstroke) George Harkness (Captain Boomerang), Helena Bertinelli (Huntress) and Barbera Minerva (Cheetah). Comics fans might also recognize this team as the members of Suicide Squad — though not exactly the Suicide Squad of last year’s film. The last of the resistance is headquartered inside Superman’s Fortress of Solitude.
Future Lex Luthor figures out a way to send Barry Allen back eleven years in time, partly using Darkseid’s Boom Tube. Future Flash goes back in time to before Darkseid’s invasion, and dies in younger self’s arms — after warning of the terrible future.
The script ends with Mercy Graves planning a presidential campaign for Lex Luthor and Luthor receiving a message from Future Luthor telling him of Superman’s secret identity: Clark Kent.
This is pretty bold stuff — dual timelines, The Flash dying in his own arms — and even if the studio decided not to make it, it’s easy to understand why they’d be impressed at the ideas on the page. Though thankfully no one moved on with the whole Clark Wayne idea. Clearly, Beall had a big vision, even if the demands of brand name filmmaking probably would’ve watered this down.
In the end, Warner Bros. went in a whole new direction, included Aquaman who isn’t in this script at all, and….well, it didn’t work out. Still, it’s always fun to ponder what could’ve been and if someone published Beall’s screnplay, I’d read it.