BATMAN VS SUPERMAN…Starring Bale & Routh?

I didn't get to go to Comic-Con this year. I had to live vicariously through information I got from tweets and websites such as Comicbookmovie.com. Leading up to SDCC it was no secret what a lot of fans were waiting to see.

Sure there were the matters of:

1. The rumored slate of DC films Warner Bros. was said to have planned (which includes a Flash and Green Lantern team-up).
2. Dwayne Johnson's mystery DC role (Shazam or Black Adam, apparently).
3. The "He's playing Aquaman", "I'm not playing Aquaman" runaround with Jason Mamoa.

To my knowledge, none of this was addressed. Still, at the top of the list of things to see was unquestionably Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. More specifically, our first look at Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman.

Warner Bros. and Zack Snyder had already released pics of Henry Cavill's Man of Steel and Ben Affleck's Batman. Warner not only revealed Gadot in costume on Saturday but had the three leads make an appearance.

And on top of that, fans were treated to a piece created especially for SDCC. The word going around now is the minute long footage wasn't Cavill and Affleck at all but 3D CGI.

Which makes sense if you saw the low res footage leaked onto YouTube before Warner started pulling them down. To me, Batman looked "off". Artificial.

Either way, it blew the roof off Hall H.

Now, anticipation for the film is even higher. All it took was a five minute appearance by the stars, a little over 60 seconds of footage that's most likely not in the film, and the photo to the left.

Yes, fans are salivating over Dawn of Justice. But here's a question, submitted for your approval...

Would fans be this excited if this were, say, 2007 or 2008? And instead of Ben Affleck it was Christian Bale.

And instead of Henry Cavill it was Brandon Routh. Say BvS was a follow-up to Superman Returns instead of Man of Steel.

Would fans still be this excited?

Returns is hated by a lot fans. Bryan Singer and writers Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris delivered a film that was an extension of Richard Donner's Superman 1 & 2. Singer & Co. gave us an amazing airplane sequence but also had Superman hurling an island made of Kryptonite into space.

It was short on action but plenty on Clark trying to reintegrate himself into Lois' life...who had his baby while he was away for five years. Personally, I feel Singer's biggest mistake was deciding to pay homage to the Donner/Reeve films instead of creating something of his own.



So, keeping in mind everything that happened in Superman Returns would be DCCU canon (Superman Jr. etc.), as well as returning cast members, (see Kate Bosworth), would the anticipation for this team up be the same as the one in BvS?

This is just an educated guess but Warner Bros. would probably bring back Singer to direct. (He was a bigger name than Christopher Nolan at the time). Maybe Nolan produces. Singer would undoubtly bring Dougherty and Harris onboard for script duties. Maybe David Goyer does some script work, having co-written Batman Begins.

Score is up in the air, John Ottman or Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard who did Begins' soundtrack. My money's on Ottman because of Singer directing. And chances are the film would be called World's Finest  instead of the "versus" angle.

In the end, we're looking at a completely different film. Unlikely to be as action driven as Snyder's Man of Steel was and Dawn of Justice will be. And, who knows, maybe after that Warner Bros. would've pulled the trigger on Joss Whedon's Wonder Woman, which he was believed to had wanted Colbie Smulders for.

The Trinity, and the DCCU would've shaped up a lot differently then than it is now.

On one hand you have the stellar cast of Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman joining a cinematic universe.

On the other, we have Brandon Routh continuing his Christopher Reeve impression. And there's the issue of melding Singer and Nolan's visions into a cohesive story.

On a quick side note - Martin Campbell's Green Lantern might've been a completely different film as well, with Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman established.

So, what do you think?

If the first ever team up of Superman and Batman was between Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight and Bryan Singer's Superman, would the anticipation for the film be the same as it is for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice?

Yes, just as excited? Excited but not as much? No, it would change everything?

Sound off below. And, as always, thanks for reading!