Like many of you, I'm a passionate fan of comics and subsequently, comic book movies. I've been fascinated by the recent surge of cinematic productions bringing our childhood heroes into the forefront of the entertainment universe.
This article simply reflects who I'd like to see play the core (explanation below) characters of our beloved superhero team. But before I do that, just a couple of guidelines I used to come up with my cast...
1. I believe that for a successful Justice League movie to happen, WB will need to focus on the core 5 members of the team: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and Flash. Trying to give quality time to Aquaman and Martian Manhunter will take away from much needed screen team to the core five and indeed deprive Arthur and J'on J'onzz ample time to introduce them properly to mainstream audiences. Since this will be the very first effort in bringing them to the big screen, their original character iterations should be used (Hal Jordan and Barry Allen). Sorry John Stewart and Wally West fans. This is only to pay homage to their creators and to educate the mainstream audience to the DC universe.
2. Secondly, the WB, Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder were intentional in using Man of Steel as the foundation upon which all other DC movies will be built upon. This infers that Henry Cavill will be the Superman in every DC movie herein and for the foreseeable future.
3. Since it is already firmly established that Henry Cavill is Clark Kent/Superman, casting must revolve around him. Meaning, you can't have a 25 year old Bruce Wayne running around with a 33 yr. old (in MOS) Clark Kent. Similarly, you can't have a 45 yr. old Batman running around with a barely 30 yr. old Superman. The actor portraying Bruce Wayne will have to appear in multiple JL sequels along with presumably his own rebooted trilogy likely spanning a decade of film production. Since Henry is only 30 yrs. old (in real life), we need someone who is in his early 30s. They will need to grow together and learn from one another and should be relatively close in age. This applies to the rest of the cast (WW, GL & Flash) as well.
4. Age isn't the only thing that factored heavily into my casting choices. I also wanted as little discrepancy in height as possible. In other words. I didn't want Henry/Superman at 6'1" to dwarf the actor playing Batman. Inversely, I didn't want 6'5" actor playing Batman or Green Lantern to make Superman look like a teenager. Superman is listed at 6'3" according to DC Comics Secret Files database and Batman at 6'2" so I tried to cast actors similar in height. Flash is consistently the shortest of the group so I took that into consideration.
5. Lastly, I stayed away from already established comic book actors (Marvel, Ryan Reynolds, Jaimie Alexander, Joseph Gordon Levitt) and tried to incorporate known actors but not too well-known. I thought Zack Snyder did a terrific job casting Henry Cavill for MOS. It gives us the ability to view a fresh take on the characters within the movie plot and prevents the audience from associating those popular actors with their past movie credits and filmographies.
Following those guidelines, I give you my choices :)
Superman (Clark Kent) - Henry Cavill (age: 30, height: 6'1")
What can I say that hasn't already been said about Henry. Even in real life, this guy exudes a humble confidence that reminds you of Clark Kent! He was the absolute perfect choice to play Superman. Period.
Batman (Bruce Wayne) - Liam McIntyre (age: 32, height: 6'2")
I actually waited months and months to write this fancast because I couldn't find the right actor to play Bruce/Batman. That is, until Liam himself tweeted his excitement at the possibility of portraying the Dark Knight. Once I read it, I knew this is the guy who has to play the next iteration of the Bat. He has a rugged look to him and yet looks very classy in a tuxedo (Wayne). He has a deep, booming voice that fits perfectly with Batman's intimidation techniques. Finally, all those years training and sparring soldiers and warriors on the set of Spartacus only solidifies Liam as the perfect Batman.
Wonder Woman (Diana Prince) - Katrina Law (age: 28, height: 5'8")
Also plucked straight from the Spartacus series, Katrina has an Amazonian exotic look to her and commands a presence on the screen that will fit WW's role well on a team of 4 other male heroes.
Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) - Garret Hedlund (age: 28, height: 6'2")
I feel Garret would make a terrific Hal Jordan and erase the bad feelings created from the first Green Lantern film. He was pretty good in Tron and gave me confidence he can carry a film franchise (GL universe!).
Flash (Barry Allen) - Freddie Stroma (age: 26, height: 5'11")
To me, Freddie playing Barry gets me the most excited. Rumors are Flash will the next film to follow Superman/Batman and his character will be crucial the success of a JL sequel. I also chose Freddie because he's a bit unknown but a good actor. He also fits, physically the role of the Flash. He's clearly blonde and equally importantly, he's lean which will help audiences believe that he miraculously runs at the speed of the light and metabolizes at a superhuman rate. He's a little shorter which lends to the accuracy of the physical reality that exists in the comic universe.
So those are my choices. I'm not a casting director but I love these characters and it's so fun thinking that our beloved superheroes will be coming to the big screen soon enough!!