If such as myself you like to keep up to date on the latest goings-on concerning DC and whatever plans Warner Bros. have for them, there's a good chance you are also growing increasingly weary of the constant rumors being heard - be it straight from the horse's mouth or otherwise - without ever hearing even a peep of confirmation.
By now, you've no doubt heard every conceivable direction the studio can go in - multiple times over - from equally passionate fans, and are given a drip of hope whenever a director, producer or even actor working on DC's current project tease you about what they may or may not have planned.
Every now and then you will hear from a trusted website about "inside news" coming from sources close to the company, which whilst may ring true, are never official confirmed or denied by the studio.
Folks, these are classic signs of vaporware.
For those aware of what that is (or quickly Google'd it), you're free to skip this part as I try to explain it to the best of my knowledge (also aided by Google). Simply put, vaporware describes a product that had been announced to the masses but was never intended to be released. It could also suggest a product which had never been officially announced by a company but instead assumed by the public to be the case.
So how does this relate to Warner Brothers? Well, back in February 2007, the studio had took the first steps in making 'Justice League: Mortal' by hiring Kieran and Michele Mulroney to write the script. Things were going great, it received approval from the studio, George Miller signed on to direct, and the team was aiming for a February 2008 start in filming. Then this happened:
Consequently the film had been put on an indefinite hiatus before being scrapped completely. Actors had not only been cast, but gotten as far as costume fitting for the iconic heroes. The studio felt the script could do with some improvements, which obviously wasn't an option at the time. The Justice League were over.
Some years later, The Avengers assembled. And it did so in a big way. Talks had been happening since 2005, and Warner Brothers could have beat them to the punch if Hollywood's writers had woken up in a slightly better mood.
Now I don't pretend to possess some inside knowledge, this is merely another fanboy's take on the matter, and you'd be right to treat it as such. With that said, I can't help but wonder why alarm bells aren't ringing at the amount of smoke Warner Brothers have tried to sell you.
Yes, plans may have been set in place for a Justice League film, but they had effectively been scrapped since the strike. Ever since it's been rumor after rumor, or some executive trying to convince us that there are plans in play, but lack the official announcements to back themselves up. And why would they try to deny any false rumors? Free publicity is one thing, but to also be given the opportunity to steal thunder from the opposition without lifting a finger? It's golden!
The question remains: what's stopping them from just going ahead with it? Well they can, but multiple things work against them. The idea has already been done, so the novelty of heroes teaming up would be greatly diminished, savored slightly by the uniting of Batman and Superman . Whatever they do will be seen as second fiddle, and one can only managed how frustrated they'd be given they were so close to beating them.
My goal with this article was not to bring hopes down of their ever being a Justice League film, because lord knows their will be, and I'll be one of the first to go see it. I'm not even asking you to agree with me; only that the next time you open CBM.com, and you see headlines such as "Justice League arriving 2015/16", decide for yourself what the most reasonable reaction should be to that.