DC fans are currently awaiting this November’s Justice League, which will be the first time that the JLA are united on the big screen. However, if things went differently, we could have had this movie a whole ten years ago. Directed by Mad Max‘s George Miller, Justice League Mortal would have starred the likes of Armie Hammer (Batman), Megan Gale (Wonder Woman), D.J. Cotrona (Superman), Adam Brody (Flash) and Common (Green Lantern).
Since it was unceremoniously cancelled, Mortal has become a subject of intense interest for fans who want to know what form this alternate Justice League would have taken. Thankfully, we’ve learned quite a bit about it in recent years and now, Jay Baruchel – who would have played the villain Maxwell Lord in the movie – has spoken to MTV’s Happy Sad Confused podcast about what his mind-controlling character would have got up to. It turns out that he would have had control of Superman and turned him against his pals in a brutal battle.
“There’s a scene where Maxwell Lord brainwashes Clark and all of a sudden this guy’s got Superman as a weapon. But in order for me to do this – to get in to a Kryptonian brain – I start bleeding out of every f*cking orifice because it takes that much to get into the head of a Kryptonian. And then I turn him into Red-Eye Superman, and there’s this big a** fight between him and Wonder Woman where he breaks her wrists.”
Baruchel also revealed that his character would have been killed in time for the movie’s third act, where Lord’s mind would have then been transferred into an evil artificial intelligence.
“I die halfway through the movie and my consciousness is uploaded into this mainframe, an evil computer.”
It’s fair to say that Justice League Mortal would have been a totally bonkers movie, and while that may not have worked in the end, we still would have loved to see that battle between a corrupted Superman and Wonder Woman. Wouldn’t you?
Thankfully, we might be about to get a similar scene in the new Justice League, as it’s been theorized that Clark might return back to life in a confused state and fight the League before coming to his senses. If true, then maybe something from Mortal will make it to the big screen after all?