Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice – The Latest Rumours For Man Of Steel Sequel

The ‘V’ in the title tells us that Superman will face off against Batman in the sequel to ‘Man Of Steel’; the subtitle, ‘Dawn Of Justice’, tells us the Justice League is… um, dawning. But what else can we expect from ‘Batman V Superman’? Heroes! Villains! Aquaman! To get you up to speed, here’s a round-up of the rumours we’ve heard regarding the continuing adventures of DC Comics’ finest. Beware, super-fans: spoilers lie ahead…

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No jokes

The rumour: Drew McWeeny at Hitfix claims he’s heard from several different sources that Warner Bros are taking a super serious stance on their superhero stable. Says McWeeny: “Last week was about the fifth time I’ve heard that there is a mandate at Warner Bros. regarding any of the DC superhero films in development, and it’s very simple and direct and to the point: ‘No jokes’.” This view has been corroborated by other sources. Could DC be positioning their Justice League universe as the straight-faced alternative to the tongue-in-cheek playfulness of the Marvel universe?

Likeliness: McWeeny isn’t one to make up a rumour, but you feel it’d literally be impossible to write a movie with as many superheroes as ‘Batman V Superman’ has without cracking a few jokes. The “no jokes” policy is probably a guideline rather than a strict mandate: who wants to watch a superhero film that isn’t at least a little bit funny?

Lex Luthor’s master plan

The rumour: Billionaire Lex Luthor (confirmed to be played by Jesse Eisenberg) somehow gets hold of General Zod’s dead body following the climax of ‘Man Of Steel’. Using his body armour and tissue samples, Luthor plans to create Doomsday, the unstoppable killing machine who (temporarily) kills Superman in the comics. Say BadassDigest.com: “Lex has been gathering pieces and debris from the World Engine and he has used them to synthesize Kryptonite. Meanwhile he has also gotten ahold of Zod’s corpse, and it is the key to his master plan to defeat Superman.”

Likeliness: This rumour comes from an ‘extra’ who claims the final scenes of 'Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice’ have already been shot. Though it’s difficult to ascertain whether it’s fact or fiction, we will admit it sounds like a cool way to take the story, particularly if they go the ‘Death Of Superman’ route.

Aquaman will feature

The rumour: Aquaman’s involvement has been rumoured since the film was announced; an integral part of the Justice League, the H2O-based hero is expected to line up alongside Bats, Supes and Wonder Woman. Jason Momoa has long been attached to the role but as yet nothing has been confirmed (Momoa, for his part, shared a photo of him holding a trident on Instagram, the big tease). Zack Snyder has gone as far as phoning in to a radio station to defend Aquaman – although he still hasn’t technically confirmed he’s in the movie – but the rumour the character would be played by Matt Damon, reuniting him with ‘Good Will Hunting’ co-star Ben Affleck, has thankfully been proven to be codswallop.

Likeliness: There’s no smoke without fire. You don’t make a Justice League movie without Aquaman, just like you don’t dial into a radio debate about a character to whom you’re indifferent. Put your money on the wet wonder being on the roster, even if just for a cameo.

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It’ll shoot back-to-back with Justice League

The rumour: A lot is hanging on the success of ‘Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice’, but Warner Bros won’t hang around to see if it makes much bank – it’s been alleged the ‘Justice League’ movie is all but confirmed for a 2017 release, just one year after BvS makes its bow on March 25^th, 2016. The reason you’ve heard so many rumours about stars joining the cast – Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman, Aquaman (see above), a new Green Lantern, Cyborg, possibly even Dwayne Johnson as Shazam – is because they’ll all gather together at the end of ‘Batman V Superman’ for glorified cameos, leading into a full ‘Justice League’ movie the following year.

Likeliness: DC have booked release dates stretching into 2018, but haven’t specified which films they relate to. However, we’d wager that they won’t wait for ‘Justice League’ and will launch their franchise sooner rather than later in sort of a ‘reverse Avengers’ tactic – spinning off a superhero ensemble with individual movies instead of the other way around. Either way, ‘Justice League’ is 100% happening. Prepare yourselves.

The bat-suit is blue and grey

The rumour: Who better to fan the flames of fanboy desire than super-nerd Kevin Smith? The director, who previously worked with new Batman Ben Affleck in ‘Daredevil’, claims he’s seen the new bat-suit and that its design is “blue and grey”. Only two photos of Affleck in costume have been revealed, both in black and white. Affleck’s wife, Jennifer Garner, claims the Snyder bat-suit is a “total reinvention”. Still no colour proof, mind.

Likeliness: With only four years separating ‘Batman V Superman’ and the last of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, we reckon it’s wise that Snyder’s costume team go in a different direction from Christian Bale’s Batman. If it is blue and grey, expect dark tones instead of campy light colours à la Adam West’s Batman. See above for a rather impressive fan-made version.

Justin Bieber to play Robin

The rumour: Terrifyingly, this rumour seemed to be quite substantial when Bieber posted a photograph on Instagram of himself holding what appeared to be a script for ‘Batman V Superman’, captioned with the comment: “#Robin?” A million nerd voices subsequently cried out in pain – could it be pop’s most irritating twerp had signed on to ruin the most kickass superhero movie in production? What kind of God would let this happen?

Likeliness: Thankfully, this cruel joke turned out to be the product of a meeting with internet pranksters Funny Or Die video, although there’s still no sign of the sketch almost a year after Bieber first posted the picture. We won’t rest until we know for sure…

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Photos: Press Association/Warner Bros.