While I was away up to my neck in movies at the Virginia Film Festival (check out our coverage here), there were important Batman vs. Superman developments taking place. Or not. At least people thought there would be some major updates during a live online fan event hosted by Kevin Smith and featuring Zack Snyder, Amy Adams, and Henry Cavill. It turns out that there wasn't anything special that came out of it, no confirmations of Wonder Woman or anything like that, but there's at least one kernel of news worth mentioning.
You may recall that Lex Luthor was rumored to appear in Man of Steel, but it turned out to be one big ruse perpetrated on fans and movie blogs like ours. What we did get were glimpses of LexCorp, letting us know that Luthor does exist in this Superman universe Snyder has created, and it sounds like he'll be making Kal-El's life miserable in the next movie.
Snyder: “At its core, Superman is an alien. He comes from an alien world … Lex loves to call him an alien."
It doesn't mean Luthor will be the primary bad guy but it tells us that Luthor is involved and will be enough of a presence to have dialogue. And it sounds like he'll be using his influence to drum up hatred for Superman based on him being an extraterrestrial. Typical Luthor!
Meanwhile, Kevin Smith called in a few favors with his homie Ben Affleck and revealed on the Hollywood Babble-On podcast that he's seen a picture of the new costume. What's more, Snyder showed him an image of Affleck in the Bat-suit....
Smith: "I saw the Batman costume. More than that I saw a picture of him (Affleck) in the costume. Now, I don't want to give anything away 'cause that is up to them and stuff, but I am going to say this, I instantly bear hugged him (Snyder). You have not seen this costume in a movie on film before, and for a comic book fan it was mind bending. I was like 'Get out of here, only you have enough power to pull this off.' Because everyone always like does this Matrix/X-Men black armor...It was fantastic. I'm already a flag waver for this movie, but the costume, it blew my mind. I think everyone is just gonna be like 'Holy ****!' It's its own thing, man. It's like we haven't been down this path at all. I was so elated....Even the hardest core “**** all this” person will be like 'alright, I'm ready.'"
Smith's fanboy enthusiasm aside, do the diehard Batman fans want a costume that's as radically different as he seems to suggest? My guess is it will be a cross between the Bat-Armor he wore to face Superman in The Dark Knight Returns, which we know the film will be inspired by, and the sleeker Batman Beyond armor.
So what do you think? Hopefully we'll get more Batman vs. Superman news soon, like word on the official title?
