*UPDATE* Kevin Smith has hit Twitter to say he'll be addressing this rumor later today. Keep watch!*
Riddle me this, riddle me that! Did I write a diversionary script for the Bat? Let me tell you a story... Tomorrow morning at 11am PST.
— KevinSmith (@ThatKevinSmith) July 8, 2014
We've been hearing an awful lot about Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice lately with the reveal of the first official image, and the rumored addition of three more villains who could be making an appearance. Those character are relatively minor, but a new report from Badass Digest suggests the addition of three very important characters plucked from the Batman mythos. However, there's an added wrinkle to all of these sudden casting stories, a wrinkle that could mean Warner Bros. and Kevin Smith have been screwing with us right from the very beginning.
So let's start with who may be part of Batman v Superman, and if true this would make the film incredibly crowded and probably unmanageable. Devin Faraci of Badass Digest thinks that the prior story about the villains comes from a leaked script, and in that script are mentions of Jason Todd aka Robin II (the one killed by the Joker), Kyle Rayner aka Green Lantern, and Carrie Kelley who was the female Robin during Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns. Also appearing in the leaked screenplay are Kord Industries, which is owned by Ted Kord aka Blue Beetle; the planet Thanagar which is the homeworld of Hawkman and Hawkgirl; and Wonder Woman's island home of Themyscira is said to have an actual embassy in the heart of Metropolis. Sound a little far-fetched and all too much like someone giving the fans everything they could possibly want? To be fair, Faraci expressed his skepticism and he may have had good reason for it.There's this great scene in Kevin Smith's Clerks when Randal, pissed that a customer has tricked him into exposing his laziness, complains that he "doesn't appreciate the ruse". Smith and Warner Bros. may have been pulling a ruse on all of us for awhile because Movieweb claims to have a deep inside source who says all of these sudden casting stories were part of a fake script leaked to the Internet by none other than Smith himself.
Just think about it for a minute and you'll understand why some are buying into this. Smith has been a fountain of information and updates on Batman v Superman, more than anybody else. He regularly spills the beans on his podcast and we who cover this stuff every day have been eating it all up with a spoon. And this plan the studio, Smith, and likely his buddy Ben Affleck have cooked up goes deep. Apparently they released a PDF file with the phony screenplay that bore official trademarks, and began sending out "cease and desist" notices to sites who dared to post the whole thing online. While that caused many of these sites headaches, it also sent news hounds chasing after false leads rather than real ones.
If true, this is the most diabolical thing ever and flips the entire industry on its ear. It also makes one wonder how often something like this happens. It also throws everything we've learned about Batman v Superman into question because very little of it has actually been verified by Warner Bros. Then again I find it hard to believe that Smith, who has been extremely busy lately, had the kind of time to do something like this unless he was paid a hefty sum.
Of course, it's always possible that Smith and Warner Bros. planted this story, too. Ugh, brain hurt! Here's something we DO know and it's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is to open on May 6th 2016.
