Why Was Justice League's 'Unite the Seven' Marketing Changed?

Way back in early 2015, when Batman v Superman was still in production, and Justice League was [...]

Way back in early 2015, when Batman v Superman was still in production, and Justice League was just taking shape, director Zack Snyder started the first promotional campaign for DC's superhero team-up films with a simple tweet:

However, in the time since that first tweet and promotional slogan was unveiled, the marketing for Justice League went through a rapid change. The biggest problem for fans was on of simple math: the first tagline for Justice League was "Unite The Seven," but what we ultimately got was six DC superheroes teaming up onscreen.

Now that Justice League is here and we look back at its road through production, the question is: Why was "Unite the Seven" changed to the "Unite The League" and "All In" taglines we later got?

In an extensive breakdown of the issue, Screen Rant arrives at two sound possibilities:

  1. In Snyder's original plan for the film, the Justice League had seven members.
  2. The original Tweet Snyder sent referred to Aquaman only, and was never meant to be interpreted as a tagline for the Justice League movie.

The first item seems quite possible, as there were longstanding rumors that a character like Green Lantern would be appearing in the film as the seventh member of the League. However, with the task of introducing new characters like Cyborg, Flash and Aquaman (and their respective worlds), plus resurrecting Superman, pushed the storyline of Justice League as far as it could go. Green Lantern would've been a big character introduction and bit of world-building to pull off, taking up a lot of screen time that Justice League couldn't spare if it wanted to remain on a lean two-hour pace.

The second item is a common rebuttal from fans trying to explain the switch in Justice League's marketing. It has a sound logic, as "Unite The Seven" could conceivably be interpreted as Aquaman needing to unite the seven seas of Earth, on his path to becoming King of Atlantis (which will likely occur in James Wan's Aquaman solo film next year). However, since Aquman was actually the first DC superhero outside of the Dawn of Justice trinity (Superman, Batman Wonder Woman) to be revealed, there's just as much logic in saying that Snyder unveiled the "Unite The Seven" line with that picture as a signal that the DCEU was expanding.

In the end, like all things with marketing, we may never know what went down behind the scenes, unless someone involved with Warner Bros. or Justice League makes an official statement on the matter. Until then, what's your take on the matter? Let us know @ComicBook!

Justice League is now in theaters; Aquaman arrives on December 21, 2018; Shazam on April 5, 2019; Wonder Woman 2 on November 1st, 2019; Cyborg on April 3, 2020; and Green Lantern Corps on July 24, 2020.

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