Justice League’s Batman Teaser Features Parademons

If you blinked, you might have missed it, but eagle-eyed fans likely spotted Parademons flying through today’s quickie Batman character teaser for the forthcoming Justice League movie, dodging bullets fired by the Batmobile’s oh-so-controversial machine guns.

Parademons are the foot soldiers of the space tyrant Darkseid – think of them as the orcs in Lord of the Rings, a marginally intelligent, fiercely loyal troop that’s bred only for war. Darkseid’s uncle, Steppenwolf, is the principal antagonist in Justice League.

During a set visit last summer, executive producer Deborah Snyder told reporters including ComicBook.com that the Parademons would play a major role in the film. Back in February, her husband and the film’s director Zack Snyder shared an editing bay image that featured Batman squaring off with a group of Parademons.

At least on paper, they seem similar to the Chitauri of Marvel’s The Avengers or the Sakaarans in Guardians of the Galaxy: non-human, but humanoid and plentiful, giving the filmmakers the ability to show famliar fight and action sequences, but without the baggage that comes with killing human henchmen with impunity.

Parademons have shown up in many forms in the pages of DC Comics and in animated and video game adaptations since they were first created by Jack Kirby in 1971. The wasp-like flying parademons were featured prominently in Justice League: War, the animated film that launched a new continuity for DC Animation, based primarily on the New 52 relaunch of DC Comics.

It’s been widely speculated that those DC animated movies are being used as a development ground of sorts for the new live-action films, so it’s not too surprising to see them share a look — especially since Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, the film in which the animated Parademons briefly debuted, served as an artist on Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, where the movie-look Parademons had a cameo.

In Justice League, fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman’s selfless act, Bruce Wayne enlists the help of his newfound ally, Diana Prince, to face an even greater enemy. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to find and recruit a team of metahumans to stand against this newly awakened threat. But despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes—Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash—it may already be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.

Justice League is directed by Zack Snyder, from a screenplay by Chris Terrio, and features an ensemble cast that includes Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot, Ezra Miller, Jason Momoa, Ray Fisher, Ciarán Hinds, Amy Adams, Diane Lane, Jeremy Irons and Jesse Eisenberg.

Justice League hits theaters on November 17, 2017, while The Batman lands sometime in 2018.

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