Justice League Merch: Why Are We All Assuming It's For the Movie?

The answer to the question posed in our headline is pretty clear, actually: Variety reported earlier this week that the previously-announced Warner Bros. consumer products deal with Target stores is likely a build-up to a prospective Justice League movie, currently rumored to be on target for 2015. ComicBook.com was among a number of outlets that picked up on the Variety story, giving it a "signal boost" that grants the speculation an air of truth, but we also thought it was worth tempering that just a little. After all, everybody wants to see a Justice League movie, but sometimes it seems as though that desire can cloud judgment, leading to the kind of enthusiasm that misleads people into believing stores like "David Lynch was seen on the Universal lot! He must have been meeting with NBC about bringing back Twin Peaks!" Yeah, how'd that all work out? There's really no indication that Target's new product line is meant to promote a movie. These reports are based primarily on the working assumption that Warner Bros. will want to brand-build ahead of Justice League, which will reportedly not have several movies' worth of build-up, as The Avengers did for Marvel Studios and Disney. Still, Target-exclusive toys and Justice League merchandise goes back farther than this new deal. In fact, we've checked out exclusive action figures last year, and then again earlier this year, both released before the Warner Bros. consumer products deal was announced. This year's were branded Justice League and, weeks or months ago, the stores were carrying New 52-style action figures as well as t-shirts for young boys that were Target-only.

And what about Bruce Timm? The legendary animator is said to be developing a new take on the Justice League for an animated TV series. "Bruce Timm is stepping away from the DCU Animated Original Movies for a bit … but he'll be back – in a very big way. He's not going far, and he'll be back," said a Warner Bros. publicist when reports leaked out earlier this year that Timm had steppedd down as the man in charge of Warner's DC Universe animated feature films. "Bruce Timm continues his amazing work at Warner Bros. He's only taking a break from DCU films to develop more of the stuff you love.  Honestly, he never left. Green Lantern: The Animated Series … The Flaming C … Dark Knight Returns. And something new and cool." Since it's been widely reported that Green Lantern: The Animated Series and Young Justice suffered from an inability to move merchandise at the levels that retailers and Warner Bros. wanted, would it be so unreasonable to assume the new product push, coming out far ahead of any potential new series, is as much to get kids (and their parents) thinking about the Justice League ahead of Timm's "something new and cool" as anything else?