Justice League Movie Likely Won't Happen Unless Man of Steel is a Success

Warner Bros. have still not yet officially announced a Justice League movie because the studio is waiting to see how Man of Steel performs at the box office before committing to the franchise, Variety reports. They confirm the existing reports that Gangster Squad's Will Beall is working on a script but that Warner has no director attached to the tentative tentpole. According to the report, Warner Bros. is still hoping to put Justice League together by 2015. Time will tell whether that's possible, or whether the newly-anointed CEO of Warner even shares that vision once he gets settled in. A little commentary on what this means: This report is no great surprise, really; if they were committed to making it happen in spite of Man of Steel's box office returns, the film would have been announced by now so that they could start the process of looking for a director and moving casting forward. If Man of Steel flops, it effectively puts Warner back at square one, with both Green Lantern and Superman having failed to materialize. It also means that they could theoretically announce a Batman reboot sooner than later (since those don't take as much time, presumably, as something like Justice League to prepare for), giving them a guaranteed hit while they consider their options and possibly make some management changes at DC Entertainment. What seems likely is that if Man of Steel opens strong, Warner will bring whatever progress they've made through June to San Diego Comic-Con International in July for a formal announcement at what will otherwise be a comic book movie-free Warner Bros./Legendary Pictures panel.