We’ll never know what George Miller’s Justice League: Mortal would have been like. The film, originally slated to be released in the late 2000s, was shelved before production began because Warner Bros wanted to take their superhero characters in a different, more Christopher Nolan-y direction.
But even though cameras never rolled, a lot of production and concept art was created for the movie. That’s what filmmaker Ryan Unicomb is focused on with his planned documentary about the film that never was. Unicomb is trying to uncover everything about the movie and figure out why things went wrong. He seems to be onto something because he’s been releasing little behind-the-scenes exclusives from the film on his Instagram. I’ve included a few below.
First up is some art featuring the entire crew, the whole Justice League. This is a low-def photo that was actually leaked a couple years ago but Unicomb also got his paws on a pretty good picture of Megan Gale as Wonder Woman (it’s the third photo). She definitely looks the part, don’t you think? It’s hard to tell if the other actors in the image are the official cast or stand-ins but that is definitely not Common as Green Lantern, that much I can tell you.
For those who forgot, Miller’s Justice League would have starred Armie Hammer as Batman, D.J. Cotrona as Superman, Adam Brody as The Flash, Gale as Wonder Woman, Hugh Keays-Byrne as Martian Manhunter, Santiago Cabrera as Aquaman and the aforementioned Common as Green Lantern.
The second image is a good look at Armie Hammer’s Batman cowl. I’m into it! I know it’s hard to find differences between cinematic Bat-cowls but I particularly like the length of the ears with this one. I can really envision how Hammer would have looked in this thing and I’m honestly kind of bummed we’ll never get to see it. When it was first announced that Hammer was set to play the Dark Knight, I scoffed. It seemed too on-the-nose but the actor has proven himself since then and I don’t think him as Batman is an obvious, boring idea anymore. Of course, I’ll never know how he’d play the part…
The final shot might be my favorite. It’s concept art of Miller’s Batcave and it looks straight out of the comics. The whole thing just looks perfect — right down to Alfred bringing up the rear with what is surely some hot tea and wisdom.
As Unicomb said in the first post, he’s been getting some pushback from those who were involved with Mortal so it remains to be seen how far along his documentary goes. I hope that people warm up and share more information with him because a lot of folks are curious about this production. The more we see from it, the more we like.