More BATMAN VS. SUPERMAN Tidbits: Definitely A Superman Film, Luthor In As Villain

When a fan-site reports information about a film, you seldom see news outlets running with the information given. Then again, few fan-sites are like Batman On Film. That site is a reliable source of information (for example, it broke what the football uniforms would look like in both The Dark Knight Rises and Batman vs. Superman) and the site does enjoy unprecedented access to Warner Brother production, especially when Batman is involved.

The site’s founder, Bill “Jett” Ramey published a “BOF Mailbag” on Saturday, in which he answered questions from readers of the site. Naturally, talk focused on the upcoming Batman vs. Superman. From the answers, it appears that Ramey might have seen the script, or at least knows enough about the plot to know what the film will entail. Some questions Ramey answers with an opinion, others he presents the information as a fact, but the entire article is full of fascinating information.

Let’s see what scoop we can dig out of the mail bag:

• The film is definitely a Superman-centric film. Even though most of the rumors swirling around the project makes it seem like a ipso facto Justice League film, Ramey says this will be a true sequel to Man of Steel.
• Lex Luthor is definitely a villain in the piece, joined by another Superman villain Ramey was “not at liberty” to name. Hopefully, it’s not Doomsday. God, I really hope it’s not Doomsday.
• Neither Martian Manhunter nor Aquaman are in the film. Thank God. The film was getting crowded enough the way it is.
• Wonder Woman’s role in the film will be akin to Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow in Iron Man 2: This seems to fly in the face of everything that we’ve heard, especially from legitimate news outlets like Variety, that the Wonder Woman role would be the female lead. In other words, to keep the analogy going, like Gwyneth Paltrow’s Pepper Potts in the same film. If this is true, it doesn’t bode well for Wonder Woman getting a solo film. After all, how many Black Widow films has Marvel put out?
• Ben Affleck’s Batman will play a larger role than Wonder Woman, with the definite idea of reestablishing the character in the shared universe and set up a spin-off trilogy. Furthermore, Ramey believes that Affleck has signed on for at least 5 films, Batman vs. Superman, 3 solo films, and Justice League.
• Ramey theorizes that the films Amazons will be descended from the ancient Kryptonians that were shown to have crash landed on Earth in Man of Steel: Actually, while this change will surely upset a number of fans (and its already getting complaints), I think it’s an elegant solution to tying the film together and answering the question how a race of warrior women can keep their population going without men around. If you remember, the film establishes that Kryptonians reproduce asexually, with genetic information passed down through a codex. I think this way is a better answer than making new Amazons out of clay or having Amazons rape men for procreation.
• Ramey theorizes that we might be seeing the new Batman suit sooner rather than later, but not to expect blue and grey tights nor a “Kingdon Come” style suit of armor. This is less scoop than common sense. The film is going into production soon and if Warners doesn’t release an official image, we’ll get a look at the suit through the helpful paparazzi. And while I wish there was a way to make the classic Batman suit work in a modern franchise, it doesn’t.

Again, this is mostly conjecture on Ramey’s part. Let’s see if any of this pans out as the film gets closer to it’s debut.