When the Injustice game was first released in 2013 by NetherRealm Studios, published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, it was a huge success ,spawning a sequel game and a comic book tie-in series. Now, it is getting the animated movie treatment.
Set in the DC multiverse, it tells the story of Superman becoming a cruel dictator and establishing a new regime called One Earth Regime to enforce global peace through fear, after—sigh—the Joker tricks him into killing Lois Lane and destroying Metropolis with a nuclear bomb. Batman ends up establishing the Insurgency to oppose Superman and this new world order, and a war ensues between the two men and their factions of the Justice League. In the game, Batman summons counterparts of the League’s members from another universe, but I don’t think that will be an element in the series, judging by the trailer.
In a slight deviation, the film will be an adaptation from the comic series Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year One as written by Tom Taylor and Brian Buccellato.
The cast list is massive, as shared in the YouTube description of the film:
Justin Hartley (This is Us, Smallville) and Anson Mount (Star Trek Discovery, Hell on Wheels) lead the Injustice all-star cast as Superman and Batman, respectively. The massive cast also includes Janet Varney (The Legend of Korra, You’re The Worst) as Wonder Woman, Brandon Micheal Hall (God Friended Me) as Cyborg, Kevin Pollak (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) as Joker & Jonathan Kent, Anika Noni Rose (The Princess and the Frog, The Good Wife, Dreamgirls) as Catwoman, Reid Scott (Veep, Venom) as Green Arrow & Victor Zsasz, Edwin Hodge (The Tomorrow War, Mayans M.C.) as Mr. Terrific & Killer Croc, Gillian Jacobs (Community, Invincible) as Harley Quinn, Oliver Hudson (Rules of Engagement, Nashville) as Plastic Man, Laura Bailey (Critical Role, Avengers Assemble) as Lois Lane & Rama Kushna, Faran Tahir (Iron Man, Star Trek) as Ra’s al Ghul, Derek Phillips (Friday Night Lights, 42) as Nightwing & Aquaman, Yuri Lowenthal (Ben 10 franchise, Young Justice, RWBY) as Mirror Master, Flash & Shazam, Zach Callison (Steven Universe, The Goldbergs) as Damian & Jimmy Olsen, Brian T. Delaney (Fortnite, Batman Unlimited) as Green Lantern, Fred Tatasciore (Family Guy, American Dad!) as Captain Atom, and Andrew Morgado (DC’s Legends of Tomorrow) as Mirror Master Soldier.
Despite the fact that I loathe evil Superman storylines outside of Red Son, and I think the fridging of Lois is really upsetting, there is no denying that the Injustice games are really good. People love Superman vs. Batman storylines, and while I think they are played out, it does seem to be the one thing that makes people creative.
Still, every time I see something like this, I can’t help but find it exhausting that Superman is always made the de facto hero-turned-evil leader in DC. Did we all just forget that Hal Jordan literally got traumatized by a villain, turned into Parallax, and killed so many people? Where is the adaptation of that?
The film will be released October 19, 2021.
(image: WB)
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