MarkHB

The broad strokes of the film - the League comes together to fight Steppenwolf, who sets up shop in Eastern Europe to gather the motherboxes and conquer the world - will be the same. About a half hour of the theatrical version - probably the history lesson, the opening montage, a few scenes like Bruce meeting Barry and the gathering with Commissioner Gordon - will still be in this one. But even with those similarities, the tone, the score, the details and fullness of the storytelling, will all be less rushed, less insulting to the characters (Superman's fake jaw, the cheesy sexual innuendo), and actually feel like the completion of the trilogy that started with MoS and BvS.

That calls back to Marc Guggenheim's comment on Twitter that he wanted to have Swamp Thing and Constantine meet up during Crisis, but word came down from Very High Up that that was NOT going to be allowed to happen. My interpretation: J.J. Abrams has dibs on that first on-screen meetup for the Justice League Dark show he's working on for HBOM.

My guess is it's a combination of Hamada and Johns having become friends along the way, and also Johns being a principal mover on the TV side (Stargirl, Titans, Green Lantern Corps) and AT&T having placed "Make HBO Max succeed" at roughly the same corporate strategic priority as "Totally fuck up the 5G rollout while raising fees." It's interesting, though; some insiders have felt free to take shots at Johns. Diane Nelson, former head of DC Entertainment, said on Twitter after she left that he was "no friend of [hers]". David Ayer, when asked why the slide in Suicide Squad that said Harley Quinn was an accomplice in the death of Robin contradicted Ayer's backstory, said that Johns had added that in after the studio took control of the movie. (Ayer's story was that, when the Joker killed Robin, Batman hauled off and smashed his mouth in, leading to the grill and the "Damaged" forehead tattoo. The Joker was seen to have both of those in the scene where he met Dr. Quinzel, so Harley couldn't have been present when Robin was killed, much less an accomplice.)

I originally thought of Lady Shiva, but I doubt they'd cast a non-Asian actor for that role.

Yes, Geoff Johns (who has never written a Wonder Woman comic) and a fellow named Dave Callaham who seems to have written the Expendables movies. I wonder if, at some level, the movie is trying to be the film that Diana might have gotten in 1984, right between Superman the Movie and Batman '89. It definitely feels to me like an 80's movie.

My personal bottom line is, I enjoyed the film. I do, however, think that someone owes the CW Supergirl show royalties for having Diana save the world with an impassioned speech; that's Kara's annual springtime schtick. I liked it. I don't generally have a problem with "hero has huge fight with giant monster" endings, whether the monster is human-ish or CGI.

Indeed! (And, for the record, we actually got somewhere near 2" of rain yesterday, banishing almost all the snow by Christmas morning.)

Also, HBO Max announced yesterday that it's now available on Roku!

I remember that Ausiello blind item very well. IIRC, pretty much everyone in the forum at TWoP knew who it referred to, seeing as DL and Niki were really the only regular cast romantic pairing on the show and the scarcity of his appearances was obvious.

The FanDome event is available on YouTube under several official accounts including DC and HBO Max. If you haven't watched, there's one part about 20 minutes in where Gal and Patty leave the stage and join Hans Zimmer for a musical treat... heartily recommended! Related to that,

Black Adam casting update: Quintessa Swindell will be playing Cyclone. The only JSA member that was mentioned in the FanDome teaser who hasn't been announced yet is Doctor Fate. Also, the Rock posted this update... filming still slated to start in the spring. https://www.instagram.com/p/CIt8nBhlIOD/

Chyler was brilliant in that Season 2 storyline, both in Alex's gradual coming out (even to herself) and the persistent theme that she can't be around her mother without some liquid courage prep. And speaking of Chyler... (Insta wouldn't embed for some reason)

We know who Ysa Penarejo is playing... Alan Scott's daughter Jade. Time will tell if she's actually going to be green on the show. Looks like we have the potential for a significant power-level upgrade in the JSA this season! Hopefully they still have the funding to pull it off and no one tries to force them into the CW formula.

I like how it promotes watching on an actual IMAX film screen when those are becoming scarcer and scarcer. I believe there's only one in New England that shows popular films and it's on the Connecticut coastline.

Who do you call when someone is abducted out of their solar system? A space cop. Just sayin'. Not to mention, if Diggle shows up on Legends and he's NOT a Green Lantern at this point, the six of us who are still watching the show because we're DC fans are going to go ballistic.