Visits to the Justice League set report a lighter, more fun movie – and the Flash steals the show

Warning: Spoilers for Justice League follow.

After the mauling Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice received from the critics and plenty of the audience, it looked like DC’s future in cinematic territory was doomed. But when a few dozen journalists were invited to the film set of Justice League, the next chapter, they were shown a clip of some footage completed by director Zack Snyder – and reactions seemed to be a lot more positive.

(From IGN) The scene in question involved the first meeting between Barry Allen (the Flash) and Bruce Wayne (Batman), in which Barry steals a Batarang from him in mid-throw – before being asked to join a team composed of exceptional beings. (Click the link to get a more detailed report of the scene, including some dialogue.)

IGN also reports that the film in general looks more light-hearted and fun, and Ezra Miller – who plays the Flash – seems to be the crux of this fresh tonal development, saying that he may even ‘steal the show’. Ben Affleck himself actually described the movie thusly:

‘There’s definitely room for more humour. It’ not going to be – DC movies I think, by their nature are a little more – gothic, or mythic rather, excuse me, than some comic book movies are. But that movie [Batman v Superman] was very dark and heavy because it was really rooted in Dark Knight Returns which is a heavy, dark book. And this is not that. This is a step in evolution in that to bring together all of these characters who have had their origins. It’s about multilateralism, and it’s about hope and about working together and the kind of conflicts of trying to work together others. It’s a world where superheroes exists, so there’s comedy in that necessarily, trying to work with other people and people trying to accomplish goals together is the root of all great comedy in my view. So there’s definitely, hopefully some fun in it. But it’s not unrecognizably these characters or these stories. It’s not turning it upside down.’

So there you have it – even the brooding Bat himself is looking on the bright side. Could Justice League escape from the heavy-handed mess that was Dawn of Justice? Here’s hoping for November 17, 2017.