25 Major 80s Stars Gets As Imagined As Justice League Heroes & Villains In DC Cast Concept Trailer

Summary

• Imagine an 80s Justice League with Harrison Ford as Batman and Geena Davis as Mera in a new DC Universe concept trailer.
• The Justice League fan trailer explores an alternate superhero landscape, featuring John Travolta as Superman and Kurt Russell as Hawkman.
• Before interconnected universes, 1980s actors like Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman took on comic book roles in DC and Marvel films.

Iconic 1980s actors join forces as several Justice League heroes and villains in a new DC Universe concept trailer. The superhero and comic book films may be big in today’s Hollywood culture, but before the 2000s era, studios were very cautious with investing time and money into franchises like the DCEU movie timeline and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This more reserved approach naturally raises the question of what the superhero genre could have looked like pre-2000s if there had been interconnected universes for either DC or Marvel.

While there were a handful of DC movies in the 1980s and the 1990s, Stryder HD shared a new concept trailer for a very different DC Universe, that explored what the superhero landscape could’ve been like had casting for a Justice League movie happened in the 80s. The Justice League fan trailer also pitches various 1980s actors as some iconic DC Comics villains.

The Justice League concept teaser explores what heroes would be part of the ideal line-up, as well as many of their supporting characters. Some of the actors brought up in the video did end up landing big DC and Marvel roles, like Kevin Costner and Diane Lane as Jonathan and Martha Kent in Man of Steel, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox in The Dark Knight trilogy, and Wesley Snipes as the first live-action Blade.

DCU’s Elseworlds Label Makes A Retro Justice League Movie Possible

Even though James Gunn’s DC Universe will be the main priority for Warner Bros. Discovery and DC Studios, they also have another banner that could theoretically make a Justice League movie with an 80s setting. With the Elseworlds concept, there will still be independent DC stories set in their own worlds, without clashing with the main DC Universe timeline. Right now, Todd Phillips’ Joker and Matt Reeves’ The Batman universes are the only active Elseworlds properties that exist.

However, in the coming years, once the DC Universe has gotten properly setup, it would be fun to see another corner of the DC multiverse where the Justice League perhaps became active all the way back in the 80s. There are plenty of stories from old school comics that could be adapted for that specific time setting which would be a compelling contrast to whatever is happening in Gunn’s DC Universe. If handled correctly, a retro Justice League movie could work really well in the ongoing comic book film landscape, and would be a fascinating opportunity for a live-action or animated movie.

It would definitely be interesting to see who DC Studios would cast for an 80s-based Justice League project. The bigger twist would be if that Justice League were to ever cross paths with the team that will eventually be born in the DC Universe. But for now, the world will have to wait and see how the Justice League shapes up to be in the DC Universe, as well as in potentially other live-action universes.

Source: Stryder HD/YouTube