Justice League Mortal: Armie Hammer’s Scrapped Batman Cowl Design Revealed

Armie Hammer’s Batman cowl design from the scrapped Justice League: Mortal movie is revealed. Ten years before Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa and company delivered the DCEU’s divisive 2017 Justice League movie, legendary director George Miller was involved in developing a very different take on the superhero team for DC and Warner Bros.

Amid the renewed popularity of the cinematic Batman brought on by Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, Warner Bros. brought Miller on to direct that would-be first Justice League film, which would have brought together young versions of Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern and more. Things indeed got far enough that actors began being cast for roles, with Hammer winning the part of Bruce Wayne, alongside Adam Brody as The Flash and D.J. Cotrona as Superman (Jessica Biel reportedly turned down the role of Wonder Woman). However, the 2008 writers strike caused delays on the film and WB ultimately decided to focus on solo movies and so scrapped Miller and company’s Justice League: Mortal.

Now, Justice League: Mortal stands alongside Tim Burton’s abandoned Superman Lives as one of superhero cinema’s great lost opportunities. As a reminder of what could have been, filmmaker Ryan Unicomb just shared an image of the cowl designed by New Zealand-based effects company Weta Workshop for Hammer’s never-to-be-seen take on Batman in the scrapped movie. See the picture in the space below:

With its tall ears and brow furrows, the cowl is possibly most reminiscent of the Batman look as created by DC comics artist and writer Alex Ross. By comparison, Affleck’s cowl from 2017’s Justice League goes much lighter on the sculpted facial expressions and has much more blunted ears. The “realism” of the Hammer mask with its expressive furrows and tall ears would certainly have made an interesting impression on screen.

Indeed, with Miller at the helm, Justice League: Mortal would almost certainly have been anything but your typical superhero movie. Given the success of auteur Nolan’s Batman films, it makes sense that WB would seek to hand over Justice League to another distinctive director like Miller with a singular vision. Ultimately of course, Zack Snyder would be the filmmaker chosen to bring his vision to the eventual DCEU, though his take on Justice League itself famously didn’t make it to the big screen after he exited the production and Joss Whedon was hired to rework the movie (setting the stage for the infamous Release the Snyder Cut meme). Miller of course went on to revisit his own classic Mad Max saga with the acclaimed Mad Max: Fury Road.

Who knows how superhero cinema history would have turned out had Miller’s Justice League: Mortal made it to screens instead of Snyder’s DCEU. It’s possible Miller’s take on the characters would have utterly failed, leaving the DC movie universe hopelessly adrift. It’s also possible Miller’s film would have been amazing and led to a totally alternate DCEU where Hammer reigned as Batman for several films, Batman V Superman never happened and the current quite popular iterations of Wonder Woman and Aquaman never came into being.

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Source: Ryan Unicomb/Instagram