What would it take to create a legion of super-heroes movie

[Hypestyle]

I want to see a legion of super-heroes movie
I'd like to see this before another Justice League reboot
How many Hero characters should start off the first movie?
What villains should be in the first movie?

[j9ac9k]

I can't imagine what it would take ... maybe one of those multi-studio partnership deals to alleviate the financial burden for something that would be extremely expensive for an unproven property.

The team should have around twenty members so that it really feel like a *legion*. The story though should feel focused on a handful so the other members don't distract from the main story.

The villain should be interesting - not just a big CG conqueror type. Maybe Mordru with a few smaller villains as pawns or subordinates. Ultimately it will have to be a villain that serves the main theme of the story.

[LordMikel]

Potentially how I might do it.

Open Scene
Lois: "So Clark, you've been to so many places, what has been the strangest?"
Clark: "That would be the 31st Century. That was strange."
Lois: "What, you were in the future?"
Clark: " I never told you that story..."

Teenage Clark Kent / Superboy is taken to the future to join the Legion of Superheroes. It gives us an established character (Superman but not Superboy) to assist in introducing the rest of the Legion.

While not necessarily a Legion villian, I might go with Solaris, evil computer moon. It has a good evil future vibe to him.

[Zero Hunter]

They would reduce the cast to just 4-6 members and miss the whole point of the Legion. That and i can promise you it would involve time travel with the small team coming back to the present day.

[LordMikel]

They would reduce the cast to just 4-6 members and miss the whole point of the Legion. That and i can promise you it would involve time travel with the small team coming back to the present day.

I could see this direction too, but dang, that would be a boring movie.

[Flash Gordon]

A good writer/director, a tight focus on no more than 5 characters, and THE FUTURE. The Legion needs to be all about the future, youth in revolt. The bleeding edge. It can not be tied up in nostalgic reverence. No time travel to the past.

More Star Trek than Star Wars.

[lowfyr]

If some famous actor or director gets behind it it would have a small chance. But in the current state the DC movies are in it would most likely be one of those announced movies that will never get off the ground.

[TriggerWarning]

Its basically the Guardians of the Galaxy only DC verse. Outside of comics fans, Legion is very obscure just like Guardians was. The MCU only took a chance on Guardians after their movie verse was in rock solid territory with a string of well received hits. Then they hit gold with a dynamite trailer that got everyone excited regardless of whether they had heard of them or not. The DC verse remains a mess right now with another round of reboots for Superman and Batman coming and properties being made like Joker that exist outside of the DC movie verse. If the WW and Aquaman sequels do well and the Batman reboot is well received and they figure out what to do with Superman and then they get a Justice League movie that doesn't suck maybe they think about Legion. But thats many years down the road.

[ComicJunkie21]

Its basically the Guardians of the Galaxy only DC verse. Outside of comics fans, Legion is very obscure just like Guardians was. The MCU only took a chance on Guardians after their movie verse was in rock solid territory with a string of well received hits. Then they hit gold with a dynamite trailer that got everyone excited regardless of whether they had heard of them or not. The DC verse remains a mess right now with another round of reboots for Superman and Batman coming and properties being made like Joker that exist outside of the DC movie verse. If the WW and Aquaman sequels do well and the Batman reboot is well received and they figure out what to do with Superman and then they get a Justice League movie that doesn't suck maybe they think about Legion. But thats many years down the road.

I still think they are done with the shared universe idea on the large scale. First off, its expensive and the logistics surrounding those films are awful. Marvel is allowed to make those types of big budget films on a continuous basis because Disney makes a lot more profit off of merchandising. The films themselves do turn a profit but not what you would think especially considering how much they gross (I think IW grossed about 300 million and Endgame didn't break even until after 1 billion). WB/DCstrength right now isn't team up films, its being the opposite of Marvel/Disney. A big draw to directors is the creative freedom they get with the property and make the films they envision (this can be a good and bad thing). Additionally, actors aren't held hostage by their contracts and can take other work. As a whole most of the MCU actors haven't appeared in many other films over the past decade.

Also, imo the actors and directors like to be done after a few films. WW3 is supposed to be the final film for her and Shazam vs Black Adam is supposed to end Shazams run. I don't see Robert Patterson and Matt Reeves doing more than 3 for Batman. At best you'll have the mini universes that show a villains story and then do a versus film to end it.

I think Legion of Superheroes actually may do better as an arrowverse style tv setup and not as a film series. What Marvel has done is great but its unfeasible to expect that from every studio.

[Sutekh]

I still think they are done with the shared universe idea on the large scale.

Possibly a big advantage to the Legion being off in it's own far-flung future setting is that there should be zero expectation of a crossover, or the 'shared continuity' making anything other than the occasional name drop (like the city still being named Metropolis, and there being planets named Thanagar, etc.).

Nobody from the 20th/21st century *needs* to show up, ever (although Superboy *could*), and no big event drama going on in the 'current day' of the DCU should matter in the slightest to people living 1000 years in the future, any more than the events of the Battle of Hastings personally affects me on a day to day basis.

[ComicJunkie21]

Possibly a big advantage to the Legion being off in it's own far-flung future setting is that there should be zero expectation of a crossover, or the 'shared continuity' making anything other than the occasional name drop (like the city still being named Metropolis, and there being planets named Thanagar, etc.).

Nobody from the 20th/21st century *needs* to show up, ever (although Superboy *could*), and no big event drama going on in the 'current day' of the DCU should matter in the slightest to people living 1000 years in the future, any more than the events of the Battle of Hastings personally affects me on a day to day basis.

This is true. I think with Stargirl premiering this year that we'll see the legion start to build in tv at least. The question though is how Greg Berlanti and Geoff John plan to execute it

[Zero Hunter]

I think Legion of Superheroes actually may do better as an arrowverse style tv setup and not as a film series. What Marvel has done is great but its unfeasible to expect that from every studio.

No it wouldn't. It would look so cheap. I mean just look at a show like Legends and how often they actually show any character use their powers. Steel and Atom can goes multiple episodes without every being shown using their powers because they don't want to spend the money on the effects. For something as visual effects heavy as the Legion would need to be it would not work at all.

[Sutekh]

No it wouldn't. It would look so cheap. I mean just look at a show like Legends and how often they actually show any character use their powers. Steel and Atom can goes multiple episodes without every being shown using their powers because they don't want to spend the money on the effects. For something as visual effects heavy as the Legion would need to be it would not work at all.

Yeah, it would almost have to be animated. There's no way they could afford both the backgrounds *and* the effects intensive characters and powers *and* the salaries for two dozen *active* Legionnaires, and a dozen or more recurring characters like their SP liaison, the Earthgov President, RJ Brande, the SP chief and various Legion parents and partners, etc.

If it could be done live-action, it would be some CGI-heavy effects extravaganza like Valerian or Avatar, and cost a ton. And even then, CGI can do some great stuff with sci-fi backgrounds and fire / electricity effects, but other stuff, yikes. Feathers, in particular, look kinda awful, even on shows that have dumptrucks worth of money to spend, like that third Hobbit movie with the giant eagles, and I can't imagine Dawnstar's wings (for example), not looking like crap.