If there is one thing that the DCEU has managed to arguably do better than the competition over the course of the last few years, it's the way in which it has allowed characters, locations and ideas to weave in and out of different movies. We're only three films deep, and the DCEU already feels incredibly cohesive and interconnected. As we progress into the future -- particularly with the upcoming release of Zack Snyder's Justice League -- that sense of connectivity will likely only become even more pronounced. Expanding on that concept, it seems that the upcoming DC team-up movie is going to take some time to check in on Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor in Arkham Asylum, and we think that presents a perfect opportunity to inject a lot of new characters into the DC Extended Universe.
The recent announcement that Arkham Asylum would appear in Justice League has us all sorts of excited for the upcoming DC adventure. This isn't just because the demented and dilapidated nut house is a fan-favorite location. It's important because it affords the DCEU the opportunity to establish future characters and villains that will properly debut further down the line, most notably in Batman's corner. Logistically it wouldn't be tough for Justice League to provide a few quick cameos, and the payoff would be well worth the effort. Because Poison Ivy is already slated to appear in David Ayer's Gotham City Sirens movie alongside Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn, she seems like a perfect candidate to make an appearance. Additionally, giving us a glimpse of Harvey "Two-Face" Dent would help establish the "villain-heavy" ensemble of the solo Batman movie, while building off of the "how many good guys are left? How many stayed that way?" line from Dawn of Justice. By giving these characters quick, but poignant cameos in Justice League, future films won't have to work nearly as hard to establish their existence in the DCEU.
We have seen examples of this in the DC universe before. The Killing Joke famously features a quick, but telling shot of Harvey Dent's arm scratching at his Arkham cell door as he desperately tries to reach his coin -- which has fallen into the hall just outside of his living quarters. Moments like that take minimal effort to pull off, but they have far-reaching implications for future movies down the line.
Without showing his face (or even having him say a word to Batman), The Killing Joke established a shared history and implied that everything we know about Batman's relationship to Harvey Dent applies within this universe. It doesn't need to be an enormous part of the story, but it will go a long way towards building future conflict and narratives. With so many great villains consolidated in one location, there may never be a better opportunity to flesh them out all at once in such a logical way.
This is a balancing act that other superhero movie universes managed to pull off quite well over the course of the last year. Captain America: Civil War found a logical way to properly introduce characters like Black Panther and Spider-Man without making them take up too much of the film, and X-Men: Apocalypse even managed to include an excellent Wolverine cameo that worked within the confines of the narrative. If Justice League can approach its Arkham Asylum sequence with a similar degree of finesse and grace, then it could go a long way towards establishing characters and plot threads for future movies to take advantage of.
What do you think? Should Justice League take the time to establish more DC villains when it visits Lex Luthor in Arkham Asylum, or should it keep the sequence as tight as possible and only focus on Lex? Give us your thoughts in the comments section so that we can keep this discussion going!
