It's no secret that DC had a predominantly darker bent than the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, following Wonder Woman's success at the box office, the entire bent of the DC film universe has really shifted somewhat, and we should start seeing the changes when Justice League hits theaters next week. Over the past few months, however, the ad campaign for Justice League has shown a film with a more lighthearted sensibility. In a recent interview, Superman himself, Henry Cavill, explained exactly what tone those involved with the movie were going for, noting,
The tone of the film -- I'm not going to say it is light, because that would be doing it an injustice. It has a serious scenario with moments of humor and lightness peppered throughout. When people are in bad situations, gallows humor does come into effect. Like guys in the armed forces, a lot of them have really bizarre senses of humor, and it gets [them] through, and we have those. We have those in this movie.
So while Cavill won't concede to the opinion that Justice League is an overly lighthearted film, he's still admitting the fact that there will indeed be some humorous moments between the characters in the new DC movie. You can definitely see it in the media blitz that's been occurring in the months running up to next week's big screen debut, with a fair amount of gags and general levity being added into the mix. Per what the actor told WSN-TV in Miami, the scales have been tipped toward the more serious side of the spectrum even prior to Man of Steel, but that could all be changing. Henry Cavill's insistence that humor is present in Justice League is only the latest touchstone in what's always been an interesting subject in the DC Cinematic Universe.
In particular, the most interesting footnotes in the development of the DCEU's sense of humor are both Suicide Squad and Wonder Woman. With the former film, it was a case of a movie that started out on the darker side of the DC universe, only to be swung around to the neon pastel-soaked end result we eventually ended up with. The latter, on the other hand, became one of this year's biggest sensations, with a good mix of heart, humor, and an extensive color palette. Both were examples of how wildly different DC Comics can and could continue to play things out in a post Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice world, putting the alleged "no jokes" policy to rest once and for all.
Which brings us back to Justice League, and how it too has changed how it's marketed itself from being merely a slam-bang action team up to an "all-in" experience that, for example, sees Jason Momoa's Aquaman and Ray Fisher's Cyborg totally bro-ing out in its latest ads. Even the colors used in the new campaign changed, particularly with a lot of red being used in the action on display. Though Henry Cavill has just started to show up in spots for the film, that hasn't stopped him from speaking towards the film's content.
Indeed, the latest trailers for Justice League do look to have a more humorous tone than most other DC Comics films in the current slate. At the same time, it looks like there may be a stoic sense of hope and heroism also shining through. Hopefully, this means that similar to Cavill's statement, we'll be experiencing a film that's lighter and funnier than its predecessors, without any sacrifice in quality or seriousness. In order to find out for yourself, you should probably pre-order your tickets for Justice League's opening weekend, as it's set to hit theaters on November 17th, and it's bound to be a top seller.
