Oh Dear: Did A 'Justice League' Cast Member Just Say The Movie Won’t Top 'The Avengers'?!

Hark, what's that sound? It's the noise of torches being lit, pitchforks being grabbed and trolls snickering — because the Marvel vs DC rivalry has just been reignited, by a DCEU cast member, no less!

2017 is undoubtedly a big year for the DC Extended Universe. After the critical savaging that Batman V. Superman and Suicide Squad received, Warner Bros. is looking to right the wrongs of the past with Wonder Woman and Justice League.

But now, a DCEU star has seemingly thrown shade on the latter upcoming release, and the fallout isn't gonna be pretty. Read on to find out the details...

Director #ZackSnyder has the uneviable task of living up to years of fanboy dreams with Justice League, as he aims to unite the biggest and most popular heroes of DC comics in a satisfying way. However, according to the mightily talented Diane Lane (who's set to reprise the role of Martha-why-did-you-say-that-name-Kent), we may have to temper out expectations somewhat — especially if we’re comparing Justice League against Marvel's equivalent movie, The Avengers.

The star recently appeared on Watch What Happens with Andy Cohen Live to promote her latest movie Paris Can Wait. The floor was opened up to questions from the audience. Lane naturally received inquiries about the upcoming #superhero epic, including a question about whether she could reveal spoilers and whether she thought Justice League would be better than The Avengers — and Diane Lane had this to say:

"No, and no. Short but honest; I hate to disappoint..."

Now, before DCEU fans get too upset we should consider several things. First, it’s very possible that Lane misspoke, and her repeated "No” was solely a reaction to the request for spoilers. And hey, you never know, she may have misheard the question and assumed that it was about box-office takings. Plus, as you watch the rest of the interview, it’s clear that Watch What Happens Live is a somewhat informal and joke-filled show, so she might not be entirely serious.

However, from the confident way that she replies, it's certainly possible that Lane was answering both parts of the question. And that’s sure to ruffle quite a few feathers in the comic book movie fandom.

Fan Wars 2: The Return of Marvel vs DC?

Though this admission from Diane Lane is bound to concern some fans, if she did mean to slight DC, you can’t help but admire the brazenness of it. She’s not the only star to pour salt in the wounds of the #DCEU (accidentally or otherwise) — she joins Lawrence Fishburne and Jeremy Irons in that regard. But then again, those cases happened following a DC film's release, not before it. Whatever Lane's intentions, her comments will likely rekindle the age-old Marvel vs. DC debate.

Gritty or witty? Family friendly or mature? Like sports fans jealously supporting their teams, devotees of both franchises love to bicker and find flaws in the other side — even if filmmakers and studio execs such as James Gunn and Zack Snyder repeatedly downplay the supposed rivalry. It's not the grim, vicious struggle of one-upmanship and conquest that many fans suppose it is.

And that’s what we need to bear in mind here. Some fans are take their partisanship to worryingly extreme levels, and Diane Lane’s comments were likely made either mistakenly or in jest. Whatever the motive, these comments are by no means the end of the world.

There are still six months to go before Justice League is released. Heck, several months prior to the premiere of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, its famous Darth Vader scene was only in the conceptual stages! So Snyder has time to get his team-up movie right.

The Avengers was undoubtedly a critical and commercial high point for superhero movies — it’s still widely recognized as one of Marvel’s best ever movies. Plus, it remains one of the highest-grossing movies ever years later. So if Diane Lane is referring to Justice League’s struggle to match The Avengers on those terms, then yes, she does have a point. The kind of reception that The Avengers received is very, very hard to replicate. Regardless of the quality of both films, The Avengers was released at a time when superhero universes and team-up movies were a novelty, not a standard — and this novelty certainly contributed to its box office success. At this relatively early stage, if Diane Lane thinks that Justice League can't critically or commercially top The Avengers, that’s justifiable, and not necessarily a comment on the relative quality of the movies.

Sure, her comments may slightly rock our faith in the film, but nobody has seen the final product yet. To borrow Aquaman’s turn of phrase, as long as you dig it, isn’t that the only thing that matters?