In a bold marketing move known as “straight up lying”, it’s probable that the news that Chris Pine will be playing Wonder Woman’s boytoy is a straight up lie, and that Pine is, in fact, going to play a superhero himself—the Green Lantern. There had been rumors earlier this year that Pine was in line to take over the role of Hal Jordan from Ryan Reynolds after his 2011 Green Lantern movie tanked, but then last month came the news that Pine was boarding Wonder Woman’s invisible jet, not donning a glowing green ring. If true, this is a deliberate misdirect from Warner Brothers.
Isn’t that a dicey move that risks alienating fans as they’ll never trust anything you say ever again? Didn’t this very strategy blow up in Paramount’s face when they straight up lied about Benedict Cumberbatch’s role in Star Trek Into Darkness? Isn’t HBO trying this very same thing with us re: Jon Snow and everyone is like, Sure Jan?
Yes to all of the above. So why bother straight up lying? Well, if they are, it’s because of Comic-Con. Marvel is sitting Hall H out this year, which leaves it wide open for Warner Brothers to come in and introduce their Justice League lineup and make a splash, just as Marvel did back in 2010 with the Avengers. Undoubtedly they want the new Green Lantern reveal to be a big surprise, thus the smokescreen.
I liked the idea of an actor of Pine’s status—a franchise headliner in his own right—taking on the role of love interest for a female superhero. That’s neat, subversive casting. So it’s a little bit of a bummer that he may, in fact, be playing a hero. Nothing against Pine, it’s just not as clever a concept as him being Steve Trevor. But my bigger issue with this is the straight up lying—it never works. It’s impossible to keep this stuff under wraps these days, and the way to combat rumors is not to feed false ones, it’s to ignore them and then make your announcement when you’re ready. From a studio standpoint, you just have to be above this fray and not feed the monster. If this is all true, then Warner Brothers has their hand shoved down the monster’s throat and are tickling its innards. Just ask Paramount how well that went for them.
