Who Would Have Played The Justice League in the 80’s?

After the long-awaited finale Avengers: Endgame, a video has gone viral of the Avengers team played by the most popular actor of the 90’s, with Denzel Washington as Black Panther, Brad Pitt as Thor, and many more iconic stars popping up as who they would have inevitably played if the film was made in that decade. This concept got us at Viralhare thinking: What if the same kind of spin was put on the Justice League? While everyone loves the 90’s, the 80’s was an even more popular decade, and we would like to take a look at what the Justice League could have been if the movie was made in the mid-1980’s.

While Christopher Reeve played Superman all throughout the 1980’s, let’s assume that a Justice League film would have existed in a parallel universe (much like Justice League: Mortal would have from Batman Begins if the movie had come to fruition), meaning that a new Man of Steel would be needed for the project. Aside from Reeve, who could have been a better Superman at the time other than Kurt Russell? He may have been at a darker point in his career at the time- with films like Escape from New York and The Thing being his most popular projects of the era- but his look for Clark Kent is just impeccable.

Russell has always had the strong-jawed, all-American type of look, and he stayed in excellent shape to play all of the action heroes he portrayed in the 80’s. However, on top of his look for Superman, Russell has always been an extremely charismatic person, and could easily slip into the mild-mannered Clark Kent. I think that he would undoubtedly have been the consensus choice for Superman after Christopher Reeve, and it’s a shame that we never got to actually see him tackle the role.

Harrison Ford in the 1980’s was truly a force to be reckoned with, with The Empire Strikes Back, Indiana Jones, and Blade Runner all coming out within adjoining years of each other. That alone is a lengthy testament as to why he should have been considered for Batman, but his look and personality ties it all together.

Ford has always been a real-life playboy, a devilish rogue, and is still one of the most handsome actors to have ever been in Hollywood. If Ford had been given his shot, then he would have inevitably been the best actor to ever play Batman.

Although Lynda Carter is by far the best Wonder Woman anyone could have hoped for in that era, Carrie Fisher may have been a real Wonder Woman. Fisher was one of the first women on screen to be both a feminine beauty and ruthless badass, and that quality was never really brought to Diana Prince by Carter. Despite not being physically imposing, Fisher made up for that by being more furious than any other actress at the time, and no one could have asked for a better actress to play Wonder Woman.

Around 1985, Michael J. Fox was the biggest young star in the world, with Back to the Future and Teen Wolf both coming out that year. Being firmly in the limelight at that, it only makes sense that Fox would be the first choice to play the youthful Barry Allen in a Justice League movie. Fox would be the perfect source for comic relief as The Flash, and always had a knack for playing characters who are extremely smart, so this casting would have been a match made in heaven.

Kevin Costner wasn’t really a big star until The Untouchables in 1987, but his look for Aquaman back then was just undeniable. It’s almost as if the King of Atlantis was ripped right off the page, and it’s truly a shame that we never got to see Costner play Arthur Curry. He is one of the greatest actors of all time, and when it comes to the classic look that Aquaman would have brandished at the time, no one could have pulled it off better than Costner.

This may be a bit of a strange choice, but sadly in the 1980’s young black actors were almost non-existent. So instead of casting Carl Weathers or someone else who doesn’t match the age, why not Eddie Murphy?

He was young at the time, and extremely popular due to his stand-up career, so casting him as a more comedic version of Cyborg would have likely been met with open arms. Murphy has always been a ranged actor, so playing an action role back then shouldn’t have been much of a problem, and he could have put an interesting spin on a character that no one even knew in that decade.

Steppenwolf may have been turned into a giant CGI figure, but he likely would have been just a man in the 80’s, and Tim Curry happens to look a lot like Steppenwolf from the comics. Not only did Curry have the look down pat, but he has always been renowned for how capable he is as an antagonist, and he was often the go-to guy in the 80’s. If Steppenwolf were still the villain, then Curry would be the only option for that time period, and he would have likely been better than what we saw in the real movie.

Who would you put in an 80’s Justice League? Let us know in the comments!