Yes, this is real! A new ChineseJustice Leagueposter feature dead Marvel superheroes at the hands of the DC team. It appears that China is stepping up the war betweenDC and Marvelby displaying the posters in movie theaters that send a clear message to Marvel and Disney. It’s unknown where the gruesome posters came from, but they are a sight to see. Disney, Marvel, and 20th Century Fox have yet to make a public statement about the posters, but it appears that some theaters have already begun to take the offensive promotional posters down.
A poster showingMarvel superheroesbeing killed by theJustice Leaguehave been used by multiple Chinese movie theaters as well as iQiyi, a video hosting site that is doing official promos for the movie, and the ticketing app of Wanda Cinema, China’s biggest movie theater chain. The unbelievable poster featuresBatmanholding the severed head ofThor,AquamanhasDeadpoolimpaled by his so-called trident,The Flashis stepping onCaptain America’s head,Wolverineappears to be stabbed to death at the hands ofWonder Woman’s sword,Supermancan be seen squashingAnt-Man, and it appears thatIron Man’s severed head is floating around too.
It isn’t clear why Chinese theaters would use the posters or how they ended up there in the first place, but it seems to be some kind of elaborate prank. In addition to the still-pictures of the app and the posters up in theaters, there is also a quick video that shows the newThor: Ragnarokposter and then the new doctoredJustice Leagueposters with the gruesome murder scene depicted in it, plastered on an elevator. News of the posters first broke on Twitter and have since been seen on Reddit as well.
Justice Leaguehad a rough time at the box office over the weekend for its debut, becoming thelowest grossing opening weekendin the DCEU’s short history and some fans have started a petition, demanding to see Zack Snyder’s original cut of the movie. While most DC fans and comic movie fans say the movie is great, there is a section of Marvel fanboys who claim thatJustice Leagueis trying too hard to be a Marvel movie, which has sparked many online debates between fans of the two studios. The fighting between Marvel and DC fans is nothing new, but these new posters have ramped the argument up to a whole new level and Marvel fans are definitely not very happy about the new promotional posters.
As previously mentioned, it is not clear where these posters originated from, but they are currently being used in Chinese movie theaters as well as their equivalent to Fandango’s smartphone application. This could be one of the best pranks ever pulled for movie promotion in history and might actually get some more people into the theaters to check outJustice League. You can check out the gruesome images below at your own risk, courtesy ofWeibo, where you can see a video proving that this isn’t just some fan’s mock-up job, but actually being used to sell the movie in Chinese theaters.
