Wonder Twin Powers, Activate!

The intertubes are burning up with rumors about the casting for next year’s comic-book epic Justice League of America, which Warner Brothers is rushing into production. So far only the director seems reasonably certain, with all sorts of possibilities being floated for the roles of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, and the rest. By far the best rumor, however, is that Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal have been approached to play Zan and Jayna, the Wonder Twins.

Those of you who are too young to remember the Wonder Twins are invited to get the hell off of my lawn and go here and here for a little background. The Wonder Twins were never part of the classic JLA, and only appeared in Hanna-Barbera’s Super Friends cartoon on Saturday mornings and its short-lived comic-book spinoff. Briefly, Zan and Jayna are mutants from the planet Exxor with amazingly lame superpowers. Jayna can transform herself into any animal, while Zan can turn himself into anything at all, as long as it’s water. The twins have a pet space monkey, Gleek, who follows them around with a bucket to scoop up Zan when he’s done transforming. In short, the duo were the most pathetic superheroes this side of Mystery Men. They’re likely to make a brief appearance in the JLA movie to provide a little comic relief, but if the Gyllenhaals turn the part down, the roles will probably be dropped.

Still, it might be kind of nice to see Jake and Maggie accept the offer. As the link notes, Maggie in purple spandex would be easy on the eyes, and George Miller just might give Jake the power to transform himself into a slightly better actor.