‘Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F’ Writer Will Beall Penned A ‘Justice League’ Script Inspired By ‘Back To The Future II’

JB Augustine |

Jul 22, 2024

fake shark — Marty is not impressed by the new effects in the latest Jaws in Back to the Future Part II (1989), Universal Pictures

The DCEU, and MCU for that matter, to date used all the tropes of time travel. As a matter of fact, the former did them to death – quite literally in The Flash and the Knightmare reality of the Snyder Cut.

Joker (Jared Leto) gives a warning to Batman (Ben Affleck) in Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021), Warner Bros. Pictures

It turns out this might have always been the plan. Going back to 2012, Warner Bros had a Justice League script drafted implementing time travel while they were still figuring out their universe.

Will Beall, the Aquaman writer whose most recent credits include Bad Boys: Ride or Die and Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, penned a screenplay that borrowed from one of cinema’s greatest benchmarks for jumping into a time machine.

Martin Lawrence as Detective Lieutenant Marcus Miles Burnett and Will Smith as Detective Lieutenant Michael Eugene "Mike" Lowrey in Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024), Columbia Pictures — Martin Lawrence as Detective Lieutenant Marcus Miles Burnett and Will Smith as Detective Lieutenant Michael Eugene “Mike” Lowrey in Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024), Columbia Pictures

“The biggest difference with mine, I think, was that much of the second act was that little sort of coda that was on the Snyder Cut, where it’s this post-apocalyptic sort of dream sequence or flash forward, and there’s good guys and bad guys, they’re forced to team up. Much of my second act was taken up with that,” Beall said via TheWrap.

He then added, “My version of it owed a lot to Back to the Future II.” In the sequel, Old Biff (Thomas F. Wilson) briefly steals the DeLorean in 2015 to go back and give his younger self the sports almanac.

This creates an alternate 1985 where Biff rules Hill Valley with an iron fist like a mobster. He owns the police and also married Marty’s mother (Lea Thompson) after killing his father, George McFly (Crispin Glover).

Biff85 — Biff (Thomas F. Wilson) is amazed at a flying DeLorean streaking across the sky in Back to the Future Part II (1989), Universal Pictures

Like Barry Allen in a Flashpoint scenario, Doc (Christopher Lloyd) and Marty (Michael J. Fox) rushed back to 1955 to undo the damage.

Though Beall’s script didn’t get made, technically, he received a story credit on Zack Snyder’s Justice League. “I’m proud of the script that I wrote and I’m happy that it helped. I feel like I did my job,” he said of his screenplay.

Today's headline — Doc (Christopher Lloyd) shows Marty (Michael J. Fox) what happens to his son in the future in Back to the Future Part II (1989), Universal Pictures

“So your first job as a writer, working with any of these things is to be a good steward. Right, it’s sort of to ‘do no harm.’ And so you have to respect the fans and you have to respect the characters and what makes them great, and not try to outsmart it,” he added.

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