Despite the fact that they both fight evil by the moonlight, there doesn't appear to a lot of crossover between Batman fans and Sailor Moon's target demographic, but that may change thanks to actor Matt Turner.WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for the Season 1 finale of Peacemaker, streaming now on HBO Max.Turner was involved in the production of the HBO Max original series Peacemaker, where he played the role of Batman. Sadly, his Caped Crusader and an appearance by Cyborg were cut from the final edit of the series. Despite that, the actor's time in the bat suit has earned them a surprising new group of fans. Eagle-eyed Twitter user @Startboii1 noticed that Turner's mirror selfie was taken using a rare, limited edition Sailor Moon smartphone. The now discontinued phone was originally produced by Chinese company Meitu in 2017, and has become a coveted prize among collectors.
Turner, whose Twitter profile states that they are big fan of Nintendo, Star Wars and, of course, Sailor Moon, confirmed that they were indeed using the highly coveted piece of merchandise in the picture. "Yes that is a sailor moon phone!! I bought it off eBay from a Taiwanese reseller. Sadly the phone has been discontinued," Turner stated. Turner later backed up their Sailor Moon fandom by posting pictures of their Sailor Mercury cosplay.
Cyborg and Turner's Batman were originally planned to appear alongside the rest of the Justice League in the finale to Peacemaker. In response to being asked why the characters were cut, director James Gunn responded "You know, I don’t know what I can [say] — there are reasons for it, but I’m actually uncertain whether I can say what those reasons are. It might have to do with future stuff." Fans have speculated that the characters may have been edited out of the show due to Ben Affleck's uncertain future with the DCEU and actor Ray Fisher's public complaints about the way he was treated by Justice League director Joss Whedon and Warner Bros.' management.
Sailor Moon was created by artist and writer Naoko Takeuchi and was first published in Japan in 1991. The series is currently celebrating the 30th anniversary of the original anime adaptation's premiere - while no new branded smartphones have been announced, the series' producers are marking the occasion with a new collaboration with Sanrio, which will pair up each of the Sailor Scouts with one of the company's mascots for a new line of merchandise. The most recent animated release in the franchise, the Sailor Moon Eternal movie series, is now available for streaming through Netflix.