The once-promising DC Cinematic Universe went off the rails after the disappointing release of Justice League in 2017, but Warner Bros. now looks to Marvel for inspiration and has formulated a new 10-year plan to make its comic book franchise work. at full throttle once again.
David Zaslav, the recently installed CEO of the new Warner Bros. merger. Discovery, confirmed on an earnings call this week that “DC is top of the list” going forward. “You look at Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and Aquaman, they are brands that are known all over the world and the ability to take them all over the world with great stories is a great opportunity for us. We did a reset. We have restructured the company and what are we going to focus on,” Zaslav told call participants.
Zaslav also did not hesitate to take inspiration from this restructuring. “There will be a team with a 10-year plan focused solely on DC. It’s very similar to the structure that Alan Horn and Bob Iger put together very effectively with Kevin Feige at Disney,” Zaslav explained.
Of course, DC has tried to emulate the success of the MCU juggernaut in the past. Starting with Man of Steel in 2013 and leading up to the critical and commercially disappointing Justice League. In the wake of DC’s seminal team-up movie that fell short of the Avengers, the DC Universe has become increasingly fractured. While the interconnected franchise has continued with films such as Wonder Woman 1984, standalone DC films such as Joker and The Batman have significantly muddied the waters.
Under Zaslav, Warner Bros. hopes to refocus DC and put a clear emphasis on quality. “We believe we can build a much stronger, sustainable, long-term, sustainable growth business out of DC. And as part of that, we’re going to focus on quality, we’re not going to release a movie until until he’s ready,” Zaslav said when the results were called.
Zaslav went on to state that DC will not be releasing movies just to fulfill a predetermined schedule, but rather will try to ensure that each project is “as good as it can be”. This is a much-needed course correction, as several DC movies over the past decade, including Suicide Squad and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, have been badly beaten, with the latter even being called the worst movie ever. comic of all time by some critics.
It looks like the new Warner Bros. won’t be afraid to be ruthless when it comes to DC movies, either. A Batgirl movie slated to premiere on HBO Max was canceled this week, even though it had already wrapped filming and around $90 million had already been invested in the project.
Studio sources insist its quality wasn’t the issue, but a industry insider (opens in a new tab) leaked that test audiences described it as “like a TV pilot” and drew unflattering comparisons to X-Men: Dark Phoenix. At the very least, the surprising cancellation of Batgirl seems to back up Zaslav’s claim that DC is being shaken up quite significantly.
What about DC’s current movie slate?
As noted above, the DC Cinematic Universe has increasingly fractured over the past half-decade, but right now there are still several upcoming DC movies in the pipeline. Black Adam and Shazam! Fury of the Gods is set to release this year with The Flash and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom currently set to debut in 2023.
The impact of DC’s announced restructuring on these films remains to be seen, but it seems likely that all four of these films will still make their way to theaters, especially since Black Adam and Shazam 2 have already released multiple trailers. Although, as evidenced by the cancellation of Batgirl, Warner Bros. isn’t afraid to write off a significant cost if they think it’s the best solution.
In fact, there have already been reports that The Flash may be pulled from its scheduled June 23, 2023 release date. However, these reports are due to the erratic behavior and misconduct allegations against its star, Ezra Miller. Rumors that The Flash should be used as a vehicle to reboot the DC Universe add even more intrigue to the mix. The film will see speedster Barry Allen toying with time travel, so it could be used to reshape DC’s current timeline.
DC movies that exist outside of the Expanded Universe continuity make the matter even more complicated. For example, The Batman was released earlier this year to much fanfare and a sequel (and spin-off TV show) is already in the works, plus Joker 2 is moving forward and Lady Gaga just joined the cast earlier this week. It remains to be seen how these films will fit into DC’s new 10-year plan, but the possibility of multiple Batman franchises existing simultaneously seems fanciful.
Hopefully Warner Bros. be able to transform the DC Universe into something special, because increased competition for the conquering MCU wouldn’t be a bad thing. Marvel Studios has gotten a little too comfortable in recent years, and there’s an argument that the MCU is currently floundering. A revitalized and refocused DC could be just the tonic needed to push both superhero franchises to greater heights, and in that case, the real winner would be us, the viewers.
