WB had no plans for MOS 2 to begin with. The idea that the film was secretly in-development and far along while waiting for JL to debut was never true.
MFR who reported "JL was shot twice" and added on the Jake Gyllenhaal news, said WB's mood is actually calm, and they did want to trigger a MOS2 once the new Sup is received well by the audience.
I might agree, except for two points: 1) both BvS and JL were heavily marketed as Batman films, and 2) the consistent criticism of this Superman in both MOS and BvS has been that he isn't like Donner's version. Affleck' Batman is the one who couldn't draw an audience, and JL didn't even feature Superman in the marketing. It'd be one thing if audiences showed up to JL and hated Cavill. But they didn't even show up, which places the fault on the marketing, not on Cavill's Superman. Cavill may very well go down with the ship, but it won't be because he's steering it. WB, despite their obvious faults, won't necessarily blame Cavill. Affleck, however? He's definitely done. Despite what we all may think, his Batman just isn't as popular as previous versions.
If WB reboots, it'll be a hard reboot for everyone but Wonder Woman and Harley Quinn. With JL's performance, I just don't see any reason for them to keep anyone if they indeed decide to reboot. Hell, I expect they're also retooling WW 2 to disconnect it from BvS and JL (it's not that hard tbh).
If Warner Brothers decides to make another Superman movie in the near future (whether it be MoS2 or a reboot), they'd be wise to keep an eye on how Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom performs.
J.A. Bayona is a talented filmmaker, and is on record as wanting to make a Superman film. Given the current state of the property, finding a filmmaker with genuine passion for the source material holds immense value. If Fallen Kingdom comes out and is a smash success like its predecessor, I'd give him a call.
Love your discussions guys.
Boom, I love the suggestion of Bayona, he's talented and passionate about the character.
Dereklake, you took the words out of my mouth.
People are saying Cavill's gone because of JL's OW b.o. and he's the face of DCEU. But really, he's only the face of MOS - underperformed (thanks to sandwitching between WWZ and Monster Inc, and Minions worldwide), but has a solid cinemascore, RT audience score, and strong DVD sales and profit (100M+ overall profit compared to BvS' 40M).
He wasn't the face of BvS, Ben was, and he got the top billing, and Henry's arc was chopped out in favor of Batman for the 2.5 hr cut that the suits wanted.
Then Gal become the golden girl, face of DCEU along with Ben, and Henry was basically non-existence in the trailers/teasers.
And yes, if JL opened to say, 120M+ and gets a horrendus drop of 70% second weekend, or 65%+ for Thanksgiving holidays, then you could argue audience showed up and hated Cavill and the team. But the reality is, people didn't show up! However, the Monday drop was 67%, 4% more than Mockingjay 2, the closet Thanksgiving comparison for JL, and Tuesday JL achieved a 41% increase (MJ2 was 33%, Fantastic Beast with great legs had 38%! Gitesh called it the best pre thanksgiving Tues increase in 10 years!).
So audiences are hearing enough to show up later on, after hearing stuff from the OW crowd, and the stats and from what I've heard are positive for Henry. Scott Mendelson referred to JL as a season premeire, where if the audiences who showed up enjoyed the characters, there's potential for the future installment of these characters.
Similar to Batman Begins, it had a poor b.o. take overall (370M WW), but people liked it and TDK had hot buzz, made a billion. I didn't want to watch the movie in 2005, friends dragged me to it, I thought it was Batman and Robin, then I enjoyed it a lot, so did the audience who didn't show up OW who caught the movie later on, or at home, and they showed up in droves for TDK. IF audiences enjoy the new Sup portrayal in the coming weeks, and months at home, there's still potential for Henry.
So far, JL looks like it might get to 250M+ in US, and 700M+ WW is looking more likely by the day, China will improve on BvS and WW and crack 100M and close in on Thor 3, Asia is doing well, so if it has some legs, it could be a case of people don't want to turn up because of the previous movie, but caught it later on and liking it, then if they make good/great movies, audiences will come back.
As far as the fall out - they could just pin it on Ben really, and he deserves it, quiting Batman, divorce drama/affair rumors?, alcohol, sexual harrasment, will he/won't he, boy, how is that good for PR of the movie, if that's all mainstreams hear all year, and if you have Gal, Jake and Henry making the interviews and be the face of the future, it has a chance.
