DC Films The DC Studios News and Discussion Thread

[FunkMiller]

If people replace their fan hat with their CEO hat, I'm curious about where they stand on greenlighting a sequel to ZSJL. It seems like it would tick a lot of boxes in Zaslav's list.

• It'd avoid starting over from scratch, which in itself is a risk. It'd un-fragment their movie universe.
• It'd use versions of the characters that already have a degree of audience investment. Momoa's popular, most people like Gadot and Affleck.
• It would have plenty of social media presence.
• If the film does great, it'll make solo films a more solid commodity than they have been.
• It's a spot to introduce new characters outside of the established Leaguers. Atom, New Gods, Legion of Doom. Spin-offs galore, many birds with one stone.
• It'd fix their bad blood with Snyder, the credit of which would go to the new regime.

Outside of not trusting Snyder's ability to deliver when everything's in his favor (BvS), I think they've probably acknowledged at some point that it makes fiscal/practical sense.

We have no idea of knowing if ZSJL was a success on streaming or not (social media clicks do not count as evidence for what should be obvious reasons). Without that info, we can't really say whether your suggested plan is a good one or not.

If it was a huge hit that brought in loads of subscribers and made lots of money... then it's a possible strategy. But given that in the year and a half its been out, absolutely nothing has been said about it, and no hint has been given that WB want to continue with that continuity, I'd say that's unlikely.

 

[Iceman]

If people replace their fan hat with their CEO hat, I'm curious about where they stand on greenlighting a sequel to ZSJL. It seems like it would tick a lot of boxes in Zaslav's list.

• It'd avoid starting over from scratch, which in itself is a risk. It'd un-fragment their movie universe.
• It'd use versions of the characters that already have a degree of audience investment. Momoa's popular, most people like Gadot and Affleck.
• It would have plenty of social media presence.
• If the film does great, it'll make solo films a more solid commodity than they have been.
• It's a spot to introduce new characters outside of the established Leaguers. Atom, New Gods, Legion of Doom. Spin-offs galore, many birds with one stone.
• It'd fix their bad blood with Snyder, the credit of which would go to the new regime.

Outside of not trusting Snyder's ability to deliver when everything's in his favor (BvS), I think they've probably acknowledged at some point that it makes fiscal/practical sense.

Just feels like a huge risk. It would cost a ton (for eg Cavill is happy fighting for big pay cheques and otherwise not desperate to jump back in) and ignoring all fan discussions, the GA helped take it to only $230m domestic. I like the ZS cut, especially the History Lesson, but I can't see a new team wanting to take such a big risk on work done by their predecessors - where they may have agreed with some of it but not all. With their own project it can be exactly how they want.

 

[blackdragon6]

If people replace their fan hat with their CEO hat, I'm curious about where they stand on greenlighting a sequel to ZSJL. It seems like it would tick a lot of boxes in Zaslav's list.

• It'd avoid starting over from scratch, which in itself is a risk. It'd un-fragment their movie universe.
• It'd use versions of the characters that already have a degree of audience investment. Momoa's popular, most people like Gadot and Affleck.
• It would have plenty of social media presence.
• If the film does great, it'll make solo films a more solid commodity than they have been.
• It's a spot to introduce new characters outside of the established Leaguers. Atom, New Gods, Legion of Doom. Spin-offs galore, many birds with one stone.
• It'd fix their bad blood with Snyder, the credit of which would go to the new regime.

Outside of not trusting Snyder's ability to deliver when everything's in his favor (BvS), I think they've probably acknowledged at some point that it makes fiscal/practical sense.

It's hard to say tbh, some are saying Black Adam is the first film in the new DCEU continuity, who knows lol. It's still a mess, so they either have to fix the current continuity, or start off with "the Reevesverse", or just blow everything up and start over. Those are their only three options.

 

[Iceman]

I figured it would be helpful to have a centralized thread to discuss all things relating to the DCEU. News, rumors, the works.

Please keep all discussions in here related to the DCEU. I'd prefer this not be treated as a general lounge thread.

Let's go ahead and kick things off:

Glad to have this thread.

 

[Boom]

If people replace their fan hat with their CEO hat, I'm curious about where they stand on greenlighting a sequel to ZSJL. It seems like it would tick a lot of boxes in Zaslav's list.

• It'd avoid starting over from scratch, which in itself is a risk. It'd un-fragment their movie universe.
• It'd use versions of the characters that already have a degree of audience investment. Momoa's popular, most people like Gadot and Affleck.
• It would have plenty of social media presence.
• If the film does great, it'll make solo films a more solid commodity than they have been.
• It's a spot to introduce new characters outside of the established Leaguers. Atom, New Gods, Legion of Doom. Spin-offs galore, many birds with one stone.
• It'd fix their bad blood with Snyder, the credit of which would go to the new regime.

Outside of not trusting Snyder's ability to deliver when everything's in his favor (BvS), I think they've probably acknowledged at some point that it makes fiscal/practical sense.

Honestly, if there is any truth to that Rolling Stone article about Snyder's own behind-the-scenes involvement in the #Snyderverse social media movement and how he all but used his fanbase to make demands/veiled threats to executives, then I can guarantee WBD has washed their hands of him completely. Besides, Zaslav just ****-canned a $90 million movie that was in post-production and intended for theatrical release. You think he would've given Snyder $70 million to finish a direct-to-streaming director's cut of a movie that underperformed at the box office four years ago? He's made no indications that he's the sort of champion Snyder would need.

Snyder has become too toxic just by association with his own fanbase, Cavill is playing hardball, Affleck is done, Gadot and Momoa likely only have one film left on each of their contracts, Miller is a PR disaster and (from the sound of things) a ticking time bomb, and Fisher has taken every opportunity to burn bridges at WBD. Snyder's movies are incredibly expensive, and his films are critically and financially polarizing. Nothing about the Snyderverse screams sustainability, especially over a supposed ten-year period.

The second Zaslav said "ten-year plan," my ears heard "reboot." They're starting over. What that is going to look like is anybody's guess.

 

[Comicbookguy339]

Honestly, if there is any truth to that Rolling Stone article regarding Snyder's own BTS involvement in the #Snyderverse social media movement and how he all but used his fanbase to make demands/veiled threats to executives, then I can guarantee WBD has washed their hands of him completely. Besides, Zaslav just ****-canned a $90 million movie that was in post-production and intended for theatrical release. You think he would've given Snyder $70 million to finish a direct-to-streaming director's cut of a movie that released four years ago? He's made no indications that he's the sort of champion Snyder would need.

Snyder has become too toxic just by association with a certain section of his fanbase, Cavill is playing hardball, Affleck is done, Gadot and Momoa likely only have one film left on each of their contracts, Miller is a PR disaster, and Fisher has taken every opportunity to burn bridges at WBD. Snyder's movies are incredibly expensive, and his films are critically and financially polarizing. Nothing about the Snyderverse screams sustainability, especially over a supposed ten-year period.

The second Zaslav said "ten-year plan," my ears heard "reboot." They're starting over. What that is going to look like is anybody's guess.

I also don't think Snyder would want to work for a guy who immediately pulled the rug out from under the Batgirl filmmakers.

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

Ray Fisher will be happy

Whatever happened to him and his crusade? I haven't heard anything new for months. For ages it was "I'm not going away!" Then he just seemed to... go away

 

[Boom]

Whatever happened to him and his crusade? I haven't heard anything new for months. For ages it was "I'm not going away!" Then he just seemed to... go away

He tried to make the Batgirl news all about him. Shocks abound.

 

[Prison Mike]

Yeah he chimes in about Hamada the day news broke about Batgirl

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

He tried to make the Batgirl news all about him. Shocks abound.

Yeah he chimes in about Hamada the day news broke about Batgirl

Oh, really? Riiight.

 

[Comicbookguy339]

He tried to make the Batgirl news all about him. Shocks abound.

What did he say?

Edit:


This is weird. I guess he thought Hamada was also responsible for the cancellation of Batgirl and figured this is a good opportunity to take another shot at him?

 

[J.Drangal]

i do...until i don't lol
i'm just not a fan of bloated continuity i guess.

Same, I don't care about a shared universe either as it always felt quite superficial to me. And I've yet to be convinced otherwise.
I'm much more interested in seeing some of these characters adapted to the screen without any constraints. I think it allows for a more authentic vision and, in the end, a product with much more "heart". Even in what I saw from the MCU (I "missed" a lot but seen enough...), and even in the comics themselves, the most popular, acclaimed and lasting adaptations seems to be those by creatives whose touch shines through the source material.

So yeah, I wouldn't feel like I'm missing anything with having Reeves' Batman, Phillip's Joker, and, say, a Superman set in the 1940s, all at the same time and self-contained. I prefer movies with strong identities that never intersect than something artificially interconnected because of an executive order.
Likewise, I think the Justice League could still appear right away in a standalone movie featuring its own versions of the characters. Animation manages to make these characters work, even for a neophyte, through 90 minute animated films like "New Frontier" or 20 minutes series episodes, so it's all come down to the writing imo.
I think if a movie ends up being great, whether its characters have been introduced before or not is irrelevant. And about having multiple versions of the same characters at the same time, it only takes a bit of supervision to not greenlight three Batman at the same time...

Anyway, I know I'm in the minority, but I wish the film studio would approach all of this similar to what DC Animation was doing ten years ago : standalone movies and/or two-parter. From my point of view, it would be much more exciting because it allow more original ideas and flexibility.
WB could have worked to be the link between its DC catalog and its directors. Not worrying so much about setting up fillers leading to a film-event, but looking for the most interesting matches, creatively and economically, to celebrate what makes each of this characters the icons they are.
It's the director-driven approach they talked about years ago but never seriously put together. Sure, it's a time consuming and risky method, but seriously following it, I'm sure a lot of these characters would have appeared on the big screen by now, and in a lot of interesting ways...

But hey, it's definitely a bet and no algorithm will put a guy like Zaslav on this path...

 

[Boom]

What did he say?

Edit:


This is weird. I guess he thought Hamada was also responsible for the cancellation of Batgirl and figured this is a good opportunity to take another shot at him?

Which is ironic, because news just broke that Hamada nearly quit over the cancellation of Batgirl.

 

[BobJM]

Honestly, if there is any truth to that Rolling Stone article regarding Snyder's own BTS involvement in the #Snyderverse social media movement and how he all but used his fanbase to make demands/veiled threats to executives, then I can guarantee WBD has washed their hands of him completely. Besides, Zaslav just ****-canned a $90 million movie that was in post-production and intended for theatrical release. You think he would've given Snyder $70 million to finish a direct-to-streaming director's cut of a movie that underperformed at the box office four years ago? He's made no indications that he's the sort of champion Snyder would need.

Snyder has become too toxic just by association with his own fanbase, Cavill is playing hardball, Affleck is done, Gadot and Momoa likely only have one film left on each of their contracts, Miller is a PR disaster and (from the sound of things) a ticking time bomb, and Fisher has taken every opportunity to burn bridges at WBD. Snyder's movies are incredibly expensive, and his films are critically and financially polarizing. Nothing about the Snyderverse screams sustainability, especially over a supposed ten-year period.

The second Zaslav said "ten-year plan," my ears heard "reboot." They're starting over. What that is going to look like is anybody's guess.

Thank you for writing this out--I just can't keep having this same debate again and again. I do believe that Rolling Stone article; it just confirmed what a toxic mess the 'Snyderverse' has been since 2016, and that Snyder was an active participant in that toxicity -- if only WB had the foresight to can him after Man of Steel. I think the ship could have still been righted at that point.

Reboot it all. That doesn't mean it needs that all the films need to be interconnected. Just move away from the mistakes of the past decade and start fresh.

1. Shazam is its own franchise of films (potential to cross over with Black Adam & the JSA characters)
2. Continue The Batman universe (The Penguin, Arkham Asylum series, sequel movies, maybe a Catwoman series or spin-off film)
3. Make Joker: Folie a Deux (standalone sequel)
4. Release Aquaman: Lost Kingdom. Make a third based on The Obsidian Age storyline (which will send Momoa's character back in time to the ancient Atlantis before it sank and, conveniently, away from Heard's Mera and Snyder-verse connections). Yes, Affleck reported appears in the sequel but that's to clean up the Keaton mess from the Flash. If anyone's reading the tabloids for the past year or so, Affleck's not in a place to turn down a paying Batman cameo gig no matter how much its been reported that he didn't enjoy the experience.
5. Halt production on Blue Beetle. Zero mention of it at SDCC, for me, is the writing on the wall.
6. Reboot Wonder Woman in the present day, preferably w/o Gadot or Jenkins. Let them move on to other projects, and create a new Wonder Woman franchise in present day.
7. Reboot Superman in a new film series. Just do better this time lol.

EDIT: Oh and cancel Flash too.

 

[Scarlet Spider]

The third Wonder Woman & Aquaman films (should they happen) should be the end of the current DCEU. It's pretty much run it's course.

 

[Prison Mike]

There’s something about that Rolling Stone article that made it sound like the author had an axe to grind with Snyder. After all these years, none of the trades reported on it (him specifically) but it comes out now? On the same day that ZSJL went digital? There is something fishy about that.

 

[emc5466]

El Mayimbe reporting that Mike De Luca wants Hamada to stay long term. Matt Belloni mentioned on his podcast that De Luca wanted Hamada to stay because that would mean De Luca would have more control over the DC movies.

 

[blackdragon6]

There’s something about that Rolling Stone article that made it sound like the author had an axe to grind with Snyder. After all these years, none of the trades reported on it (him specifically) but it comes out now? On the same day that ZSJL went digital? There is something fishy about that.

To be frank, most articles about him seems kinda axe-grindy. But, you know.

 

[blackdragon6]

What did he say?

Edit:


This is weird. I guess he thought Hamada was also responsible for the cancellation of Batgirl and figured this is a good opportunity to take another shot at him?

Nah, it was because he heard he was out. He was just kicking him when he was down lol.

 

[samsnee]

Well let’s hope this ten year plan goes better than the last one

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

Ah, memories.

 

[Comicbookguy339]

They also had an updated one in 2017 (from SDCC):

Justice League
Aquaman
Shazam
Wonder Woman 2
Suicide Squad 2
The Batman (starring Batfleck)
The Flash: Flashpoint
Batgirl (by Joss Whedon)
Justice League Dark
Green Lantern Corps

 

[FunkMiller]

Well let’s hope this ten year plan goes better than the last one
View attachment 57835

If this new ‘ten year plan’ is anything more than a photoshop slide designed to appease shareholders, I’ll eat my Batman mug.

 

[Karelia]

Big budget Green Lantern movie definitely should be on the new list.

 

[The Batman]

They also had an updated one in 2017 (from SDCC):

Justice League
Aquaman
Shazam
Wonder Woman 2
Suicide Squad 2
The Batman (starring Batfleck)
The Flash: Flashpoint
Batgirl (by Joss Whedon)
Justice League Dark
Green Lantern Corps

So 5 of these were eventually released, 1 will likely be released, 2 of them just switched creative teams but were filmed (with 1 being released), and 2 never happened at all.