The Hypothetical DCEU Reboot Discussion Thread

[Web-Head]

Imo DC should give up for time being. Something like five years with no movies. Then begin again from scratch with Flash.

They won't do that because look how much money they're making from these films.

They need to focus on the solo films before worrying about the shared universe and spin offs.

 

[Rorschach2012]

HBO will never approve that, they already said they don't want to be a "Niche" channel with a certain genre of TV shows. They even passed on TWD

WB owns them. If that's what WB wanted to do, it'd happen

TWD is great but is it HBO quality? GOT us on a different level than just about anything on tv

Just imagine Cary Fukunaga doing a Batman series...

Season 1 could be Year One, with an introduction to Joker, Two Face, and Catwoman. Season 2 would bring Dick Grayson in along with Mr. Freeze, Penguin and Riddler

Think about it, Batman has so much history, a movie series is not the best option to tell the whole story. Affleck's Batman's history is going to be told through flashbacks and references. It's a shame we don't get to see his first meetings with these iconic villains in the main timeline

 

[brandeezy89]

WB owns them. If that's what WB wanted to do, it'd happen

TWD is great but is it HBO quality? GOT us on a different level than just about anything on tv

Just imagine Cary Fukunaga doing a Batman series...

Season 1 could be Year One, with an introduction to Joker, Two Face, and Catwoman. Season 2 would bring Dick Grayson in along with Mr. Freeze, Penguin and Riddler

Think about it, Batman has so much history, a movie series is not the best option to tell the whole story. Affleck's Batman's history is going to be told through flashbacks and references. It's a shame we don't get to see his first meetings with these iconic villains in the main timeline

Time Warner owns HBO, not WB

 

[Rorschach2012]

Time Warner owns HBO, not WB

My point still stands. If the intention was to establish the DCEU on HBO, and they could get the product up to par, it would happen

 

[Jekecy]

WB owns them. If that's what WB wanted to do, it'd happen

TWD is great but is it HBO quality? GOT us on a different level than just about anything on tv

Just imagine Cary Fukunaga doing a Batman series...

Season 1 could be Year One, with an introduction to Joker, Two Face, and Catwoman. Season 2 would bring Dick Grayson in along with Mr. Freeze, Penguin and Riddler

Think about it, Batman has so much history, a movie series is not the best option to tell the whole story. Affleck's Batman's history is going to be told through flashbacks and references. It's a shame we don't get to see his first meetings with these iconic villains in the main timeline

I like where your head is at and I've had the same thought for years myself. However the landscape of home media has to really change to incite a sudden shift from big-budget film to big-budget television. The money and audience hasn't been established yet.

GoT and its ilk are a nice warmer for whatever that next stage is, but we're still years away from it. I believe it fell through now, but Ron Howard was planning a simultaneous cinematic and mini-series release for The Dark Tower. I do believe this is the ideal format for the genre; treat the tv seasons like character driven stories akin to a limited monthly comic book series, and the bombastic blockbusters as the equivalent to a mainline crossover event. Money will come pouring once this formula is perfected. Hopefully I'm not too old when that time finally rolls around.

 

[FeedOnATreeFrog]

Yeah, my idea back in the day was for the DCEU to forgo solo Batman films and do a series, not only because it's a character that can be pulled off on a smaller budget, but because it could avoid being caught in the Nolan trilogy's shadow as the different structure would set it apart even if it was tonally similar.

But then someone reminded me that the last two solo Batman movies made over a billion dollars and that there's simply more profit to be made there. Though I really don't know how much TV shows make.

 

[Dasher10]

The worst part is that they've cast really well so far in regards to the leads, but the writing and characterizations are just not there.

A soft reboot with Flash could have worked, but I'm not so sure now.

Unfortunately it seems that WB is just about the money when it comes to this shared universe.

They announce stuff well ahead of time without really thinking. Like a Deadshot spin-off, Gotham City Sirens, etc...Who needs those movies?

Exactly. DC bite off more than they can chew. They need to think in terms of franchises and build slowly instead of giving us too many characters at once.

 

[BH/HHH]

Ok I'm going to preface this with I don't believe they will reboot but if they have to then I foresee them going back to doing Batman movies and trying again with Superman.

I imagine they may even take the animated route and have a Batman Universe. This would start off with a Batman film and would spin off into other Bat characters movies like Nightwing, Catwoman etc.

Another Superman self contained movie think kind of like the Incredible Hulk (but without any cameos) and of this succeeded we'd get more Superman movies.

I honestly think in terms of a DCU they'd wait a long time again and stick to their safer bets.

 

[FunkMiller]

My point still stands. If the intention was to establish the DCEU on HBO, and they could get the product up to par, it would happen

My silly fantasy is that the DCEU does poorly enough for WB to consider selling DC as a whole - and Amazon buys the company. Berlanti's universe carries on on broadcast TV, while Amazon 'do a Netflix' with other DC properties on their streaming service, and continue to make movies of their major properties, with a crisis arc story linking all three.

 

[Boom]

If it were to to me, Batman would be on HBO. We still get our Batman fix, including an extensive Bat Family, while letting the other DC characters have their shot at big screen adaptations.

 

[MbJ]

If they are interested in a soft reboot there are ways to do it. First of all: Kill Eisenberg's Luthor and establish Lex sr. is still alive. They unintentionally left themselves an out when they decided to mention that this version of Lex had a dad who was also named Lex.

Lex Sr. faked his own death for unknown reasons and returns. Maybe Lex Jr. dies and Papa Luthor blames Superman. Maybe he thinks Jr. was disappointment and kills him himself for tarnishing the Luthor family name.

Point is of all the broken characters in the DCEU right now, Lex is the easiest to fix.

HBO will never approve that, they already said they don't want to be a "Niche" channel with a certain genre of TV shows. They even passed on TWD

HBO's whole marketing gimmick is (supposedly) being a home for mature, prestige shows for sophisticated adults, so I can't see them putting superhero shows on it. Even if Time Warner owns them, it'd clash with the channel's image.

 

[BH/HHH]

Batman (as in a fully fledged) on TV is just not gonna happen. He's DC/WBs biggest earner as a character so his box office takings would have to diminish quite significantly for them to consider doing a Batman HBO series. I'd say best you can hope for on TV is that Gotham brings the character in earlier than expected (which I think will be the finale) or he turns up on one of the Berlanti shows like Superman did.

 

[Jekecy]

If they are interested in a soft reboot there are ways to do it. First of all: Kill Eisenberg's Luthor and establish Lex sr. is still alive. They unintentionally left themselves an out when they decided to mention that this version of Lex had a dad who was also named Lex.

Lex Sr. faked his own death for unknown reasons and returns. Maybe Lex Jr. dies and Papa Luthor blames Superman. Maybe he thinks Jr. was disappointment and kills him himself for tarnishing the Luthor family name.

Point is of all the broken characters in the DCEU right now, Lex is the easiest to fix.

I wouldn't say it's the easiest to fix. The problem is the core of Lex's hate for Superman was ingrained into Jesse's character. If they introduced his father, what's his motivation for becoming Supes' arch-nemesis? They're on opposite sides of the law and embarrassed his son? Not exactly inspired motivators.

 

[DrCosmic]

Cancel the DCEU. Expand the Arrowverse. Problem solved.

Arrowverse isn't GREAT. And I say this as someone who only follows four shows on a weekly basis and two of them are Arrowverse. I cannot sign on for expanding this.

Superman HBO
Batman HBO
Wonder Woman HBO
2 or 3 epic Justice League Films

That would be enough for me

Batman on HBO followed by Wonder Woman and Superman is by far the best bet. In a hypothetical reboot, they need to rest the tired film franchises, but also get the highest quality versions of these characters out there, and a high quality subscription-based television series is their best bet for that. HBO would be ideal and while they may say whatever about being niche, they won't fight tooth and nail to keep out a top quality Batman show. This also has the benefit, especially for Batman, of allowing an extensive exploration of his character and world in a way movies will continue to fail to do. While one could argue for Batman's profitability as a movie, a Batman show over three years can do similar if not greater under HBO versus the diminishing returns of another movie reboot. In short, long term, the best move for quality will also be the best move for money, it's just a matter of can execs make long term positive decisions or not. (Probably not though)

But the best thing is, they don't have to stop there. They can still make great Green Lantern, Hawman & Hawkgirl, Teen Titans, Aquaman, Shazam, Justice League Dark and even Cyborg film series that can seem fresh and not tired and the effect they were trying to get from Suicide Squad. They can still dish Zatanna, Jusice Society of America and others out to network TV. If they do it right, all in the same universe, and have some huge Justice League event, then they could actually be pwning.

 

[Boom]

I don't think HBO would say no to a Batman series.

 

[Chip Chipperson]

Kevin Smith had a cool idea. Make a show similar to black mirror with each episode being a stand alone batman story. New actors, new directors every episode.

As unlikely as that sounds, that would be amazing.

 

[TheVileOne]

Batman is not going to be on HBO as an R-rated adult series because Warner Bros. still wants to be able to market it to kids.

Unless Justice League completely tanks, which I doubt happens, I don't think they are going to do any hard reboot. I think they'd recast Ben Affleck before they reboot the series.

I imagine some decisions will hinge on how Wonder Woman and Justice League perform this year.

Yeah you could do a Black Mirror/Gotham City Stories anthology type series on HBO, but Batman probably wouldn't show up.

 

[Rorschach2012]

Just do BTAS in live action on HBO with a more linear, overarching storyline

That sounds so tasty

High quality tv series>another movie series

It's the only way to do all the major villains justice

 

[Boom]

Unless Justice League completely tanks, which I doubt happens, I don't think they are going to do any hard reboot. I think they'd recast Ben Affleck before they reboot the series.

Pretty much.

It's possible that Reeves' Batman film may be a prequel of sorts, but there's still Justice League 2 to consider. If the first film is a financial success, WB will most likely want to move forward with a second one. So if Affleck leaves, they'd have to sign a middle-aged actor to play the character anyway for continuity purposes. You can't have Affleck in JL1 and then someone like Armie Hammer in JL2. That's utterly thoughtless.

 

[TheVileOne]

I mean they are already doing a lot of the Rogues Gallery for Batman on Gotham.

Plus Arrow. I mean Arrow is a lot like a Batman TV show...just with Green Arrow instead of Batman, but at the start of the show he came off more like Batman than Green Arrow. You had a whole Ra's Al Ghul story arc.

I think a high-end Batman TV series would be neat, but it would depend on a lot of things. Batman is still one of the most lucrative brands out there, and I think WB would still not want to do a solo live-action TV series yet.

 

[Jekecy]

It's possible that Reeves' Batman film may be a prequel of sorts, but there's still Justice League 2 to consider. If the first film is a financial success, WB will most likely want to move forward with a second one. So if Affleck leaves, they'd have to sign a middle-aged actor to play the character anyway. You can't have Affleck in JL1 and then someone like Armie Hammer in JL2. That's utterly thoughtless.

Entirely depends on what happens in JL1. Who knows in what state Batman is left in by the end. I wouldn’t put it past Snyder to pull another staple from the lore which could help transitioning a new actor.

i doubt they’ll go middle-aged again. Something akin to Flashpoint, Final Crisis, or even the Lazarus Pits, can be weaved into the story to help explain the new and younger “face”.

 

[TheVileOne]

Yeah, you could always just say Dick Grayson is Batman now and run with that. That way it's not recasting, but a different character.

 

[Skrilla31]

Just do BTAS in live action on HBO with a more linear, overarching storyline

I would much prefer standalone episodes myself.

I'm okay with there being continuity and planting seeds for future payoffs, but the idea of each episode being it's own mini Batman move sounds much better than stretching out a single story into a long, drawn out season.

Part of the reason I couldn't get into the Marvel Netflix shows.

 

[Rorschach2012]

Yeah, you could always just say Dick Grayson is Batman now and run with that. That way it's not recasting, but a different character.

NO! We haven't gotten enough Bruce Batman to warrant that yet

 

[TheVileOne]

Audiences don't like recasting though. This could nip that whole problem in the bud.

But, it's just a spitball. Have no idea where the train is going, but Affleck stepping down as director makes me believe there is some truth that he might try to leave.