Why DC Studios’ New Bosses Should Do a Full Reboot
It’s 2013. This year sees the release of Man of Steel, the second reboot of the Superman film franchise directed by Zack Snyder, written by David S. Goyer, and starring Henry Cavill as the Big Blue Boy Scout. The film makes $668 million worldwide.
That box office total is below the latter Dark Knight films by Christopher Nolan, but above the film that kicked that trilogy off, Batman Begins. That’s good enough to build upon and Warner Bros is ready. Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe is eight films deep at this point, with The Avengers and Iron Man 3 both hitting above $1 billion worldwide. A great trilogy is fine, but Warner Bros. sees dollar signs in its own universe of comic adaptations.
Months before Man of Steel’s release, Warner Bros. Pictures president Jeff Robinov tells Entertainment Weekly that the studio is ready to move. “I think you’ll see that, going forward, anything can live in this world,” he says. “What Zack and Chris have done with this film is allow you to really introduce other characters into the same world. We’ll announce something in the next several weeks that will hopefully position the DC characters and the movies we’re going to be making.”
Almost a decade later, DC’s cinematic hopes have failed to cohere into something solid.
Final Crisis
It’s now 2022. It seems likely that the bosses of the newly-named DC Studios, director James Gunn and producer Peter Safran, are looking to clear the decks. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson all but said today that there won’t be a Black Adam sequel in the immediate future. After a cameo in Black Adam, it was revealed Henry Cavill won’t be returning as Superman. Ben Affleck won’t be returning as Batman, as the new management wants him to direct instead. The current pitch for the next Wonder Woman sequel isn’t moving forward.
Gal Gadot’s status as Wonder Woman is up in the air, but without Cavill and Affleck, most of the Trinity is out at DC Studios. “The Trinity” being the name for Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, the anchors of the DC Universe in many of its iterations. The name feels semi-religious, and that’s because it probably is; many other DC heroes spinoff from these three or bounce off of them in creative ways. Without them, you’re not working with a stable foundation.
Gunn realizes this, as he’s working on a new Superman film with a younger iteration of the hero. And while Affleck is out as Batman and Robert Pattinson’s iteration won’t be merged into the new DC Universe, Gunn says the Dark Knight is “a big part of the DCU.” I’d personally jettison Gadot as well, because if you’re gonna start anew, it’s best to go all in. At the end of the day, the big issue in front of the DC Universe is that it’s a mess of different visions that have tripped their way across this decade at Warner Bros.
Crisis on Infinite Earths
Let’s look back at where the DC Universe has been from a management perspective. When I mentioned Warner Bros. Pictures president Jeff Robinov back in the first section, it’s worth noting that he was out at Warner Bros the same month Man of Steel released. Director Zack Snyder was installed as the creative visionary of this universe under Robinov, with the DC films announced in 2014 all being based on his casting choices.
After the critical reception of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Warner CEO Kevin Tsujihara seemingly got cold feet. Three months after that film’s 2016 release, DC Entertainment chief content officer Geoff Johns and producer Jon Berg were installed as the leadership of the newly-named DC Studios. They tried to make an abrupt about-face in the middle of Justice League’s production. It didn’t go well.
Two years later, Johns and Berg were out. Toby Emmerich became President and Chief Content Officer of the Warner Bros. Pictures Group in 2017, taking control of the movie side of the company. In the transition from 2017 to 2018, Berg leaves DC Films and Johns is moved out of his leadership position, with New Line production executive Walter Hamada taking over DC Films. Johns steps down from DC Entertainment entirely by Summer 2018.
June 2018 also marks AT&T’s acquisition of Warner Bros. The newly-named WarnerMedia preps for the launch of HBO Max, giving Hamada leeway for his new vision: a connected universe film and streaming. At the end of 2020, Hamada revealed his vision to the world in a profile in the New York Times: four DC Films in theaters each year, plus a host of HBO Max spinoffs.
That vision was blindfolded and taken out back this year, following the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery. New Warner Bros. Discovery boss David Zaslav disliked Hamada’s plan, especially the HBO Max side of it. Batgirl, a nearly-finished film planned for release on Max, is canceled five months after the merger. Hamada is gone by October.
If you’re keeping track, that’s three different regimes in less than a decade. Four, if you count Gunn and Safran. And each of those regimes have tried to leave their mark on the DC Extended Universe. Here’s the announced films of each era, with released films in bold. (In terms of where I put a film, it’s largely based on when the final director signs onto the film; Shazam was announced prior to Johns and Berg, but Sandberg joined the film in 2017. )
Regime 1 (Snyder, 2013–2017): Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman, Justice League Part One, The Flash, Aquaman, Justice League Part Two, Cyborg, Green Lantern.
Regime 2 (Johns and Berg, 2016–2018): Shazam, Birds of Prey, Wonder Woman 1984
Regime 3 (Hamada, 2018–2022): The Suicide Squad, Peacemaker, Black Adam, Shazam: Fury of the Gods, The Flash, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, Batgirl, Green Lantern, Blue Beetle, Black Canary
I just don’t know how you wrangle that into a working, cohesive vision for a universe. Snyder’s specific flavor doesn’t really play well with Geoff Johns’ love of the Silver Age. Hamada didn’t really have a single fingerprint, preferring instead to be all things to all people.
Flashpoint
It’s worth exploring why Warner Bros. has wanted to have its own version of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I wrote earlier that the DC universe has yet to “cohere into something solid,” but that’s not the same as not having any successes. Wonder Woman was a critical win and made $817 million worldwide. Aquaman and Joker both made over $1 billion worldwide. If anything, the unconnected nature allows directors to chart their own course to a degree.
The issue is that it misses the real strength of the MCU. In the MCU, success raises all ships. Critics contend that they are similar films, but this means the audience can generally expect to be entertained. Black Widow launched in theaters and on Disney+ (paid) during the pandemic, but still made $379 million worldwide. That’s only $12 million under the recently-released Black Adam. People watch a Marvel film because it is a part of the MCU; you cannot entirely say the same for the DCEU.
When James Gunn talks about building “a cohesive story across film, TV, animation, and gaming,” this is the kind of thing he’s probably getting at. (I can’t put words in his head, I don’t know the man.) The ability to make the audience go, “I liked Black Adam, so I’ll go watch Shazam: Fury of the Gods in a few months.” That doesn’t really happen with DC films, because they have yet to build that cohesive trust.
Holding onto the past gets in the way of building this new foundation. If you keep Gal Gadot and do the third Wonder Woman film, you’ll have some measure of the audience wondering where the first two films fit and whether this is the same lady from Batman v Superman. You can run roughshod over that with an amazing film, but you can do the same with an amazing film *and* a new Wonder Woman, without touching upon the issue at all.
I think you can keep around some of the smaller characters, but the Trinity and the Big Seven — the “classic” Justice League lineup of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Aquaman, Green Lantern, and Martian Manhunter — should be characters that you nail. This is the foundation, these are the heroes that need to represent your cinematic universe. The “flavor” of these seven characters tends to determine the direction of any version of the DC Universe.
Gunn is currently saddled with different flavors of the Big Seven. No Cavill or Affleck, while carrying forward Gadot, Momoa, and Miller. There’s also no set Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter. (Yes, Snyder tried to do both of the latter heroes, but only one appeared in Zack Snyder’s Justice League and that’s not the primary version of that film.) It’s too messy. It’s too much. Gunn and Safran can make it work, but why?
Rebirth
Start anew. A new Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. Establish The Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter. Then fill out the specific corners of the DC Universe, with ensembles like the Suicide Squad, the Justice Society, Justice League Dark, and the Legion of Super-Heroes. Or smaller heroes like Blue Beetle, the Atom, Zatanna, and Firestorm. There’s room to have fun here, but the main crew needs to be strong.
This is also important because Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are major characters already known worldwide. Marvel Studios has made the Avengers A-listers, but that required time building up Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor. (I remember the Avengers in the 90s.)The real Marvel anchors are, and have always been, Spider-Man and Wolverine.
DC Studios has the chance to drop a new Superman into an era where Marvel Studios is working with newer, less familiar characters. (There’s a reason Kevin Fiege is likely holding onto X-Men.) WB gets to play with its A-team during Marvel’s indie era. Gunn and Safran get to provide a new image of the Trinity standing tall, defining what this DC Universe truly is.
I like Jason Momoa as Aquaman. I like Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. I actually want to see more of Pierce Brosnan as Doctor Fate, Aldis Hodge as Hawkman, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, or John Cena as Peacemaker. But I think Gunn and Safran will benefit from being able to start from Zero (Hour). If they have a real creative vision for the next decade, I think beginning the new universe on the right foot is better than trying to figure out if Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman meshes with, I dunno, Casey Cott’s Superman or Luke Grimes’ Green Arrow. (I just picked random young actors, please do not hurt me.)
It’s going to hurt. People are going to be angry that the band-aid is being ripped off. People are already angry, with Gunn stating that “Disrespectful outcry will never, ever affect our actions” on Twitter. But if Gunn and Safran really have a vision that lands, the rough waters of the clean slate will be forgotten in the face of a strong line of great films and television shows. And as a fan of DC heroes, that’s really what I’m waiting for. Get in there DC, and give Marvel some real competition, because that’ll make everyone’s films and shows better.
