DC has recently started a new round of turmoil, starting with the $90 million investment in the ‘Batgirl’ movie being axed, with no chance of going straight to streaming. This is the second case in the field of superhero movies after Marvel’s ‘Fantastic Four’ movie was blocked after filming in 1994.
Today’s Rolling Stone magazine even revealed that the planned development of the ‘Supergirl’ movie has been called off; ‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’ on March 17, 2023 and ‘The Flash’ in June 2023 may have to be rescheduled, and Ben Affleck’s version of Batman appearing in ‘ Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’ is related.
This article synthesizes a number of media reports and will analyze the current state and future of the DC Universe.
The first thing to answer is why ‘Batgirl’, which cost $90 million, should be sealed directly, or at least streamed to increase the number of subscribers, as media reports indicate that the feedback after the pilot of ‘Batgirl’ was mediocre, about the same level as an episode of a bad American drama.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s new CEO David Zaslav said earlier that Warner, a long-established studio, should focus on making movies suitable for big-screen public release, and that going straight to streaming violates the position publicly stated by the new boss.
Add to that the fact that Warner Bros. Discovery has already restructured its strategy for HBO Max: laying off 70% of its technical developers and no longer highlighting HBO Max’s original films and TV shows, and it’s not practical for ‘Batgirl’ to be dumped into streaming again at this point.
The media said that HBO Max and Discovery Channel streaming would be reorganized, with the new HBO Max focusing on non-scripted programming, such as documentaries, reality TV, and variety. Scripted programming will be handled by HBO.
What’s more, CEO David Zaslav clearly has his own ideas about the DC universe, as can be seen in several details: not long ago ‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’ replays, Ben Affleck returned to the set to play Batman.
Rolling Stone’ magazine reported that Michael Keaton was originally cast as Batman in ‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’ and that audiences were quite confused by Keaton’s version of Batman after the previews (after all, Ben Affleck’s version of Batman and Aquaman interacted quite a bit in ‘Justice League’). Aquaman).
You know, Michael Keaton in ‘The Flash’ ‘Batgirl’ have played the role of Batman, that Michael Keaton version of the future of the DC universe should be weakened.
‘The Flash’ was originally scheduled for release on June 23, 2023, and with lead actor Ezra Miller in scandal, Warner is scrambling to figure out how to distribute the film.
In this “multiverse” have, Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck have played Batman, plus there is Robert Pattinson as Batman.
But the DC side does not have a movie like ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’, so that the three Batmen in the same frame.
‘Rolling Stone’ magazine reported that a director who once wanted to make a documentary about the development of the DC Universe asked Warner for access to material from ‘Zack Snyder’s Justice League’ and Warner responded, “We only have one Justice League, and that’s the one that was released in theaters in 2017.”
This year SDCC Comic Con, Marvel Cinematic Universe announced 4, 5, 6 stages of the process, there will even be “The Avengers 6”, while the DC side even Superman is who played are not determined.
There are foreign netizens joking, Marvel side of the reunion movie have been released 6, DC side only released 1, and this one also “on the screen” twice.
Although the influence of the fourth stage of the Marvel Universe declined, but still throughout the “multiverse” concept, can be used as the origin of the “multiverse saga” chapter. Generally speaking, the origin is always a bit more chaotic.
The DC universe is a different picture: both ‘Joker’, ‘Joker 2’, ‘The Batman’ and other completely independent DC movies (Joker has two more).
James Gunn’s ‘The Suicide Squad’, Peacemaker’ and ‘Shazam!’ have some relevance to Zack Snyder’s planned DC universe.
Wonder Woman’ ‘Aquaman’ series is also a legacy of Zack Snyder, ‘Black Adam’ has not yet been released, how to relate to the original DC universe characters, but also not yet clear.
DC’s films if the world view of each independent, or are unified under the same “multiverse”, okay. Now the problem is, Warner itself is not clear that the best way to go, take one step to settle the look.
The changes David Zaslav is currently exploring with Warner Bros. begin with throttling back, cutting six movies before revamping HBO Max.
Warner is not short of cash right now, and going live with the less-than-stellar quality of ‘Batgirl’ on HBO Max was a way to increase subscription numbers a little bit, but the damage was to the future of the DC Universe, which David Zaslav chose to seal.
In David Zaslav’s opinion, it is more important to consolidate the boutique properties of the Warner brand than to barely make some bad movies in order to continue the universe.
The future DC Universe movies are expected to choose between a fragmented and unified front, but they will be more quality-censored and must be considered “good movies” by executives before being released in theaters.
Related Post: Following “Batgirl”, “Supergirl” in development will also be axed .
Related Post: Fans fear ‘Peacemaker Season 2’ will be cut, James Gunn shares photos to appease.
