The DC/WB Superhero Movies Thread

[Henry Gale]

This doesn't make any sense to me. They basically just want to do what comic book movies were like before the Marvel craze. How is it any more or less enticing to A-list actors and filmmakers that were never interested in comic book movies? The idea of making standalone superhero movies isn't suddenly special just because one company is successful at something different that, so far, no other studio has been able to replicate.

Well it's brought up a lot, but look at Edgar Wright with Ant-Man. He wanted to make an Ant-Man movie for Marvel since before the MCU was even a thing. Once it became the only option to make an non-X-Men/Spider-Man without tying it into everything else, he stuck with it for a while, but only up until they began to force things like Falcon and Agent Carter cameos on him with rewrites behind his back and he started to feel like he wasn't the one directing the movie anymore. Sure there were likely other reasons, but there's no doubt that if Marvel Studios had an option for filmmakers to do work that doesn't need to shoehorn threads for an Avengers movie down the line due to a creative force other than their own, then they'll be more likely to take meetings.

Not that they need to right now. DC does.

[Skitch]

Not that they need to right now. DC does.

I was with you up until this. Could you explain this thought more?

[Henry Gale]

I was with you up until this. Could you explain this thought more?

Just that before Wonder Woman they didn't have a great perception as being especially filmmaker-friendly (unless your name was Snyder) or critically praised, things they had in spades with Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy. So it's kind of funny that they're almost transparently trying to replicate that with possibly just making as many universe-detached Batman and Joker movies as possible. (Because how 'bout that Dark Knight, eh?)

Marvel is arguably in the most creatively and financially comfortable place a studio has ever been with so much successful output in such a short amount of time. By "Movie #2" the whole DCEU was being put into question, with a Batman they might still want to do away with despite what they might be publicly greenlighting.

They can't do a hard reset because they have a great Wonder Woman and high hopes that their Aquaman and Flash can steady things with their own unique solo films, but going into a Justice League that's most directly a continuation of BvS does them no favours for audience perceptions. WW surpassing all expectations is the best thing that could've happened to it for reinvested interest, but time will tell how much goodwill it sheds or gains for the DCEU at large on its own merits.

Again, this is the sort of problem I don't think Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios ever had. Their worst reviewed movies (2008's The Incredible Hulk and Thor: The Dark World five years and five movies later) are still "fresh" on RT and have the luxury of being perceived as minor in the grand scheme of their output.

So if we get a Matt Reeves Batman film without Affleck and a Todd Phillips Joker without Leto, then that's an exciting and interesting development for filmmakers and filmgoers who aren't completely won over by the mothership Batman they're currently committed to, but it also seemingly puts their competition with Marvel, universe to universe, as no longer their primary goal.

I really don't know what they do if the young Joker movie is a huge success and well-liked and they're still looking to bring back Leto for Suicide Squad 2 and its Harley spinoff. Restraint hasn't been their thing.