“The fate of the Warner Bros. films. DC Comics looks boring,” writes the Verge.
After the April merger between Warner Brothers and Discovery, they call it “pretty obvious” that “the new guard at Warner Bros. Discovery wants to ditch the current iteration of the DC Extended Universe, or at least distance itself from the current iteration of the DC Extended Universe (along with all the baggage associated with the effort.)”
The DC Extended Universe has long suffered from a number of problems…such as a general lack of cohesion, incoherent storytelling, and a connection to a toxic fandom whose obsession eventually escalated into a campaign to harass studio executives. In retrospect, 2017’s Justice League was a haphazard attempt to catch up with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which believed too much in the power of common familiarity with characters like Wonder Woman, Cyborg, and Aquaman that didn’t. were really present in the DC Extended Universe at the time.
Screen rent calls Justice League “a movie that polarized audiences and was less successful than Man of Steel at the box office” — then explains what happened next:
The DC Extended Universe has struggled with controversial or critically acclaimed films like Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad , but it wasn’t until Justice League that the franchise took a significant financial hit. Additionally, Justice League also marked the beginning of a series of behind-the-scenes controversies, and at this point, it’s hard to imagine the cast of Justice League returning for a sequel…
With Ben Affleck seemingly done with Batman and the studio wanting to move away from anything to do with Justice League, DC needed a way to bring together what was working, like Jason Momoa’s Aquaman and Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman , with new strategies like Michael Keaton [appearing in the upcoming Flash movie as] Batman. The answer seemed simple – the multiverse…
The fact that Batgirl, a film that was supposed to show the aftermath of The Flash’s multi-world journey, was canceled [last week] proves that the multiverse is no longer a priority for DC. Not only that, but right before Batgirl was announced to be canceled, it was reported that Ben Affleck would be replacing Michael Keaton’s rumored cameo in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom… During calls from Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslau mentioned on August 5 that the new direction will make upcoming DC Extended Universe films like Black Adam and The Flash “even better,” suggesting that remakes may be on the way.
