This morning came DC Studios’ announcement of their massive new slate of ten films and shows, along with others TBD, which all make up ‘Chapter One’ of a two-chapter, ten-year plan for the future of DC Comics adaptations for film, television and games.
It’s a massive new vision of a cinematic universe from DC Studios chiefs James Gunn and Peter Safran which was unveiled last night at a press event on the Warner Bros. studio lot.
The move is seen as DC’s answer to Marvel’s successful cinematic universe which has dominated the box-office consistently in a way DC has only been able to envy since it began its own DCEU a decade ago with “Man of Steel”.
Sure there have been hits from “Wonder Woman” and “Aquaman” to The Batman” and “Joker”, but there have been plenty of misfires too and an overall sense for years that no-one was really behind the wheel with decisions left up to the whims of executives and accountants who cared more about meeting profit margins and schedules than craft.
Gunn got pretty blunt about how undercooked DC adaptations have diluted the overall brand and says things have to change:
“Well, the history has been s–t. It’s been a real f—d up journey for DC. I think that there was basically no one minding the mint, and they were giving out IP to any creatives that smiled at whoever was in charge.
There was never any real power given to the people in charge. And so somebody could always go over their head and do whatever they wanted. We had the DCEU, which then became the Joss Whedon Justice League, but it also became the Snyderverse, which became this.
We have Wonder Woman, then we have Wonder Woman 2, which doesn’t even match what happened in Wonder Woman 1. And then we have the Arrowverse, and even us coming in with The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker and, what is it exactly? And then all of a sudden Bat-Mite’s a real guy.
So how can we take these things together and make them make sense and have them unified and have it one real universe, one real world?”
This new world could stretch to the pre-existing four DC films Gunn and Safran have inherited from the old regime and he explains how those pieces fit into their new plans:
“I think that we’ve gotten lucky with the next four movies, frankly, because we have [Shazam! Fury of the Gods], which leads into The Flash, which resets everything, which then goes into Blue Beetle, which is totally disconnected. He can totally be a part of the DCU, [which] goes into Aquaman [and the Lost Kingdom], which leads into [Superman: Legacy], our first big project.
But the one thing that we can promise is that everything from Superman forward, or, actually, you’ll see in a second, from our first project forward, will be canon and will be connected. We’re using some actors from the past. We’re not using other actors from the past, but everything from that moment forward will be connected and consistent.”
That means one unified creative force behind DC which will encompass movies, series, animation, and gaming. Peter Safran says there’s also room in how and where these projects manifest – especially in terms of series saying they “have the ability to sell outside of HBO Max, if that makes sense” and that they “like the idea of having shows on Amazon and Hulu and Netflix” to broaden the DC audience.
Safran adds they have Warner Bros. Discovery’s support where it counts – financially: “Their investment in content creation is spectacular. It’s huge. There, they haven’t cut back. There’s no question of ‘Do we have the resources?’ I have zero doubt that they will commit.”
