Warner Bros. Will Begin Deemphasizing Its Cinematic Universe After JUSTICE LEAGUE
Geoff Johns and Diane Nelson address the future of the DC Extended Universe and make it clear that they intend on moving away from the concept of a shared world once Justice League is released in November.
Warner Bros. has had mixed success attempting to create a shared cinematic universe for its DC Comics properties so they're going back to the drawing board and, well, pretty much giving up the concept altogether! During a recent interview with Vulture, Geoff Johns and Diane Nelson revealed that while the studio isn't giving up on continuity, they're deemphasizing the idea of these movies all sharing the same world and having to cross over in the same way as the Marvel Cinematic Universe releases.
"Our intention, certainly, moving forward is using the continuity to help make sure nothing is diverging in a way that doesn’t make sense, but there’s no insistence upon an overall story line or interconnectivity in that universe," Nelson confirms. That should change this world in a big way following the release of Justice League but frees up future DC Films from all fitting together in neatly.
So, is this a smart move or an indication Warner Bros. is too lazy to do what Marvel Studios has so successfully managed since 2008? Well, Nelson and Johns are looking to Wonder Woman as an example of what future movies could look like. There was a nod to Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in there but it was otherwise completely standalone in nature and that's their new strategy.
"The movie’s not about another movie," says Johns. "Some of the movies do connect the characters together, like Justice League. But, like with Aquaman, our goal is not to connect Aquaman to every movie." As Nelson puts it, "Moving forward, you’ll see the DC movie universe being a universe, but one that comes from the heart of the filmmaker who’s creating them." To be fair, it makes sense!
When the site put it to Johns that the studio has no strategy, he got serious for a moment and said not to believe everything you read about what's to come: "Some of the stuff is true, some of it isn’t true. When we talk about things or we’re making deals for people to develop scripts or whatever, sometimes, things leak; sometimes, things are misreported, and it’s frustrating. Because we do wanna go out there and talk about what our strategy is, and this stuff just muddies the water. There’s a lot of internal conversations going on about, How do we help kind of clean that up a bit?"
How do you feel about this post-Justice League strategy? Share your thoughts in the comments section.