It has been a couple of very exiting days for Comic book movie fans. On Thursday night it was announced that theater actor Ray Fisher will be playing Vic Stone aka Cyborg in Batman vs Superman and tonight we got an unofficial announcement that Justice League will follow Batman vs Superman.
Based on the recent news I thought it would be interesting to analyze the road, including bumps in the road, to how WB/DC has gotten to a point where their cinematic universe is starting to take shape.
DCCU False Starts
We are all aware of Marvel’s success on building a cinematic universe, they have become quite infamous for it, they even made a documentary as way to pat themselves on the back for finding the right formula. Unfortunately other studios that own comic book properties have not figure out a way to get to that level yet, WB/DC’s has had most difficulty than most because for them it’s not a lack of trying but rather due to unsuccessful starts. The first rumored start was attempted after WB/Legendary had produced Batman Begins and Superman Returns. There was a certain level of excitement about these 2 titans sharing the screen in 2006, especially after they were seen together at the 2006 MTV movie awards, a lot of posters of Routh as Superman and Bale as Batman were Photoshoped that year
Unfortunately Superman Returns was a failure financially and critically and WB/Legendary decided to let Nolan continue his more grounded approach to Batman, while Superman Return sequels and any crossover ideas were put on the back burner.
Batman superman movie poster in "I am legend."
Still wanting to produce a Justice League, especially after Marvel had announced that their single movies would culminate in an Avengers team up, WB decided to produce a separate film series directed by George Miller (Mad Max , Happy Feet) in which the DC characters would have been portrayed digitally in the now infamous Justice League Mortal. This attempt at a Justice League movie never came to be, it literally never got started due to a loss of Australian tax breaks.
The third attempt was 2011’s Green Lantern, this was supposed to be the first one in a series of movies based on DC characters, lighter in tone, much like the Marvel movies, but just like Superman Returns, this movie was a failure financially and critically and placed plans for a cinematic universe on hold.
Man of Steel
After the multiple false stars, and the Nolan Batman trilogy coming to an end, WB/DC placed all its chips on one bet, and that was Zack Snyder’s Superman reboot, Man of Steel. Unlike Green Lantern, this Superman reboot took a lot from what had worked for Nolan’s grounded, more serious approach for Batman. The critical results for Man of Steel are mixed and dividing, but unlike Superman Returns, and Green Lantern, Man of Steel was very successful and it offered a good first building block for DC cinematic universe.
Justice League to follow Batman vs Superman
Many, including myself, had believe that Man of Steel would be followed by a series of solo movies featuring other DC characters and that those movies would interconnect and would eventually culminate with a Justice League movie but as we all know by now this is not the case. The tentatively titled Man of Steel sequel Batman vs Superman, is set to introduce and feature many DC characters, and the events of this movie will lead all these characters into a Justice League movie. This approach has been rumored and stipulated about before but it wasn't’t until tonight that fans got an unofficial confirmation. What does this all mean? It means DC/WB will reach the Justice League milestone sooner than expected.
The WB/DC Approach towards a cinematic Universe
The pattern by which WB/DC will be making decisions on how to build a cinematic universe has unraveled and here are my conclusions:
-The DC cinematic Universe, although started by a solo movie, it will be formed by series of team up movies. Batman vs Superman will be the first and it will be followed by a Justice League movie. Whether the movies that follow will be team up or solo remains to be seen.
- Batman vs Superman will feature Superman and Batman as its main characters while all other superhero characters will have very small introductory roles that will be expanded in Justice League.
- This was unofficially confirmed tonight; Batman vs Superman and Justice League will shoot back to back and will be released within a year of each other. Whether this will be pattern that DC movies will follow after Justice League remains to be seen, but WB/DC may begin releasing a DC based movie per year starting 2016.
-Zack Snyder, whether you love him or hate him, is the Architect of DC cinematic universe. Christopher Nolan is out of the picture, and even though his contribution will be felt since his Batman films set the tone to which these series of movies will be modeled after, it will be Zack Snyder the one that WB/DC has entrusted to create, what will most likely be the biggest comic book movie in history, Justice League.
-These team up movies will most likely give WB and DC the chance to test what characters could potentially spin off into their solo movies. We all know that eventually Batman will have his own solo movie, most likely the first solo movie after Justice League, but Wonder Woman, Cyborg, and the rumored Nightwing, Flash and Aquaman are all untested properties that WB/DC might not want to commit into a solo movie unless they characters are well liked and audiences demand a solo movie, perhaps a lesson learned from Green Lantern.
I am going to conclude this article by stating that I am optimistic that WB/DC can pull this off, but I am at the same time concerned that they might be biting more than they can chew. Time will be the judge on whether WB/DC is making the right decisions with these characters. All we can hope is that these movies are shaping to be the Batman vs Superman and Justice League movies we always wanted to see. Hopefully you guys enjoy reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it, as always leave your opinions and thoughts down below, and give it thumbs up if you liked it. Thank you for reading.