After saving a few million dollars by not letting anyone see the Leslie Grace-led Batgirl, Warner Bros. Discovery has decided that Marvel might have been onto something with their whole superhero thing. Merger mastermind and CEO of the blended behemoth companies David Zaslav announced on an earnings call that the media corporation is pressing the reset button on their biggest superhero properties, cribbing straight from Marvel’s notes with a 10-year vision to build a cinematic universe worthy of Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, and more.
“It’s very similar to the structure that Alan Horn and Bob Iger put together very effectively with Kevin Feige at Disney,” Zaslav said. “We think that we could build a long-term, much stronger, sustainable growth business out of DC and as part of that, we’re gonna focus on quality.”
Thank goodness they’re going to focus on quality.
Cutting through the business jargon, you’ve got to give Zaslav at least a little credit for being upfront about copying Marvel’s wildly successful model of introducing characters, weaving them into each other’s movies, and then teaming them up for a major event. Granted, that’s also not specifically what he said, but it’s what we can hope he means. Plus, Warner Bros. and DC have been down this path before, convinced that Zack Snyder was shepherding a cohesive expanded universe that never felt connected.
The looming question is how big of a reset this really is. With Wonder Woman and Aquaman‘s popularity, can you really fully clear the slate? Will they recast the major heroes and genuinely start fresh? Or will it be a Frankenstein’s monster vibe where Gal Gadot and Jason Momoa buddy up with a brand new Batman and Supes? And how can we make sense of a cohesive DC universe when Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga are making Joker movies while Robert Pattinson’s Batman is somehow outside the greater DC continuity?
A pure reset is a pipe dream. The challenge, then, will be how to replicate Marvel’s technical schematics while already up in the air.
(via The Wrap)