At long last, we might finally be seeing more characters from the DC Films logo, which plays in front of every DC movie in theaters (and is seen above), come to life in the DC Extended Universe?
According to Collider, during Warner Bros. Discovery‘s second quarter 2022 earnings call, the company’s CEO David Zaslav revealed that they were finally getting their shit together and mapping out a cohesive, structured plan for the DCEU. Here’s his full statement:
“We have done a reset. We’ve structured the business. There will be a team with a 10-year plan focusing just on DC. It’s very similar to the structure that Alan Horne and Bob Iger put together very effectively with Kevin Feige at Disney. We think we could build a long-term, much more sustainable growth business out of DC, and as part of that, we’re going to focus on quality. We’re not going to release any film before it’s ready… The focus is going to be, how do we make each of these films, in general, as good as possible? DC is something we can make better, and we’re focused on it now. We have some great DC films coming up. ‘Black Adam,’ ‘Shazam!,’ and ‘Flash.’ We’re working on all of those. We’ve seen them, and we think they’re terrific, and that we can make them even better. That’s what Mike [De Luca] and Pam [Abdy, Warner Bros.’ new motion picture heads] are doing.”
Look, that’s all great, but I’ve heard this before, Zaslav. We all remember when Warner Bros. jumped the gun back in 2014 and announced 10 movies that would be coming out between 2016 and 2020, as well as standalone films for Henry Cavill’s Superman and Ben Affleck’s Batman. Do you want to know how many didn’t see the light of day? Justice League Part Two, Cyborg, Green Lantern Corps., Man of Steel 2 and Affleck’s The Batman. And technically, The Flash still hasn’t come out yet and WB originally promised the film would hit theaters in 2018. So yeah, you’ve already tried and failed at this before.
Granted, by 2020 you had added some films as replacements, but I’m not sure Birds of Prey and Wonder Woman 1984 are really equal replacements for a Justice League sequel and a Green Lantern Corps. movies (especially since Birds of Prey didn’t even feature BATGIRL!).
Zaslav wasn’t clear (at least from what I’ve read online) about whether this 10-year plan is for all DC theatrical content or just the DCEU. But he did say that The Flash was still on track for release in 2023, so maybe he’s about to crack open the DC Multiverse and make Joker and The Batman set on Earth-2 and Earth-3 of the DCEU? I honestly don’t know.
There are six DC films currently scheduled to come out over the next three years (after Warner Bros. axed Batgirl earlier this week): Black Adam and Shazam! Fury of the Gods in 2022; Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, The Flash, and Blue Beetle in 2023; and Joker: Folie à Deux in 2024.
Are you happy Warner Bros. seems to finally be planning a future for the DCEU? What DC films do you think he’ll greenlight first?
