{"id":44378,"date":"2022-08-13T18:04:44","date_gmt":"2022-08-13T18:04:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/the-dceu-has-become-a-crisis-of-warner-bros-own-making\/"},"modified":"2022-08-13T18:04:44","modified_gmt":"2022-08-13T18:04:44","slug":"the-dceu-has-become-a-crisis-of-warner-bros-own-making","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/the-dceu-has-become-a-crisis-of-warner-bros-own-making\/","title":{"rendered":"The DCEU has become a crisis of Warner Bros.’ own making"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

One of the most curious details to come out of recent reports focused on the corporate fracas happening over at HBO Max and the rest of Warner Bros. Discovery was CEO David Zaslav’s announcement of an explicitly Marvel-esque, decade-long plan for the studio’s films based on DC’s comic books. To listen to Zaslav’s assertion that this move’s meant to \u201cgrow\u201d and \u201cprotect the DC brand,\u201d one might’ve gotten the impression that Warner Bros. wasn’t already in the midst of a years-long effort to build out a cinematic universe of superhero movies. To get that impression, though, one would somehow have to have forgotten or blocked out the DCEU, Warner Bros.’ most-recent constellation of loosely-connected, live-action comic book adaptations that began with Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel <\/em>in 2013.<\/p>\n

Looking at what happened to Batgirl<\/em>, <\/em>it’s fairly obvious that post-merger, the new guard at Warner Bros. Discovery wants to jettison or at the very least put some distance between itself and the DCEU’s current iteration (along with all the baggage associated with the endeavor.) But doing so is going to be an unenviable and almost impossible task for a multitude of reasons ranging from Black Man<\/em>‘s impending release this fall to the fact that the studio still seems very bullish about its upcoming flash<\/em> <\/em>feature starring actor Ezra Miller. <\/p>\n

The DCEU often felt like it was racing towards a crisis event that would either make or break the franchise. While there was the possibility of that crisis being fictional and an adaptation of one of DC’s capital-C Crises<\/em> storylines, what’s become far more clear over the past few weeks is just how fraught the DCEU’s future is, and how the studio might not be working with a solid gameplan.<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

<\/source><\/picture>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Ezra Miller as Barry Allen in Justice League.<\/em><\/figcaption>Warner Bros.<\/cite><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

The DCEU was plagued by a number of issues long before Warner Bros. took Discovery’s name like a general lack of cohesion, subpar storytelling, and an association with a toxic fandom whose obsession eventually devolved into harassment campaigns against studio executives. looking back, Justice League <\/em>as it was released in 2017 was a haphazard attempt to catch up to the MCU that put far too much faith in the power of people’s general familiarity with characters like Wonder Woman, Cyborg, and Aquaman who didn’t really have presences in the DCEU at the time.<\/p>\n

though Justice League <\/em>made quite a bit of money, it was a far cry from the financial success that Warner Bros. wanted and needed it to be. In the wake of the movie’s box office underperformance, one could plainly see Warner Bros. recalculating how it wanted to craft the DCEU, and opening itself up to the idea that the traditional DC Trinity \u2014 that is, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman \u2014 might not need to be the <\/em>pillars of the brand. <\/p>\n

\n