DC is one of the most storied names in American comic books, having introduced the superhero genre's first (Superman) and most popular (Batman) costumed heroes. In its 80+ years of publishing, DC has had plenty of ups and downs, but it's hard not to notice that right about now, it feels like a brand in distress. The cancellation of Batgirl has caused a profound backlash not just among fans, but among creative folks in Hollywood who are worried about what kind of standard it sets for Warner Bros. going forward. Meanwhile, the Arrowverse -- for a decade the most cohesive shared universe of DC characters -- is essentially over, with the announcement that The Flash will end in 2023.
The future for other projects is in doubt, too; while WB sources say Green Lantern is still alive at HBO Max, the streamer has dumped plans for a Wonder Twins movie and a planned DC anthology series titled Strange Adventures. And of course all of this follows a scattershot DC strategy that has, over the past decade, turned out as many critical and commercial misses as hits.
AT&T purchased Warner Bros. in 2018 to form WarnerMedia, with its principal focus being the launch of HBO Max, an ambitious and feature-rich streaming platform that instantly became an audience favorite despite a fairly high monthly price tag. But just four years later, AT&T sold Warner Bros. to Discovery. Now Warner Bros. Discovery seems intent on getting rid of basically everything AT&T did, including breaking down HBO Max and merging it with Discovery+ to form a bigger, more expensive monthly streaming service that will leave behind the HBO Max brand and the work and investment that went into building it up.
It's in this context that Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav announced last week that he and former Disney executive Alan Horn plan on building a ten-year plan for DC Films that he hopes will mirror what Marvel Studios did under Kevin Feige's leadership when they set out to tell the story of the Infinity Saga. This news was greeted with enthusiasm by quite a few people, and it's understandable why. A management team committed to sticking to a coherent plan could have solved a lot of WB's problems in recent years. Compare their terrified, clueless reaction to Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice to the approach Feige and company took to The Incredible Hulk or Iron Man 2, both of which came early in the MCU and likely under-delivered relative to expectations.
"It's very similar to the structure Alan Horn, [former Disney CEO] Bob Iger and Kevin Feige put together very effectively at Disney. We think we can build a much stronger, sustainable growth business out of DC," Zaslav told investors last week. "As part of that, we are going to focus on quality. We are not going to release any film before it's ready….DC is something we can make better."
There are some issues, though. First of all, while Zaslav publicly linked Horn's time at Disney with Feige's MCU success, the reality is that's a case of correlation, not causation. Not only was Horn not part of the initial MCU planning stages (he was working at Warner Bros. at the time, in fact), he didn't even join Disney until just about three weeks after the release of Marvel's The Avengers in May 2012.
That is not to say Horn isn't a successful studio head with a lot of great insight to share. He reportedly had a great relationship with the folks at Marvel and likely did play a key role in shaping the post-Avengers/pre-Endgame MCU. But it does feel like Zaslav is playing fast and loose with the facts in order to get people hyped up for WBD's DC "master plan."
The other problem is that a master plan needs a master. When Universal tried to launch Dark Universe, there were a lot of reasons that it landed with a dull "thud." But one key is that Universal did not have a Kevin Feige. In fact, despite numerous attempts at building shared universes inspired by Marvel's success, one of Hollywood's only constants in recent years is that nobody except Marvel has a Kevin Feige, because at this moment in time, Feige is a singular, visionary executive.
Under Feige, Marvel didn't just make a bunch of good movies that happened to tie in together. There was a lot more to it. Iron Man crafted a house style that the early MCU films would adhere to, giving them a sense of place. Using the same handful of screenwriters and script doctors to punch up each new installment helped to ensure that the characters feel and act consistently across various movies. And so far, Feige and Marvel have not shied away from anything they put out into the world, even when it wasn't as well-received as the rest. The vision for the MCU is holistic. They don't just say "well, that movie didn't make a billion dollars, so I guess we'll never mention any of those characters again."
The MCU is not perfect, and there are times when Feige seems to err too much on the side of being safe and generic, leading to some projects that feel more cookie-cutter than others. But Marvel have become expert cookie makers, so even those "safe" outings tend to be fairly entertaining and do pretty well at the box office.
So. Who could Zaslav turn to? Who could be his Kevin Feige? In all likelihood it will be a committee, not a single person; it doesn't seem like Zaslav is the kind of executive who would want to give one person that much power and that much control over one of WBD's biggest potential moneymakers. But for the sake of argument, who would be the "face" of that committee? We've got some ideas.
JJ Abrams
(Photo: Toni Anne Barson/WireImage via Getty Images)
JJ Abrams's Bat Robot has a deal in place with Warner Bros. already, and the rumor has always been that the studio wanted him to do some DC projects. This makes him a natural candidate, especially since he already has experience rebooting storied franchises.
While there are valid critiques of his Star Trek and Star Wars revivals, the reality is, the initial installments were both big successes with fans and critics alike. That immediate "bang" of a strong starting point for the "new-look" DC Film Universe is likely what Zaslav is looking for.
And as an added bonus, Abrams's hugely-successful revival of Mission: Impossible means that he has direct professional ties to Henry Cavill. Although the irony of integrating an executive who could be held partially responsible for the Super-stache into the DCEU would be hard to miss.
Greg Berlanti, the producer behind Arrow, The Flash, Doom Patrol, and Titans, has proven over the course of the last ten years that he has a great sense of what makes the DC Universe great. He also has feature film experience, and was even tapped at one point to develop a Booster Gold movie for the DCEU.
For a decade, the Arrowverse marked DC's most successful integration of the shared universe concept -- and in many cases, it was arguably a more cohesive application of the idea than even the MCU in terms of storytelling. With real money and studio support, he (along with his regular collaborators Marc Guggenheim and Sarah Schechter) seems like a great candidate to shape a plan for the next few years.
This one would likely put fans' teeth on edge, but could be a favorite internally, given The Rock's broad appeal and the fact that he and Black Adam director Jaume Collet-Serra are already in-house hires.
When Johnson spoke with ComicBook.com last month, the actor made some comments that led us to believe he has a good deal of control on Black Adam, and that he's part of the plans for the DC Films going forward.
"How can we create a movie that hopefully can create a shift, and change in the DC Universe?" Johnson asked ComicBook's Brandon Davis. "Yes, I've been saying in the hierarchy of power, but just where you can feel a shift in, 'Oh, this is a new era in the DC universe -- of tone, and sensibility, and violence, and walking that fine line between 'is he a bad guy? Is he a good guy? Do you understand? Do you agree? Do you empathize?'"
Another "in-house" choice would be James Gunn, whose The Suicide Squad thrilled critics and fans, but failed to connect at the COVID-cautious box office, but who successfully launched Peacemaker on HBO Max. That series turned out to be a big hit, and there are now spinoffs in the works for other characters (plus an Amanda Waller appearance in Black Adam).
There was a moment, after the enormous success of Guardians of the Galaxy, that it seemed like James Gunn would have a big role shaping the future of Marvel. Actually pulling the trigger on that at DC could help, and he would be likely to help push executives in the direction of embracing characters who aren't Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman (as well as convincing management to integrate TV and film more effectively).
Brad Bird would be an interesting choice. The filmmaker, who has done some hugely popular superhero movies in the form of The Incredibles series for Pixar, also worked with Warner Bros. once for the Superman love letter The Iron Giant. The difficulty here would be selling executives, and the audience, on Bird as alive-action filmmaker.
Still, Bird's involvement with the hugely successful Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol could provide a justification for giving him a shot, and his big-picture philosophy on superheroes seems like it could find a niche at DC.
Michael Chabon is an award-winning novelist and producer whose love for comics oozes out of almost everything he writes. His epic The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is supposedly in development now, but before that, he was the person in charge of shepherding the first season of Star Trek: Picard to the screen.
He also has a long history as a script doctor and a collaborative history in the writers' room for Hasbro.
