DC Entertainment Confirms New Standalone Side Label For Movies Like The Joker

Warner Brothers and DC Entertainment will be developing standalone films which do not exist in the DC Extended Universe, Geoff Johns has confirmed.

Following the news of a standalone Joker film produced by Martin Scorcese and directed by The Hangover‘s Todd Phillips, the fate of iconic DC Comics heroes’ future on the big screen was surrounded by question marks. DC Entertainment President Diane Nelson assured in a chat with Vulture, however, that the moves being made by the studio and filmmakers are “not chaos.” Instead, “it’s intentional,” Nelson promised.

Among those intentional moves is the “unnamed side label of occasional movies that are completely separate from everything else, set entirely outside the cinematic universe” Vulture reports. According to Johns, the name of this side label will be revealed “soon-ish,” though none of its films have release dates just yet.

The report goes on to state that DC Entertainment and Warner Brothers believe themselves to be “turning a corner” with their cinematic efforts going forward, which has seen new plans following the success of Wonder Woman. Where Wonder Woman stood mostly on its own, independent of heroes such as Batman and Superman, future DC Films which exist in the DC Extended Universe will do the same — beginning with Aquaman.

“Some of the movies do connect the characters together, like Justice League,” Johns said. “But, like with Aquaman, our goal is not to connect Aquaman to every movie.”

It’s a mixed bag of plans for DC Entertainment moving forward cinematically.

Put simply: there will be the DC Extended Universe, in which Ben Affleck’s Batman, Henry Cavill’s Superman, Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman, Jason Momoa’s Aquaman, Ezra Miller’s Flash, and Ray Fisher’s Cyborg co-exist with other soon-to-be introduced heroes. Though they’re in the same universe, the individual films may not be heavily influenced by the events occurring in others

At the same time, those heroes and other DC Comics characters may be re-imagined with new actors in standalone films, completely disconnected from the DC Extended Universe, allowing stories to be told which will not have any effect on any grander universe.

The next DC Comics film to hit theaters is Justice League on November 17, 2017.