Warner Bros. Shouldn’t Be Putting Its Entire Bet on Superman

James Gunn’s Superman is under far more pressure to succeed than anyone could have ever suspected, and placing it under such scrutiny is a huge mistake on the part of Warner Bros. Discovery. Gunn’s Superman is set to arrive in theaters on July 11th, marking the official beginning of the DC Universe after its introductory animated series Creature Commandos on Max. Gunn’s DCU is planned as a soft reboot of the preceding DCEU, with some characters and plot elements from the latter carrying over. Given the circumstances of the DCEU’s very abrupt end and hard feelings among a not-insignificant percentage of fans (particularly regarding Henry Cavill’s Superman tenure being cut short) looming over the DCU, Gunn’s Superman already faced an uphill battle, but some new information indicates that it is bearing far more weight on its shoulders than that.

A recent report from Puck News has stated that Superman is viewed internally as holding “almost incalculable importance” to the future of not merely DC Studios and the DCU, but to Warner Bros. Discovery itself. The report also states that fear of Warner Bros. undergoing yet another sale or merger is increasingly palpable. Such reporting should be troubling for DC fans and general audiences alike, as is paints a clear-as-day picture of Warner Bros. yet again falling into the same trap they keep getting into with DC movies.

Warner Bros. Keeps Putting Far Too Much Pressure On Individual Movies To “Save” Or “Fix” DC

To begin with, the report on the incalculable importance Superman bears for Warner Bros. Discovery points to the studio having learned almost nothing from its prior mismanagement of DC movies. More specifically, this is about Warner Bros. frequently putting DC movies into a position of having to “save” DC on film or otherwise repair perceived damage to DC movies collectively based on the mixed or divisive reception of previous ones. This was most recently seen in the calamity of 2017’s Justice League, the infamously thrown together reworking of Zack Snyder’s original cut overlayed with Joss Whedon’s extensive reshoots and other significant alterations. Warner Bros.’ reflexive decision to can Snyder’s plans for the DCEU and rework Justice League at the eleventh hour stemmed for the polarized reception to Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but given the end result of Justice League flopping in theaters, horror stories of the cast and crew being mistreated by Whedon, and the far better received release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League (a.k.a. the Snyder Cut), the decision was clearly anything but a good call.

The side effect of Justice League 2017 was that the damage wrought by the studio edit left the DCEU directionless with multiple cast members either out or only loosely connected to the franchise, and no overarching plan established to replace Snyder’s. With WB’s decision to more or less wing it with the DCEU from Justice League on, individual DCEU movies were put in the unfair position of having to bear the weight of revitalizing the franchise single-handedly. Black Adam‘s mantra of “the hierarchy of power in the DC Universe is about to change” was actually a lot truer than it seemed, as it alluded not simply to Dwayne Johnson’s determination to set up a Black Adam-Superman showdown (and behind-the-scenes struggles to get Henry Cavill back in the cape), but a movie like Black Adam itself, centered on far lesser-known DC heroes like its titular anti-hero and the Justice Society of America, having to overcome years of baggage and mismanagement and post unreasonable Dark Knight-level numbers.

In some form or fashion, preceding DCEU movies like Shazam!, Wonder Woman 1984, Birds of Prey, and The Suicide Squad had also been tasked with “fixing” the franchise rather than telling their own stories and guiding the franchise into its next chapter. The announcement of James Gunn’s DCU plans also pulled the plug on the DCEU and essentially threw its last four movies to the wolves, with the exception of The Flash, which Gunn and DC Studios very clearly positioned and marketed as an essential pillar of DC’s cinematic future. However, releasing a tentpole superhero movie into a situation where the tent of its own franchise has been ripped away and asking it to do big business is far too much to ask even of the Scarlet Speedster, and it is arguable that The Flash, like DC’s three other 2023 movies, was simply set up to fail by being released into such unfavorable circumstances (ironically enough, Dark Flash’s determination to “fix” his timeline leading to the near destruction of the multiverse is some sharp commentary on Warner Bros.’ repeated attempts to “fix” the DCEU doing infinitely more harm than good.)

With such a well-documented history of Warner Bros. burdening DCEU movies with repairing the studio’s own mishandling of the franchise rather than allowing them to progress the franchise as intended, one would think that DC Studios and Warner Bros. Discovery would have learned an important lesson on giving a burgeoning franchise time to breath and managing mixed financial or audience reception in a considered and calculated manner before going into a panic. Instead, it seems that Warner Bros.’ mishandling of DC has, if anything, grown exponentially under David Zaslav’s stewardship, with Superman now tasked with saving Warner Bros. Discovery itself — not DC as a cinematic IP, not the DCU, not even DC Studios, but Warner Bros. Discovery as a Hollywood studio. To call this level of pressure on Superman ridiculous, short-sighted, and irresponsible would be an understatement, but it also sadly tracks with Warner Bros.’ larger history as the owners of DC.

Warner Bros. Has A Bad History Of Being Very Reactionary With DC Movies (To Their Detriment)

It might be easy for many anticipating the DCU’s beginning to label WB’s micromanagement of DC movies as solely a product of Zack Snyder’s DCEU tenure, but it has sadly been something of a dark tradition that DC films have had to endure — going all the way back to the making of Richard Donner’s Superman. That movie was filmed simultaneously with Superman II, but behind-the-scenes turmoil between Donner and the movie’s producers, the Salkind brothers, led to Donner’s termination from the sequel even after Superman‘s massive success in 1978. The Salkinds subsequently hired Richard Lester to replace Donner for Superman II (though Donner’s version was eventually released as Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut in 2006), with Lester reshooting a majority of the film and returning to helm the ill-received Superman III. By that point, the Salkinds had all but lost faith in the Superman franchise, leading to Superman IV: The Quest for Peace being optioned to Cannon Films, given a paltry budget, bombing in theaters, and putting the Superman franchise on ice for nearly 20 years.

The Dark Knight had a similar and arguably far worse trajectory in his own leap to movie screens, with Tim Burton’s Batman being 1989’s summer movie hit to beat, only for the divisive reaction to 1992’s Batman Returns leading to Warner Bros. redirecting the franchise to safer waters with Joel Schumacher’s much-lighter Batman Forever in 1995. Unfortunately, that movie’s success taught WB the wrong lesson to turn 1997’s Batman & Robin into an even campier toy commercial, and its subsequent failure sent Batman into retirement until Christopher Nolan’s 2005 reboot, Batman Begins.

Superman Returns later suffered a similar fate of being positioned as Kal-El’s grand return to cinemas, only for the movie’s underperformance and lukewarm reception to effectively end the Christopher Reeve Superman franchise (Brandon Routh’s Superman being the same Man of Steel as Christopher Reeve’s.) While Christopher Nolan avoided Warner Bros.’ reactionary oversight long enough to complete the Dark Knight trilogy, that’s the exception to what has been a lamentable rule within WB of building up audience excitement for a grand future for DC on the big screen, only to either radically divert course or pull the plug all together at the first sign of trouble. Or, in the case of rumors of Matt Reeves’ The Batman franchise being retconned into Gunn’s DCU (which Gunn and Safran have debunked), movies being fundamentally reworked in films they were never intended to embody in damaging ways. That history has also directly led into the most persistent challenge that Warner Bros. has not managed to shake with DC on film.

[RELATED – Superman: James Gunn Confirms Timeline With Creature Commandos and Peacemaker Season 2]

Wonder Why Fans Keep Pining For The Snyderverse’s Revival? Here’s Your Answer

Amid the beginning of the DCU, the push among many fans for the completion of Zack Snyder’s intended five-part Justice League story has not vanished into oblivion, as many might have expected. In fact, the #RestoreTheSnyderVerse calls have only lingered as an inescapable element of all talk about DC movies. James Gunn and Zack Snyder themselves clearly recognize this, as evidenced in their recent friendly social media picture together, and no reasonable analysis of the image could deny that Gunn and Snyder absolutely knew it would all but encourage further campaigning for and even speculation of the Snyderverse’s return. While many might question the ongoing calls for the Snyderverse’s revival as being a lost cause in light of the DCU’s rise, the circumstances both of how it came to be and the choppy waters it is already headed into actually make it quite easy to understand.

The drama of WB’s revamping of Justice League, the circumstances of Snyder’s exit from the film, the treatment of the cast and crew during the reshoots, WB covering up the Snyder Cut for years, and the studio’s subsequent attempts to downplay it upon its release have all accumulated a great deal of ill will towards Warner Bros. among Snyder’s fans. Coupled with the positive mainstream response to the Snyder Cut (which sparked a 1.5 million #RestoreTheSnyderVerse Twitter trend on March 25, 2021), Warner Bros. still meandering in no clear direction with DC, and Henry Cavill’s Superman comeback in Black Adam ending right after it began, it’s hard to argue that those enamored with the DC Universe launched under Zack Snyder’s watch don’t have quite a lot to be justifiably upset about, which gives some context to the continued Snyderverse push as the DCU kicks off.

Now, with the news that even James Gunn’s Superman has an entire studio riding on it (and one overseen by a CEO known for cancelling movies for tax write-offs, no less), Warner Bros. Discovery and DC Studios have frankly done as much to inadvertently keep the Snyderverse alive as the preceding regimes of Warner Bros. did. After all, when Warner Bros. has such an established history of pulling the rug out from under one growing DC franchise after another, and with the added news of Superman‘s absurd task of saving Warner Bros. Discovery with talk of yet another sale or merger on the horizon, the DCU is already facing many of the same PR nightmares and studio interference that the DCEU dealt with. Add in Snyder’s plans for Justice League 2 and Justice League 3 being made public during the Snyder Cut’s release, and there’s little difficulty in understanding why many fans favor a return to the simplicity and certainty of following Snyder’s roadmap to the finish line over the never-ending turbulence of WB’s constant attempts to course correct DC. If even the DCU reboot that was deemed the safer option by WBD is already in jeopardy, it’s not unreasonable for fans to ask what the point of even going that route was, especially since finishing Snyder’s plans involves a handful of remaining movies.

Should DC Become Another Studio’s Property To Manage? It Might Be The Best Outcome

Parallel to the topic of the DCU already running into the wall of WBD placing all of its chips on Superman, there’s also the aforementioned element of the Puck News report speaking of “genuine fear” that Warner Bros. Discovery may be headed the way of 20th Century Fox in being bought by another studio. In the event the Warner Bros. is sold or bought by another studio a la Fox’s acquisition by Disney, it will be the third such merger that WB has undergone in less than a decade, following the studio’s previous ownership by AT&T and subsequently Discovery. It’s not exactly controversial to say that that history paints Warner Bros. as a very unstable company. The added context of their handling of DC and the latest news of Superman being the only thing that can save WBD has led many DC fans to further advocate such a sale of the studio, or simply handing off DC to another party (the #SellSnyderVerseToNetflix hashtag being one of the more prominent such examples). With the latest reporting on the situation at Warner Bros. Discovery and DC Studios, one can’t help but wonder if maybe fans making such calls might not have the right idea.

With just four months to go until Superman‘s release, it already seems that the DCU is heading into a do or die moment that far exceeds the stakes of simply one movie being successful enough for a franchise to be greenlit. Moreover, with much of the DCU’s announced slate already having shifted to the backburner, per a recent interview with Gunn and Safran, it’s not unfair to ask why Warner Bros. Discovery and DC Studios canned the DCEU for the DCU if there’s such a genuine possibility that they might not even follow through on the latter. Furthermore, it can’t help but raise the question of whether another studio merger or limited licensing agreements with other studios and streaming platforms to make DC movies and TV shows might be the best case scenario for the future of DC in movies and TV.

Warner Bros. has a clear track record of interfering and reworking DC movies in ways that ultimately prove detrimental, which has put DC movies in a decades-long cycle of “reboot-studio panic-course correct-reboot again” that has consistently frustrated audiences and undermined growing DC franchises midway through. With the DCU already running into that before it’s even begun, there might be more justification than ever for DC coming under new management. In the long run, WB’s terrible habit of micromanaging their DC properties either being reigned in by a less skittish parent company or avoided all together via limited licensing deals with other studios might be the only way fans of DC (including and perhaps especially Snyder and Gunn fans alike) can get invested in a DC Cinematic Universe without the constant fear of it being prematurely taken away.

James Gunn’s Superman will be released in theaters on July 11th.