In October of 2022, a cheer rose from the world of comic book movie fans. Warner Brothers Discovery announced that James Gunn, writer/director on the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, and Peter Safran, producer of the successful Conjuring shared universe at Warners, would be appointed co-chairs and co-CEO’s of DC Studios and would revamp the world of films containing DC Comics characters. It would be a four-year contract, starting with an ambitious slate of films and streaming shows.
People were stoked that Gunn, who once said he didn’t want to run DC (or Marvel for that matter), would be helming the new era of DC Comics adaptions. Gunn has proven himself a quality filmmaker who loves and respects the comic book medium. Buzz grew when it was revealed that Gunn would be writing the first film of what they were calling “Chapter One: Gods and Monsters”: a new Superman reboot.
Filming has begun on that reboot and the new era has just begun. I still have some of the same reservations that I aired back when the news broke of the new regime being put in place. Over the years writing for this site, I have accused of being anti-DC, even so far as being accused of getting a kickback from Disney, because I point out the mistakes Warners has made with the franchise again and again. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. I love DC Comics. I love their history and I love their characters. I WANT their films to succeed.
Taking that into consideration, I will do my best to give the new regime some advice on how to avoid the mistakes Warners had made in the past with the DC films and to avoid potential new ones that come up. Some of these suggestions Gunn and company might already be doing. Some might be potholes they already know to avoid. And who the hell am I to be telling them anything. But I want this new reboot to succeed. So, I’m going put this into the world to hope that it generates some good juju.
Here we go, starting with the most important one.
1. Make sure David Zaslav doesn’t cancel any of the DCU films
Ike Perlmutter was known as a notorious skinflint while he was CEO of Marvel. Rumors said that he would make his employees reuse paper clips and kept open only one bathroom per floor to cut costs. But he seems like a spendthrift compared to David Zaslav. After Discovery completed its merger with Warner Brothers in 2022, CEO Zaslav has been on a cost cutting spree, killing CNN+ only three weeks after its debut, removing a number of episodes of classic series from its streaming service to save on residuals and other cost-cutting methods that didn’t really seem to work.
Perhaps his most controversial money saving method was his habit of cancelling completed or nearly completed films and taking the budget as a tax-write off. He raised the ire of comic book film fans when he cancelled Batgirl as it entered its post-production phase. The company tried to control the narrative as it went out of its way to say that film was unreleasable, with Peter Safran even saying that releasing the film would “hurt DC.” That kind of rang hollow after WBD released The Flash starring serial accused sociopath Ezra Miller in the lead. Batgirl couldn’t have been as big a black eye as that. But we’ll never know. Only a handful of people saw any part of the film.
That wasn’t the case with Coyote vs Acme, the third film WBD shelved (The second was the CGI animated Scoob! Holiday Haunt). Coyote Vs. Acme was screened for test audiences and tested very well. Many who saw it raved about the film, which was cowritten by James Gunn, by the way. WBD still ended up shelving it, even after it let it be shopped around to other studios.
This leads to a rather uncertain reality at WBD. Without much rhyme or reason, regardless of quality, a film can be shelved for a tax-write off. Some have tried to say that this was just Zaslov being unwilling to spend any more money on films from the prior regime. But how can we be sure?
Gunn has stated that he is going to create quite the intricate shared universe with the DCU. If Zaslov and WBD decide to shelve one or more DCU projects, that shared universe will be compromised, and fans will revolt.
2. Set a distinct parameter between the DCEU and DCU
One of the most frustrating things about the buildup for the DCU is Gunn’s vagueness of where the old DC Extended Universe ends and the new DCU begins. In a world where DC film fans want a clean break, we are getting a soft reboot, or so it seems.
Take Blue Beetle for instance. Originally, it was part of the DCEU. Then Gunn stated that the film was disconnected from the DCEU and the character could be part of the DCU. And then the film’s director, Angel Manuel Soto, implied that the film would be part of the DCU. Finally, Gunn said that while Xolo Maridueña will be the DCU’s Blue Beetle, his film isn’t a DCU film. Superman will be the first DCU film.
Confusing? Hell yes! And needlessly so. We know that there will be actors from the DCEU carrying over to the DCU (More on that in a minute). Just say that Maridueña will be carrying over without all the rigmarole about his film. There is very little to tie Blue Beetle to the DCEU so it could be a DCU film. But I guess it’s important for Gunn to be sure he personally oversees all the DCU films, so it won’t be a DCU film. The end result is that it looks like Gunn and WBD don’t have a concrete plan for the new series of films. It shouldn’t be this hard to draw a line in the sand and tell us when one era ends and the next one begins.
3. Carry more DCU actors over
In the last episode of the 11th season of Saturday Night Live, there was a cliffhanger ending. There was a fire in the studio and the entire cast was in jeopardy. Lorne Michaels chose to save only one cast member–Jon Lovitz, whose pathological liar Tommy Flanagan was the breakout character of the season. The fate of the rest of the cast, including Robert Downey Jr, Dennis Miller, Randy Quaid and others, was left up in the air. Naturally, the fire wasn’t real, but not all of the cast returned for the 12th season. It was an inventive way to telegraph the impending shake-up of the cast.
What does this have to do with James Gunn and the DCU? Well, let’s call the DCEU a fire. More of a dumpster fire than a studio fire, but still. James Gunn came in and saved three cast members: Xolo Maridueña (Blue Beetle), Viola Davis (Amanda Waller), and John Cena (Peacemaker). The fate of the rest of the actors are up in the air. My argument is that Gunn should go back into that fire and take out a few more actors.
The no-brain choice would be Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. Other than Christopher Reeve as Superman, Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, and J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson, you’ll be hard pressed to find a more perfect marriage of actor and character as Robbie and Harley. She has come to totally define the role that I can’t think of another actress that could do better.
You could also say the same about Gal Gadot and Wonder Woman. A warrior princess who fights for peace is a hard character to play, but Gadot pulled it off.
Jason Momoa plays Aquaman in the DCEU. He is rumored to be up for Lobo in the DCU. He won’t be playing both in the DCU. However, if I had to pick a role for Momoa to play, I’d pick Lobo every day of the week and twice on Sundays. His personality both on and off screen is better suited for Lobo. He made a great Aquaman, but I’d prefer one that hewed closer to the comics.
There is a precedent for this. The Bond films have carried supporting casts over and Simmons reprised his role as J. Jonah Jameson in the MCU. A new broom does sweep clean, but it shouldn’t sweep the wheat with the chaff.
4. Tap into more of the DC Comics IP
I’m going to file this under “things James Gunn is already doing.” I never thought I’d see Metamorpho in live action, but he will be appearing in Superman. I also never thought we’d be getting an Authority movie in my lifetime, but that’s coming too.
Gunn does know his DC Comics obscura and he know the way to introduce them into his films, based on the Z-grade heroes he put into The Suicide Squad. However, Warner Brothers in all of their years of making DC Comics films and TV Shows have only scratched the surface of the great catalog of characters DC Comics has published over their more than 80 years in existence. Hopefully, more of these great characters can have the chance to shine.
Granted, Gunn has to make money for WBD, so Superman and Batman will have to have a number of films in Gunn’s DCU, but hopefully Gunn can find room in the future for characters such as the Legion of Super-Heroes, Deadman, or the New Gods to make it to the big screen or the small screen.
5. Make DC Elseworlds mean something
Not every DC Comics character might fit into Gunn’s plans for the DCU. I understand that. But there is a WBD shingle that could be home for these outlier characters: DC Elseworlds. Gunn said as much in his press tour after he took over the DC films.
DC Elseworlds currently appears to be home to any project that existed or was in the works before Gunn to over (like Superman and Lois) or the boutique films that were outside of continuity already (director Matt Reeves’s The Batman and the upcoming Joker: Folie à Deux). Peter Safran has said that the bar is going to be high for a film to made under the DC Elseworlds logo. That’s a refreshing change from the past regimes which didn’t seem to have any bar of any height for any DC film to be made.
This statement makes me believe that DC Elseworlds will be used sparingly. It shouldn’t. I think Gunn and Safran should lean into it. Yes, it could be a place where if Steven Spielberg wants to revive that Blackhawks film he was attached to in 2018, it can be released there. But it should also be used to adapt classic DC Comics stories that don’t fit into the DCU, stories that appeared in the DC Elseworlds imprint in the comics, as well as one that appear in their Black Label and Vertigo labels too. Classic stories like Kingdom Come, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, The Golden Age or Tom King and Greg Smallwood’s recent Human Target. Don’t just keep DC Elseworlds a place where you put concepts that you don’t want to fit into the DCU. Make it into a place where special projects go to be seen.
6. Keep studio interference to a minimum
Back in March of last year, I made this observation in my State of the Comic Book Film feature:
…95% of Warner Brothers’ problems getting a slate of DC Comics films up and running lie with the studio itself and the people running it. And the studio isn’t going anywhere.
I still stand by that. Dating all the way back to the Donner Superman films, you can find examples Warner Brothers meddling with its DC Comics films to the detriment of the end product. It paints the studio as one that has no idea how comic book films work, but one that does not let it stop them from wrecking the films based on the mistaken idea that they do.
James Gunn has said again and again that DC Studios is separate from Warner Brothers Films and there will be no meddling. However, there have been reports that Gunn and Safran do not enjoy that type of autonomy. If WBD decides to put its grubby hands on the DCU, not only will there be quality issues, but potentially a huge power struggle. This is one of the main reasons why I am hesitant to go all-in on Gunn’s vision.
7. Stay true to the spirit of the characters as they appear in the comic books.
James Gunn, in response to a fan asking him what inspired his take on Superman other than the Donner films, presented a slide show of all of his influences. The images are taken from some of the best, most iconic Superman stories of all time: from Joe Shuster’s original version to Curt Swan’s trademark take from the Silver Age, from Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly’s All-Star Superman to Alan Moore and Curt Swan’s Whatever Happened to the Man of Steel?, from the Fleischer Studios animated features from the 1940s to the Superman cartoon from the 1990s. It was a diverse array of interpretations, but each captured a little of what made Superman great. It showed that Gunn was on the right footing, and his Superman would be way better than Snyder’s version.
Then why am I including this tip? The Vigilante from Peacemaker.
The Vigilante was created by Marv Wolfman and George Perez in the pages of New Teen Titans. He is Adrian Chase, an ambitious district attorney whose family is killed in a car bomb that was meant for him. He decided to take justice into his own hands afterwards as The Vigilante.
This is fairly boilerplate vigilante origin stuff, not far removed from Death Wish or the Punisher. What made Adrian Chase different is that he at first attempted to not kill the criminals he went after. But over the 50 issues of his own series, his methods became more brutal, in the process becoming more and more mentally unhinged. He eventually had a moment of clarity and repulsed by the lengths he went through in his mission, took his own life.
Gunn made the character a socially maladjusted, sociopathic busboy with a kill crazy streak.
It was a more comedic take on the character that fit what Gunn wanted to do with the series. It was the kind of change that killed other comics book films and TV series. I’m sure Gunn thought that since the character hadn’t appeared in comics since 1999 and the producers of Arrow already included a version of the character in the show that was a different version from the comics, he could change it anyway he wanted to. But every comic book character is someone’s favorite. You make their favorite into a joke, you’ve just aliened that customer. Gunn should know this and should know better. His Superman looks to be on point. But if he doesn’t keep the same fidelity with the rest of the DC characters, he might not make it through his 4-year contract, let alone his 10-year plan.
8. Make the connection between the films and TV a solid one
On September 24, 2013, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. debuted on ABC and Marvel fans expected a little bit of the MCU in their living rooms every week. What they got was a whole lot of lip service, the occasional appearance from Nick Fury and Sif, and pretty much the series operating on their own as if they weren’t part of the MCU. The Marvel Netflix shows had it even worse. There was the occasional mention of the Battle of New York, but they too were left on an island. Even the universe imperiling events of Avengers: Infinity War couldn’t generate a crossover between the films and the shows. A lot of fans were left disappointed.
Safran and Gunn promised more interconnectivity between the DCU’s films and TV shows, taking time to point out that Lanterns will play into the main plotline of the DCU. I hope they aren’t lying. Because fans don’t like the possibility of becoming invested in a streaming show because it ties into a movie franchise only to find out it doesn’t. You don’t have to have, say, Superman appear in everything. But you have to make all the shows feel like they effect the DCU.
9. Keep budgets low reasonable
It’s expensive to make a superhero movie. We all know that. But there’s realistically expensive and stupidly expensive. Warners made some stupidly expensive films for the DCEU. They threw good money after bad trying to chase a $1 billion payday that they had no chance of ever meeting. The DCEU films had an average budget of $177 million each. That means every film had to average $442 million (2.5 times its budget) in grosses to break even. Only six of the 15 DCEU film reached that plateau. And, yes, I know this on average. Some DCEU films were very successful. Some were only disappointments in relationship to their costs. But still. The DCU wouldn’t be about to arrive if Warners were thriftier with their budgets during the DCEU era.
James Gunn has seemed to address this. He said that no film will be made without a script that’s ready to shoot. He hopes this will cut down on costly reshoots and making up scripts on the fly. Whether this policy holds up if any film bombs a test screening or not remains to be seen. But Gunn shouldn’t stop there. Try to keep cost down wherever he can without sacrificing quality. The less a film costs to make, the more it will make back. That is simple economics.
10. Be open for a crossover with Marvel
I know, I know. Just hear me out.
Starting in the late 1970s, Marvel and DC started doing a sporadic series of team-ups between their characters. Superman and Spider-Man. Batman and the Hulk. X-Men and the New Teen Titans. In the 1990s, sure in part due to the flagging sales of the comic book industry, there were about two of these crossovers a year.
But after 2002, JLA vs. Avengers, regimes changed, insults were hurled, and this type of intercompany crossover was done, presumably forever. However, it was recently announced that the two companies will be teaming up once again to reprint some of these classic crossovers for modern audiences. This has rekindled the hopes amongst fans that the two companies might put out more crossover events.
The thought that Disney and WBD would work together is unlikely, but not impossible. They worked together in the past, on 1988’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. All I am saying is that if we are entering a deadly period of comic book film fatigue and the genre is about to come to an end, a good way to rekindle interest or give it a big sendoff would be to bring the two franchises together.
I only offer these suggestions in the hope that we will see some great DC Comics films and shows in the future. Hopefully, they won’t need them.
