Friday, September 11, 2020

Warner tapping their DC Live Action Multiverse is the best move they ever did!


It all began with the big Justice League Movie flop. Which eventually cancelled their big plan to catch up with Marvel's Cinematic Universe. The haphazardly planned DC Extended Universe went on a nose dive that was heading towards obscurity. Leaving the future uncertain. But on the small screen, the quite successful and Fan favorite Arrowverse had continued to sew the threads of their interconnected shows. Beginning with Arrow (Green Arrow), a spiritual successor to Christopher Nolan's highly successful The Dark Knight Universe, the show would spin-off to include the more fantastical elements of the DC Universe's Metahuman population. The Flash was the first. Which would open the doors to the arrival of a host of Superheroes that are not grounded on the more realistic setting of shows like Arrow and The Dark Knight. The way Warner TV would marry the concepts of Nolan's grounded vigilantes to DC's more "SUPER" Heroic heroes would birth the arrival (heralded by Flash) of such heroes as Firestorm, The Atom, Sgt. Steel, Black Canary, Mr. Terrific, Kid Flash, Vibe, Killer Frost, Constantine, Supergirl, Martian Mahunter, and a host of other heroes of the DC Universe that became too big for one, two, or three shows to occupy. And the wide inter-connectivity of these heroes would also usher in the annual Arrowverse crossovers, a some sort of made for TV mini-movies that also serves as the coming together of these DC Characters. But the latest crossover would be the Big Bang! Titled Crisis on Infinite Earths, this would not only bring together the heroes of the Arrowverse, but this also served as the vehicle that formally acknowledges the inter-connectivity of DC's vast resources of past films and TV Shows to the current iterations of their DCEU and Arrowverse shows. This essentially was the birth of the DC Multiverse. This proved to be the spark that would lit the direction of Warner/DC's future TV and film projects.

While Marvel is successfully crushing it in the Hollywood box office with their Cinematic Universe, Warner is taking an even more ambitious step by green lighting their Film Multiverse. Something I believe is the right direction to take. In a previous article that I wrote, I argued that the reason why Marvel has been so successful with their cinematic universe was because their characters were not weighted by expectations and past cinematic baggage and offered a fresh imagining of their superheroes because these were basically their first appearances on the big screen. Contrast that to Warner/DC, which had been successful in the big screen thru their past movie offerings of Superman and Batman dating back from the 70's down to the 90's. It cannot be denied that there is a large portion of the fan base who are still in love with the nostalgia of these past offerings which were rendered so beautifully (The first two Superman and Batman movies) on the big screen. So comparisons to these movies are inevitable. This have been the dilemma of Warner/DC as the attempt to latch on to that nostalgia by way of Superman Returns did not turn out to be such a box office hit despite the approving reviews of critics. Whatever new re-imagining of these characters (Superman and Batman primarily) will always suffer the comparative memory of the past iterations. It is a dilemma that Warner/DC will continue to contend with (something which I believe will also happen to Marvel once they started recasting a new Tony Stark and Steve Rogers).     

So it is imperative for Warner/DC to embrace the past and incorporate them to what they are doing now, making people understand the concept of the Multiverse. A universe of stories that may or may not be interconnected with one another. This move by Warner/DC would free up the creative control of the studio and allow visionary directors/storytellers the leg room to tell their stories without the pressure of inter-connectivity to align with the whole narrative of a planned cinematic universe. Given that Marvel's successful interconnected universe is no slouch (how many companies attempted to copy Marvel yet failed), and is a success story of their own. This move by Warner/DC will allow their creative team to focus on character centric movies rather than being stuck and limited to the planned connection to a larger universal tone. This made movies like The Joker possible, something that the distinguished competition would never allow. The initial residue of the failed DCEU birthed fun films like Aquaman, Shazam, and Birds of Prey, which made vague references to the old DCEU. These however enjoyed varied levels of success, which was enough for Warner/DC to push on with their plan to treat their films differently from each other and just focus on telling good stories rather than pressure themselves to make everything interconnected.


The first hint of this bold move was revealed in the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover. In a top secret filming of a scene that involves Movie Flash (Ezra Miller) and TV Flash (Grant Gustin). In that surprise scene, while the TV Flash was traversing the multiverse, he came across with the Movie Flash, cementing the inter-connectivity of their current movie and TV universe. Past movies such as the Keaton Batman, Christopher Reeve/Brandon Routh Superman were also earlier incorporated in the initial parts of the crossover episodes to the point that even past TV series such as Batman and Robin, Smallville, Birds of Prey and even the current Titans were also acknowledged as part of the vast DC Multiverse. I always thought that the best course correction for Warner/DC's DCEU was supposed to be the Flash movie. A Flashpoint (inspired from the comic books) type of storytelling that would birth a new universe and step away from the groundwork and foundation of the DCEU that Zack Snyder initially laid down before us. But to my surprise Crisis on Infinite Earths pulled the rug under our feet. Now, the planned Flash movie would further reinforce the DC Multiverse by not only bringing along a Snyder foundation and stalwart Batman as played by Ben Affleck, but they are also bringing along the original Batman on the big screen as played by Michael Keaton! As for Zack Snyder's DCEU, he is even given the chance to either give his version of DCEU a finite end or a chance to further his narrative by giving him an opportunity to finish his cut of the Justice League movie. Dubbed as Zack Snyder's Justice League, this would essentially correct all of the mistakes and injustice done to Snyder and offer his fans and the general public the chance to watch the original Justice League movie that we were supposed to see in the theaters. A huge business move by Warner given that they needed all the buzz that they could get with the launching of the HBO MAX online streaming platform.          


So what is next on the pipeline for DC? The Wonder Woman sequel WW84 is on the pipeline waiting for the Pandemic to end so that it could have its grand opening in the movie houses. A Batman movie headlined by Robert Pattinson which is said to be a stand alone movie not connected to any DC Movies but will be tied in with a new Gotham based TV series for HBO MAX. Sequels for The Suicide Squad, Aquaman and Shazam is currently in the works along with a Black Adam movie headlined by The Rock and (fingers crossed) the return of Henry Cavill as Superman. Though there is no news of a proper Superman movie sequel, well be getting a healthy serving of a live action Superman via the recently announced Superman and Lois TV series as part of the Arrowverse (which is being renamed as CWverse or Berlantiverse to be politically correct). Arrowverse staples like the Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning, Supergirl, and the new one like Stargirl as still going strong. Not to mention those on the fringes of the Arrowverse like Doom Patrol and Titans. Overall, Warner/DC is not only building their movies but also incorporating their success in the small screen to give us a vast look at the multi-versal entertainment that they have to offer. This is ambitious. And I believe this is a big win for the various fandoms of the DC properties as we celebrate the DC Universe by honoring the past as we look forward to the future!

 

     



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