Reel Facts & Opinions: The Future of DC Film

All cinematic eyes turned to the world of DC Comics today, as new DC overlords James Gunn and Peter Safran finally gave us a look at their initial slate of new films (and streaming shows), that will (for the most part), re-invent and unify the universe populated by DC Comics superheroes. 

 

Described as “Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters”, the new slate of films jettisons the line of continuity started by Zack Snyder in 2013 with MAN OF STEEL; a line that has been a mess with flops, bombs, hasty reboots, cancelled movies, and buckets of controversial decisions, leading to the longest train wreck in cinema history. The new slate of films, starting with a new Superman movie, will populate the same universe and take on a more cohesive line of storytelling. However, the outlying universes established by THE BATMAN (2022), and JOKER (2019), will remain intact and independent. 

 

Here’s what’s coming to the Big Screen:

 

SUPERMAN LEGACY 

The film that will launch the new age for DC. Gunn is writing the script personally and may direct. A tentative release date of July 2025 has been set. 

 

THE AUTHORITY

Feel free to say, “the what?”, because This Blogger certainly did. Based on the Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch comic series, this has been described as a team of anti-heroes who takes things into their own hands. 

 

THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD

And now comes our fourth version of Batman since 2008. Based on Grant Morrison’s Batman comic, this will bring a new Bat and the Bat-family to the big screen, with a version of Robin described as an assassin before meeting Bruce Wayne. 

 

SUPERGIRL: WOMAN OF TOMORROW

In what will not be a continuation of the SUPERGIRL TV series, this film will introduce a Supergirl that did not have the advantages of a proper upbringing that her cousin Clark Kent had. It is said to be set in outer space. 

 

SWAMP THING

In what seems like another shot at this creature (there was a live-action TV series in 2019 cancelled after one season, and a campy, yet still popular film from 1982), this will serve as an origin story. 

 

*

 

Bottom Line: Very much a mixed bag. We expected new films for Superman and Batman. A Supergirl film was unexpected but certainly welcome. No one on this planet seems to know who The Authority is, and a Swamp Thing film seems right in the ballpark of Gunn’s usual zany style. The multiple universes are a concern with THE BATMAN and JOKER and is promised to confuse audiences, and when counting the streaming series, we’re looking at four different lines of continuity. If you’re going to start over, fine…START OVER, and many entrenched DC fans may be boycotting yet another version of Batman and Superman. Despite new leadership at the helm, the new direction still reeks of the old way of doing things at DC; when one of their movies would flop (SUICIDE SQUAD, JUSTICE LEAGUE), they would just remake it a few years later. This time, they half-ass decide to re-do their whole slate. The trainwreck may be continuing, but at least this time we have someone trying to pull the brake.