Since James Gunn was appointed as the CEO of DC Studios, began to speculate about the future of movies. On one side of the arena – the disappointed fans who have been waiting for a change since the DC cinematic universe was created. On the other side – fans of the Zack Snyder universe who think that the producers are the ones who destroyed the cinematic universe and would like to see a good cinematic incarnation of the Snyderverse, in which he gets the creative freedom he deserves. Gunn finds himself in a position where he has to satisfy these two schools of thought – or the strongest of them. Or annoy both of them.
It’s been years that the DC cinematic universe is dying compared to the MCU – the universe of the competing Marvel (which of course does not prevent their movies from making hundreds of millions of dollars, but somehow the same people come out of these movies again and again completely disappointed). It’s no secret that the DC directors, who actually came into the business with one action plan or another, fought tooth and nail for their films against the production – but for the most part it didn’t help, and the blatant interference of the studios sucked every drop of soul from the films. The director’s experience with the studios can be learned from David Ayer, director of “Suicide Squad” (2016), probably the most maligned film from the DC cinematic universe to date, who previously said “I invested my life in ‘Suicide Squad’. I made something amazing – my version is a journey Complex and emotional with some ‘bad guys’… the studio version is not my film and my version is not a 10-week director’s version.” Beyond the jabs at Snyder’s 4-hour director’s cut of his Justice League, it’s clear that Ayer is frustrated. The editing of the trailer for his film (done through an outside company) may have been what fired up the fans, but in the film all of Iyer’s personal touches are gone. Ayer claims that he will continue to fight for the release of his version, but it does not appear that a large enough fan base has arisen to generate the necessary buzz for such a fight.
Why is Iyer’s story interesting to us right now? Because the new era of James Gunn, who came to work in the DC universe with “Suicide Squad” in 2021, which more or less gracefully ignored the failed “Suicide Squad” (who’s fault is a separate question) from 2016. With Gunn’s assumption of the position of co-CEO of DC’s film division, a round of head-butting began: first of all, “Wonderwoman 3” starring Gal Gadot was canceled, which immediately raised the question among fans: who is next in line? (The answer, by the way, was Henry Cavill). Last Thursday (December 15) James Gunn shared the following tweet on his Twitter account: “Peter (Zaffran, Gunn’s managing partner from the business side – LR) and I already have a DC slot ready and we can’t be More excited about it. We will be able to share with you exciting information about our first projects at the beginning of the new year.”
It is not clear if the director’s version that Iyer so longs to receive would have saved “Suicide Squad”. Even offsetting what we assume was the production interference, it still seems that certain choices (like for example the terrible design of the Joker) would have managed to damage the final product. But either way, Iyer stays behind and Gun gets down to business. Although his film was released in the year Corona (2021) it managed to be profitable, and from a critical point of view the film drew praise for the humor, the wide cast of villains, the soundtrack and most importantly, for Gunn – for the direction, which justified the free hand that WB gave him (unlike his predecessors) . In general, since Gunn’s “Suicide Squad”, it seems that WB and DC studios are doing trial and error and you can see it through the highly variable quality of the material that came after it. Although trash series continued to be released on The CW network, two projects were released this year that succeeded beyond expectations: the series “Peacemaker” starring John Cena (spinoff to “Suicide Squad” of 2021) which garnered praise from critics and fans, and “The Batman” by Matt Reeves , which opened another streak in the DC Cinematic Universe. His success didn’t help at all For the film that followed, “Black Adam”, which takes place within the Snyderverse and even includes Henry Cavill’s final appearance as Superman. The film failed miserably both at the box office and critically even though it tried very hard to be everything the fans wanted.
By and large, it seems that the universe that Snyder built is dead, but it still has certain directions in which it can develop. Gal Gadot is no longer Wonder Woman, Jason Momoa will end his role as Aquaman after the next film, and now also It has been definitively announced that Henry Cavill will not be returning to the role of Superman (For Snyder’s fans this is the hardest blow). “In the early stages, our story will focus on an earlier part of Superman’s life, so the character will not be played by Henry Cavill,” Gunn wrote on Twitter (in fact, he seems to be doing quite a bit of his PR there) “But we had a great meeting with Henry, we Big fans of his and we talked about a number of exciting possibilities to work together in the future.” This tweet has several conflicting meanings. On the one hand, it is clear that the next one to wear the blue-red suit will be a completely new player. When Gunn was asked if the film would be an origin story, he answered briefly: “No way.” This means that we will get a “Batman” style film, about Superman’s first years as Superman, which feels like a kind of lesson learned and adaptation to existing materials that have been proven to work well. On the other hand, it doesn’t completely rule out the possibility of a future appearance by Cavill as Superman. At the moment the highest probability is that they will appear in some kind of multiverse event for a guest appearance – although in the meantime, just this week it was reported that Gal Gadot and Henry Cavill were cut from the movie “The Flash”, where we are going to see Michael Keaton again in the role of the Batman alongside Ezra Miller in the role of the Flash (for the last time, and better this way). In addition Gunn was also asked if he is writing or directing the next DC projects. Gunn replied that he is writing and that as of now it is not known who will direct. Gunn did not specify what exactly he is writing – it may be a Superman movie, but as we know he also holds the reins of “Suicide Squad” which may get a sequel – and will be all that is left of the Snyderverse.
So what’s in store for us in the coming years for DC? We have another movie for Reeves’ Batman along with two series in the same universe, a possible project directed by Ben Affleck (who planned to direct “Batman”, but it didn’t happen), a movie about young Superman, probably another “Suicide Squad” movie and another season to Peacemaker, which means that only the Batman and Superman franchises will continue to exist in the DC Cinematic Universe, at least for now. It’s not a bad opening shot for Gunn, who reiterates that everything he does is only what’s right for the DC story and what’s right for the characters. In short, there’s a reason why Gunn was stolen from the MCU for the competitors: his first move is to build the universe from the ground up, and DC’s grounding is obviously Superman. The rushed process Snyder tried to do didn’t work and Gunn learned his lesson, so he builds the cinematic universe slowly and is also very careful with what he says. In short, after the DC universe has split into so many universes, someone is finally going to do some tidying up. Good news for almost everyone – except Henry Cavill. Oh, and Gal Gadot.