DC film slate 2016 - 2020 announced

Okay, big thing that happened the other day not involving the clinically mental (then again...) is that Warner Bros. announced the basic shape of their film slate going forward to 2020. There's other stuff on there and they insist further solo Batman and Superman films (and Batman and Superman films?) will also be added to the docket in time but the big news is we finally have a roadmap for the DC Cinematic Universe.

So, what do we have?

Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Franchise we already knew about but the Suicide Squad movie totally crept up on me, don't know about anyone else. Its actually a pretty clever choice for universe-building purposes since a team of villains is by definition a team-up of characters from different franchises. This is especially good since DC has a horrible history of foregrounding bad guys in their films to the detriment of the heroes' development (i.e. every Batman movie since Burton) so sticking a bunch of them in a movie, developing them there and trusting the audience to remember them when, say, Ocean Master turns up in Aquaman might be an interesting solution to this problem.

After that there's Justice League, again as previously announced, but there in bright red is the big one: Wonder Woman and I only have this to say:

Please, DC, don't fuck this up. You are dangerously addicted to caution so please, for the love of God, unlearn the lessons of a lifetime, take a risk and make this movie as mad as it deserves to be! You are in the unique position of having the most established, most recognisable superheroine in existence so let that carry the concept and just make a good film. I do not want to be sitting through another Catwoman three years from now.

Moving on, The Flash and Aquaman. This Flash will not the be the TV Flash, not unnaturally as I imagine synching up the filming schedules for this and his two Justice League appearances would be a nightmare. Aquaman is Jason Momoa and I am very much looking forward to that.

Justice League 2... nothing to really say about that. Shazam I am excited about if for no other reason than Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is confirmed as Black Adam (I imagine they'll call him Teth Adam for some reason). I just hope they remember to have a sense of humour about the property because I'd love to see a fun DC movie and I really, really don't think you can make a grim, dreary Billy Batson. Oh, wait, they did for the New 52 didn't they?

Then there's a Green Lantern film, most likely a reboot because nine years between films is a bit insurmountable even if Ryan Reynolds would still be interested at that stage. Someone somewhere (The Escapist's Moviebob, I think) floated the idea that the easiest way to distance a new Green Lantern from the failed one would be to go with John Stewart, both visually and in personality. That's pure speculation but it might be an interesting angle and the Justice League cartoon certainly means the character is known, perhaps the most recognisable successor hero in the Justice League stable.

And finally a Cyborg movie. Huh. I think this is going to be DC's Guardians of the Galaxy analogue, just with a little more caution but that's DC movies all over. It isn't that Cyborg is without cache, Teen Titans was a big cartoon and they appear to be using the New 52 make-up of the League with Cyborg taking J'onn's place so he'll be far from unknown to the audience. He's always been a “team” character, though. This isn't to say it can't work, it might even be liberating for the film makers to handle a character whose canon doesn't include any real limits on what he can do on his own. There are no Lois Lanes or Daily Planets here to be included as per spec, they can get really creative here. Part of me worries, though, that this might be on the slate just so all the individual Leaguers get “their” movie rather than as a risky yet creative opportunity.

Time will tell, it usually does. 

What is Superman v Batman: Dawn Of Justice for?

I should clarify what I mean by “for”. When I ask what this upcoming movie is for I mean “What is it for creatively speaking?”. What is it setting out to achieve other than piles of dollars on opening weekend? True, we don't have a plot yet, we won't for a while but we do have the initial marketing and that tells... a confusing story.

Back up a moment and we'll examine another, comparable film in the context of this question. Since I wrote about it only yesterday Guardians Of The Galaxy, naturally springs to mind. I have no insight into the production of the film but just watching it a few objectives spring to mind:

Objective 1 is to trial out a lower-tier Marvel property in film and see if Marvel Studios can make a franchise out of something the wider audience hasn't heard of and isn't propped by the Avengers name. Huge takings at the box office so Objective: Achieved.

Objective 2 is to widen the Marvel cinematic universe out into space, building on what the Thor movies did. We get the Nova Corps, Xandar, Knowhere, the Kyln, the Kree Empire, Thanos and the Collector. Working out from that, even if Guardians was a flop, Marvel has the basis for a Captain Marvel film, a Nova film or doing The Infinity Gauntlet for Avengers 3. Objective: Achieved.

Two objectives, one of which is just inherent in the creation of the film and the other affecting little more than window dressing by asking the writer to incorporate, say, a pre-existing Mos Eisley-style hellhole like Knowhere instead of creating a new one. Neither really imposes on the plot to any great degree.

So what are the objectives of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Let's start with the film's title because that's a ripe little target.

Okay, as far as I'm aware the film was never officially referred to as Man Of Steel 2. That was just a convenient label the film media slapped on during pre-production so they'd have something to call it. All that was announced was that it was a sequel to Man Of Steel. Seems simple, Objective 1: Superman sequel, built the franchise, establish the Metrooplis status quo only just set up at the end of Man Of Steel.

Then the announcement was made that the plot would involve Batman coming to Metropolis and having a punch-up with Superman. Objective 2: introduce a new Batman. A Justice League film was coming, we all knew that, so it wasn't unreasonable to try out the World's Finest team-up combo as a first step.

And then...

A slew of new details. The full title: Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice. Superman has been moved down to second billing in the title so is this the second Superman film or the first in a new Batman franchise? Then there's the subtitle, which along with the announcements that Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Cyborg would be included in the cast, make it clear this is also very actively prefiguring or even about the creation of the Justice League.

Objective 3: Introduce and establish Wonder Woman.

Objective 4: Introduce and establish Aquaman.

Objective 5: Introduce and establish Cyborg.

Objective 6: Bring the characters together to spin off Justice League film.

Objective 7: And introduce and establish Lex Luthor at the same time.

These objectives are all implicit in the inclusion of the characters, all of whom are listed on the film's IMDB page. Including the new Batman and Lex Luthor this film is introducing five new major franchise characters, at least two of which the studio will be actively pitching to make solo films for. This could be setting up as many as three other film franchises and that seems too much for one movie.

DC and Legendary are trying to copy Marvel's success. I can't blame them but I think a problem here is trying to copy results rather than methods. They're introducing the lion's share of the Justice League in (if we take Green Lantern as canon in this universe) their third film. Avengers Assemble was Marvel Studios' sixth film in their masterplan and at most any one Marvel film only introduces the title character and one other in the supporting cast like Black Widow and Hawkeye.

I think the problem might be that Marvel produces in-house as Disney subsidiary whilst Legendary is a third party. The slow-build Avengers masterplan was a massive risk and solo films for Wonder Woman and Aquaman are perceived as even bigger risks. Aquaman is actively a joke character in the public imagination, as is the fact that a Wonder Woman movie has been in pre-production hell for perhaps longer than I've been alive.

I'm not saying Dawn Of Justice won't be good, I'm not saying it will necessarily fail. I only want to point out that on the evidence of the things announced two years before release it's setting itself a lot to do in one movie when the Marvel playbook they're cribbing from emphasises a slow-boil and very long-term planning.