Warner Bros./Discovery Merger May Mean Overhaul of DC Movies & TV

Warner Media and Discovery have now combined their powers to become Warner Bros. Discovery, and while that’s a good thing for the world of Warner content as a whole, it does mean that the new higher-ups are having some real conversations about what to do with the DCEU.

Variety is reporting that now that the merge has taken place and Discovery closed a $43 billion deal for WarnerMedia, the new people in charge of the company are seemingly trying to turn DC into its “own solidified content vertical,” according to Variety’s sources.

The Variety piece also hints at Warner looking for their own Kevin Feige. The current President of Marvel Studios managed to bring a world together and create one of the most successful film franchises of all time. I’d argue that the difference between what Feige did with Marvel and what Warner Bros. Discovery is now trying to do with the DCEU is that the MCU was built, for the most part, around characters that had yet to make a live-action debut in that kind of format. So, many viewers were learning about them for the first time or seeing their favorites onscreen in a way that they hadn’t before.

And looking at the DCEU thus far, what has worked for them is stuff that includes characters we haven’t seen in the live-action realm before. Characters like Harley Quinn or Chris Smith (a.k.a. Peacemaker) found their footing in the DCEU despite the rest of the world almost crumbling around them. That isn’t to say that the world of DC hasn’t had success. It has, but just with the Arrowverse on The CW. Shows like The Flash, Black Lightning, Supergirl, and more found their way there, and the shows have had quite the success on the platform. But it didn’t seem like those at Warner could figure out the best way to bottle what the Arrowverse was doing and use that for the larger DCEU.

Now though, it seems that the studio is looking to things like Todd Phillips‘ Joker as an example of how the company should move forward. (Variety also cites Harley Quinn as an example of this.)

Trouble in Metropolis

The DCEU isn’t exactly free of problems. There was the Joss Whedon of it all on the set of his Justice League that resulted in actor Ray Fisher speaking out against the treatment he faced from the director. And, sadly, that was just the start of their bigger issues.

Outside of the obvious story issues that have plagued the franchise, every new day brings a different problem with a cast member for the DC world. From Gal Gadot’s comment on Palestine to the not great reviews of Wonder Woman 1984, to now The Flash star Ezra Miller being arrested in Hawaii because they allegedly attacked a couple in their home as well as allegedly harassing patron at a karaoke bar, it did throw a bit of a wrench into the upcoming slate of DC movies.

Pair that with the poor reception to nearly all the movies that DC has put out thus far, and it isn’t exactly surprising that the new leaders might want to shake some things up. It hasn’t all been bad. There’s been success in things like James Gunn’s Peacemaker, Shazam, and the 2017 Wonder Woman from Patty Jenkins but, for the most part, the DCEU has hit issue after issue. Things seemed to be in an upswing with the critically acclaimed Birds of Prey and, of course, with Matt Reeves’ The Batman, but that hasn’t really been enough to shake the bad taste that the rest of the DCEU has left in everyone’s mouth.

Can some things be saved?

The question now would be: What would stay and what would go? The DCEU tried to throw a team up movie together, frankly, before they were ready. We never had a movie that gave us Cyborg’s story, the characters barely knew each other, and yet were supposed to be the Justice League, and it just seems like the entire DCEU franchise had no idea what they were doing.

Making individual movies with these characters worked to a degree. Fans loved Aquaman and there was buzz about the upcoming The Flash movie but it just constantly seemed like everything was working against the series. There are still movies in production like Shazam! Fury of the Gods (that does follow a well-received first film), but if this Variety piece is true, we might be seeing a big shake up with the future of the Justice League.

(image: Warner Bros.)