Posted in: Movies, Warner Bros | Tagged: dc, film, Warner Bros

The DC Universe Will be Focused More on "Individual Experiences Around Individual Characters"

Published Thu, 28 Feb 2019 18:45:59 -0600

To say that the DC Universe has been off to kind of a rough start would be an understatement. There haven't been any commercial bombs yet but it always did feel like the movies just weren't as good as they could or should have been. There was were the exceptions, Wonder Woman being the only one, and then DC took a full year off from releasing movies to give James Wan all the time in the world to work on Aquaman. It ended up working out for them since Aquaman went on to make over a billion dollars at the box office. The
LA Times got the chance to speak to chief executive of film and TV Kevin Tsujihara and asked him about the current state of DC universe.

The upcoming slate, with "Shazam," "Joker," "Wonder Woman 1984" and "Birds of Prey," feels like we're on the right track. We have the right people in the right jobs working on it. The universe isn't as connected as we thought it was going to be five years ago. You're seeing much more focus on individual experiences around individual characters. That's not to say we won't at some point come back to that notion of a more connected universe. But it feels like that's the right strategy for us right now.

It very much sounds like DC is pivoting away from trying to copy the Marvel model and is instead focused on creating good movies with compelling characters. That is the reason the Marvel Model worked in the first place and how they were able to connect everything years down the line. The movie that really convinced Warner Bros. it was time to try something new was Wonder Woman.

What Patty Jenkins did on "Wonder Woman" illustrated to us what you could do with these characters who are not Batman and Superman. Obviously, we want to get those two in the right place, and we want strong movies around Batman and Superman. But "Aquaman" is a perfect example of what we can do. They're each unique and the tone's different in each movie.

Warner Bros. and DC might have realized that they were going about this the wrong way with Wonder Woman but the wheels were in motion for Justice League and there was no stopping it. While the movie wasn't a disaster the fact that it underperformed when it should have been huge said a lot. It sounds like the people in charge are starting to listen and maybe even learn from their mistakes. If it means more great movies like Wonder Woman or flawed but compelling movies like Aquaman then sign us up.

Summary: A boy is given the ability to become an adult superhero in times of need with a single magic word.

Shazam!, directed by David F. Sandberg, stars Zachary Levi, Mark Strong, Grace Fulton, Faithe Herman, Jack Dylan Grazer, and Asher Angel, and will be written by Henry Gayden and Darren Lemke. It will be released on April 5th, 2019.

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