The Latest Dose of DC Drama At Warner Bros Features Patty Jenkins Going HAM On Studio Execs And At Least 5 Other Crazy Plot Twists

Matt Fitzgerald12/09/2022 8:15 PM

Albert L. Ortega. Getty Images.

I started sketching this thing out last night and got a little overwhelmed. DC continues to toy with my emotions, and I know there's the whole corporate merger thing at Warner Bros. Discovery and a significant power hierarchy shift in the way they're handling their superhero properties. Still, there's weird energy abound at DC Studios as the new leadership of James Gunn and Peter Safran try to forge ahead with a singular, cohesive vision of interconnectedness.

Because of this aspiration DC has to try to emulate Marvel's profit machine model and the nature of new creative executives taking the reins, multiple projects are beginning to fall by the wayside. Multiple stars' futures in their iconic roles are up in the air.

Patty Jenkins refers studio execs to Wikipedia's "character arc" page

The cowriter/director of the Wonder Woman franchise has had a rough go of it. No word at all on her fighter pilot Star Wars pic Rogue Squadron, although now that she's off the threequel for DC, perhaps Jenkins' schedule will open up to get down to work at Lucasfilm.

But for real, this is one of the most hilarious flexes/shots I can ever recall reading about.

THE AUDACITY of Patty Jenkins. I love it.

Here's where I would push back in favor of the new DC leadership, though: Wonder Woman 1984 did indeed have some issues. I know it was supposed to be a kind of dumb, fun '80s-set movie in the first place, yet the whole, like, Steve Trevor body double plot point was problematic, and the overall story felt a little convenient. I still think it's beautifully shot, and Gal Gadot gives an excellent performance with what she's given.

And now to counter that in Jenkins' favor: Who the hell knows what notes she was getting from the studio at the time amid all the chaos and transition they were going through. She may have been forced into making certain changes and not had ideal creative control despite how much of a hit Wonder Woman was out of the gates.

All this reporting from the trades clashes with what Gadot tweeted very recently about the next chapter in Diana Prince's story:

Turns out, that stark, mixed messaging is a common theme of late. I get that trade publications can only report on so much and that all the various outlets have different sources, get a variety of insider nuggets apiece and therefore the overall picture of what's actually going on can become muddled and inconsistent.

But when the general overarching narrative about the state of DC Studios is more or less the same and is incongruent with the messages the stars of their big-budget movies have put out.

Dwayne Johnson disputes news of Black Adam's box office demise

Here's a report that dropped from Variety earlier this week, which read in part:

"Box office experts believe Black Adam will stall out with less than $400 million globally, which is problematic since movie theater owners get to keep around half of those sales. Now, the movie stands to lose $50 million to $100 million in its theatrical run, according to the estimates of insiders as well as rival executives with knowledge of similar productions. Sources at Warner Bros. dispute those numbers, saying the movie will break even at $400 million."

Rather than losing something like $50 million conservatively speaking, Black Adam star Dwayne Johnson fired back and tweeted to his bazillion followers that his new tentpole will actually profit at least that much:

Johnson actually links to a report from Deadline to back up his claim. Can you smell what The Rock is cooking!? What a sick burn.

Unfortunately, The Hollywood Reporter deep dive that featured the news of the third Wonder Woman film getting rejected also stated that Black Adam is unlikely to get a sequel. That means the anticipated build to a Black Adam-Superman duel that was teased in the post-credits scene might not have a payoff, much less another Johnson-led solo outing to properly set that up.

Henry Cavill may not, in fact, return as Superman

In that same THR feature, it's stated that the originally planned Man of Steel 2 is another scrapped idea.

Do you see a common theme here? Henry Cavill literally got on IG on October 24 to tease that his Black Adam cameo was "A very small taste of what's to come, my friends." (!!!!!!!)

In that report, The Flash is touched on and cited as yet another instance where Cavill shot a cameo in September. HOWEVER, the studio is debating whether or not to cut that, along with Jason Momoa's brief turn as Arthur Curry/Aquaman, because they're at least mulling the idea of recasting every hero who worked with Zack Snyder.

Leading us into the next bit of news…

Jason Momoa going from Aquaman to Lobo?

I get why Momoa is linked to this part. It'd be a hell of a lot of fun. On the other hand, his first Aquaman standalone adventure made over a billion dollars, with a follow-up in the can and on the way in December. So much confusion abound regarding his reported inclusion in The Flash, which releases many months before the Aquaman sequel. All kinds of continuity problems could pop up.

My guess is Momoa gets cut from The Flash, regardless of what goes down with Lobo down the road. I just hope they don't recast him, because he was such an inspired choice by Snyder.

James Gunn attempts to put out all the fires

Instead of embedding the multiple tweets Gunn put out, I'll put the first one below and quote the rest of what he had to say regarding his vision for DC Studios:

"Although this first month at DC has been fruitful, building the next ten years of story takes time & we're still just beginning. Peter & I chose to helm DC Studios knowing we were coming into a fractious environment, both in the stories being told & in the audience itself & there would be an unavoidable transitional period as we moved into telling a cohesive story across film, TV, animation, and gaming.
"But, in the end, the drawbacks of that transitional period were dwarfed by the creative possibilities & the opportunity to build upon what has worked in DC so far & to help rectify what has not. We know we are not going to make every single person happy every step of the way, but we can promise everything we do is done in the service of the STORY & in the service of the DC CHARACTERS we know you cherish and we have cherished our whole lives. As for more answers about the future of the DCU, I will sadly have to ask you to wait. We are giving these characters & the stories the time & attention they deserve & we ourselves still have a lot more questions to ask & answer."

I like the message Gunn puts out here. DC's downfall has been rushing into things. My issue is, well, just look at the entirety of this blog before this paragraph. All the shit-slinging and conflicting information we're getting from rival big-time news sources about what the hell is happening at Warner Bros/DC.

Hard to say who's leaking all this intel and who has an axe to grind. Maybe it's people who suspect they're on the way out as Gunn and Safran start to really shake things up. All that is speculation. The fact that there's this much hard-sourced discord dropping in the past week alone speaks to the madness and instability Gunn is inheriting. Given his success at Marvel, excellent job running Peacemaker and how he injected new life into the Suicide Squad, he's proven more than enough to earn the trust of the larger audience. He took the high road and was fairly transparent in addressing what has to be a bit of a PR nightmare behind the scenes.

Whenever Gunn and Safran come out and announce their alleged 10-year plan or whatever they're drafting up, I'll be locked in and eager to hear what the real scoop is.

BONUS SADNESS: Batman Beyond canceled

Now this makes me sad. Michael Keaton was apparently going to be in a Batman Beyond movie as the elder Bruce Wayne mentoring, I would presume, a young Terry McGinnis. The animated series of this show was so much better than it had any right to be, which is a testament to the genius of Kevin Conroy, Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, Andrea Romano and all the brilliant minds who crushed that show directly on the heels of Batman: The Animated Series.

If you aren't familiar with the story behind how frenzied and rushed Batman Beyond was, it's well worth your time in the event you're really into animation:

Someday we will get a Batman Beyond live-action movie. I'm certain of it. I'm glad it hasn't happened yet, because only until the past few years, I don't think you could convincingly ground that thing in a Blade Runner-type future Gotham City. Now you can with how far visual effects have come.

Keaton is just a hell of an actor and would've CRUSHED IT in that part. Too bad it looks like he won't get the chance to…

…

So that was a lot. In conclusion, DC is likely to use The Flash as an even bigger reboot than initially planned. I'd just scrap almost everything and start from Square One whilst leaving the Robert Pattinson/Matt Reeves Batverse alone. Also don't interfere with the Todd Phillips/Joaquin Phoenix Joker combo. Otherwise, I'd expect an overhaul, recasting and brand-new connected continuity of movies a la the MCU.

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