How I would put the World of DC back on track.

[Superfly Frankenstein]

With hopeful trailers of Aquaman and Shazam, the news of an alternate reality Joker and the upcoming WonderWoman 1984, I began thinking, what would I do next if I was in control of the Cinematic Universe. So here goes:

Keeping the already mentioned movies on track, and looking at the dates WB has slated for movies in 2020, here is my plan.

2020:
Feb: The Flash. We fast track this with Ezra Miller as Barry and introduce Iris (Vanessa Kirby) and Young Wally (Sean Giambrone) as Barry begins his career in Central City CSI and has to fight Reverse Flash (Jay Ryan)

July: Already announced GLC movie.

September: Birds of Prey with Harley, Black Canary, Huntress and Oracle.

November: Sequel to Man of Steel. Intro Brainiac and Supergirl.

2021:
Feb: Nightwing. Intro of Dick Grayson. Batfleck will cameo (trust me). Villain will be Deathstroke.

July: Justice League: Injustice. Intro the Injustice League with Lex, Deathstroke, Black Manta, Cheetah, Grodd, and Black Hand, and also the appearance of Martian Manhunter and John Stewart joins the team.

October: Suicide Squad: Jokers Wild. Leto returns and begins a plan that brings Harley and Croc to his side in a teaser to what’s coming next (you will see)

Dec: Aquaman 2.

2022:

March: Flash 2. The Rogues and Wally gets powers.

June: The Batman. Batfleck, Nightwing, Red Robin and newly discovered Damien go up against a gauntlet of villains led by the Joker and Ra’s Al Ghul.

November: WonderWoman 3.

2023:

February: Shazam: Black Adam.

June: The Batman:Knightfall. The Batman and his allies pick up where they left off last summer as Batman must defeat Ras, Joker and Bane, but it’s too much for him to handle alone.

Sept: The New Gods. Epic that begins unfolding Darkseids story (who has had a few Thanosesque cameos).

2024: March: GLC 2. Hard Traveling Heroes. Intro Green Arrow, Guy and Kyle as they fight The Mad Guardian.

July: Man of Steel 3. Vs Metallo and Intergang (Darkseid tie in)

November: Justice League: Apokolips. The League faces off against Darkseid and an anti life equation that can destroy reality. Dick Grayson debuts as the Batman. Barry dies saving the universe. Wally becomes Flash. All DC heroes from other movies appear.

What do you guys think?

[KurtW95]

Good. But I would not have Harley on a heroic team, recast Barry, use Tim instead of Damian, have Barbara as Batgirl, and have Colin Ford as Wally instead.

[SmokeMonster]

Here's what I'd do, taking into consideration what's been announced and what I think is possible.

2020
The Batman -- A whodunit story with Riddler, Hush, Clayface, and Armie Hammer as Bruce.

Flash: To the Future — A fun time travel story. Bring back cast members from Date Night to be the Rogues, like Bateman and McAdams.

Birds of Prey

2021
Superman: Up in the Sky -- Jimmy, Cat, Steel are the supporting cast. Set in a shrunken Metropolis.

Suicide Squad: Redux -- Deathstroke is the "Terminator" of the film. Black Adam's remains are the macguffin. Green Arrow, King Shark and others join the squad.

Aquaman: The Ancient King

2022
Shazam: The Return of Black Adam

Nightwing — Cast Ansel Elgort. Make it like a less crass version of Deadpool with slick nighttime visuals.

Green Lantern Corps -- Christopher McQuarrie directs. It’s End of Watch + Star Wars.

Wonder Woman: War on Olympus

[Killerbee911]

What I would do

2019-

Wonder Woman 2

Shazam

2020

Flashpoint aka the movie that is secretly Justice League 2- Why ? Because time travel doesn't fix things in the actual comics. It certainly fixes everything you need the movie verse. Have Ben Affleck play Thomas Wanye and when the movie returns to the normal timeline it will have the actor who will be playing Bruce Wanye and Batman and everyone pretend that Batfleck was always Thomas explaining Murderbatman. With Shazam and Aquaman released all the major parts for the story exist in the DCU so you can pretty much tell the exact comic book story and you can show the casted Hal Jordan as well. Flash point does a good job of explaining Flash's origin so flash doesn't screwed the movie being more on ensemble cast. Just like that DCU is fixed.

Man of Steel 2-

Cyborg-

2021

Batman-

Green Lantern Corps-

New Gods

2022

Justice League 2

The overall plan is simple .Flash Point cleans up any issues you want to fix with previous movies. Then from that point just make good movies and the movies are spread out in a way that one of the big 3 or JL is release in a year until another project shows it can carry the year.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Or, find directors and writers who are passionate about any DC property and have them start writing a script. If the script is good, make that movie.

The only magic formula here is finding creators who understand the characters and are capable of translating their love to a larger audience.

I don't care if that's Blackhawks, New Gods or Harley Quinn's Adventures at Hot Topic, I want to see good DC movies.

[kjn]

Apart from generally agreeing with Bored at 3:00AM, I think one needs to see this with some realism and with some understanding of the goals.

The first, and the big dose of realism is that it is far better to make fewer movies that can be given the proper marketing and creative care than it is to spam the cinemas. The MCU has largely been limited to two movies per year, and I think that's a wise decision. If one does some low-budget movies now and then, they can likely be added to the roster, but DC needs the time to do the creative work properly, keep the costs under control, and have flex in the plan to reinforce success and correct for failures.

The second is that DC is in a creative bind here, that is sort of similar to the way Marvel was in a bind when they started doing their movies. Marvel could not use their real A-list names, like Spiderman or the X-Men. What they did instead was doing a slow buildup of their B names, where they had the flex in the schedule to correct themselves for any failures. It didn't matter much that Hulk was poorly received, because expectations were low.

DC did have access to their A-list, but since the movies were poorly received, they now face a choice of either just rebooting or trying to somehow redeem their A-list of Superman and Batman. And due to the way the DC comic universe is built up, it is arguably a lot more integrated than the Marvel universe.

Last, about the goals, the first and foremost goal of the DC should be to recreate audience confidence in their offerings—knowing that it is far easier to build confidence from scratch (like Marvel had to do) than it is to rebuild a shattered confidence (the situation that DC is in). That's why I believe the best route for DC is to simply reboot around Wonder Woman and whatever works around Aquaman and Shazam. Don't screw around with trying to justify it in-story with Flashpoint or similar, just reboot.

Another issue that calls for a reboot is the place they've put Batman. They tried to continue on with the Dark Knight trilogy, and the result is that the DCEU Batman is a lonely, bitter, and old man. That's usually the conclusion of a character arc, not the beginning of one. And Nolan already did the The Dark Knight Rises as a return from the lonely, bitter, old man.

I also believe that DC's best route creatively is to look at what Marvel does a poor job at, and do that. The primary one here is I believe thematic and emotional depth. Black Panther is illustrative here, in that it introduced and opened up lots of big questions, like sins of the fathers, isolationism contra engagement, authoritarianism versus consensus, and the Afro-American experience, but never really dug into one of them. Wonder Woman, on the other hand, acknowledged just as many questions, but then really dug into the need for—and cost of—compassion in an unfair and violent world.

As for the movies I want DC to do and characters to really dig into, then I'd say Barbara Gordon hits the top. Do a trilogy based on Batgirl: Year One, Oracle: Year One, and Birds of Prey. But the only man I'd trust to even come close to creative control there would be John Ostrander. In a perfect world, you'd even go for two actors for Barbara: one playing young Barbara, and then get Ali Stroker as Oracle.

[Lightning Rider]

It's still weird to me how many comic fans think convoluted retcons and recasts will go smoothly with casual audiences.

[BatmanJones]

Or, find directors and writers who are passionate about any DC property and have them start writing a script. If the script is good, make that movie.

The only magic formula here is finding creators who understand the characters and are capable of translating their love to a larger audience.

I don't care if that's Blackhawks, New Gods or Harley Quinn's Adventures at Hot Topic, I want to see good DC movies.

This is the only answer.

Studios matter just like editors matter with regard to comic books but it's up to the creators/artists to tell us great stories. All other strategies are irrelevant.

As artistic director of a theatre my answer to every strategic question begins with "put on great plays." As in, "What's your fundraising strategy?" "It starts with making great plays." "What's your audience development strategy?" "It begins with making great plays."

It's amazing to me how many theaters and other producers of arts and entertainment (up to and including WB) think ANY strategy that doesn't begin with that simple idea will ever work.

"The proof of the pudding is in the eating."

[Shazamdude]

If I could? Let them do there upcoming movies, then instead of letting them do more (and by “upcoming”, i mean Shazam and aqua man) and if they do good, let the continuity move on. And if not? Flashpoint time! What I mean is flash could flashpoint it after a flash movie and maybe a bit more, then they could reboot. Then? I would cancel the movies BUT instead of fully, I would re-schedule

[InfamousBG]

If they do a Birds of Prey movie do not have Harley in it. It must have Batgirl first and foremost.