I’d be equally opposed to appeasing Bible thumpers by blacklisting actors who say anything that offends that group. So nationalism has nothing to do with it. And I don’t see anyone currently doing that in any case, or proposing here that it be done. So I’m addressing the topic at hand.
You seem to conflate “shaping content to appeal to ticket-buying demographics” with “blacklisting artists to appease a dictator,” as if they all obviously come under the same heading of “courting demos.” There is clearly a distinction to be drawn between the two policies.
Pattinson should've been the only active Bruce Wayne/Batman, I guess. Going with the Batman Beyond route with Keaton down the line is the first thing that make some sense about his involvement in the DCEU because all I heard from The Flash and Batgirl, his real age was never a factor and he was treated as a badass ass-kicking Batman still in his prime thanks to a stunt double half of Keaton's age. Having him retiring for some reason (an injury?) in a Batman Beyond-inspired movie and being replaced by a young new Batman justify picking Keaton instead of just recasting Affleck.
Nah, he wasn't mentoring her at all. What they wrote/filmed and showed at the only test screening the movie had wasn't inspired by Batman Beyond, it was more Batgirl: Year One. Barbara was on her own, BatKeaton didn't wanted her to be a vigilante to not get hurt, he realizes she has potential and end up accepting her as his ally, give her a new suit at the end, and they both jump from a rooftop toward the camera (typical CBM ending, lol).
A full reboot is a real possibility, I think. Ezra Miller's future as The Flash is uncertain. Who's playing BM in the DCU? If Gadot decides to quit to follow Jenkins, they can recast and reboot because there isn't much left to keep.
The situation with China is further complicated by the fact that they've increasingly wanted to focus more on their domestic market the last decade, which has led to increasingly restricting what can and can't be released there. The film board is basically just looking for excuses not to show stuff they already likely weren't gonna show. If it's wasn't something stupid like an actor showing solidarity towards Tibet or acknowledging the existence of Taiwan, they'd find some other reason to pull it.
It wasn't, but Wonder Woman being announced as cancelled on the heels of Batgirl was always going to run the risk of having that perception. Even though we've since learned Batman and Superman also had films axed due to the new regime, it's still a situation that had the potential to come off looking bad (especially when Zaslav has been criticized in the past for axing a number of female and minority-led productions on HBO Max).
Optics are a thing regardless of whether or not something is strictly, factually true.
Last edited by Holt; 12-09-2022 at 12:23 PM.
Certainly faster than The Batman if i remember correctly
From what I gather
Flashpoint was supposed to lead into COIE by stranding affleck Batman in the multiverse, while setting up a long term status quo shift that would have lived by COIE if it was well-received
The post-flashpoint dc universe would have been a mess of nostalgic and snyder iconography that would have paradoxically have allowed filmmakers to have more freedom
One of the earliest rumors being that a version of superman(implied to be Reeves or Henry) would go into retirement in Smallville to raise his family with lois while supergirl took his place
I feel the same. Patty Jenkins made a pretty good origin film with a lot of the classic Wonder Woman stuff and it worked for what it needed to be imo. But the sequel was a complete disaster imo. And I don't even mean a Batman Returns "it was a little too dark for the kids at the time" mess. I mean it was just a bad film in a vacuum. I wouldn't give her free reign if I was trying to build my universe after that. And as much as there is validity in giving creators room sometimes, the universe that actually worked had Feige as overlord to make sure that things were all uniform enough and didn't get too off the rails. Wonder Woman 1984 never happens with him.
Hollywood Reporter update on the situation:
So Cavill was planned to return in Crisis on Infinite Earths.Mystery Man Revealed
Man of Steel 2 has stalled out. It’s Kal-el with Kryptonite ankle bracelets at this point. Not going anywhere. But it was on the move ahead of James Gunn and Peter Safran’s arrival at DC, even though it’s unclear how far that specific incarnation would have gotten.
Sources tell us Steven Knight, the creator of TV series Peaky Blinders and See and writer of movies Spencer and Eastern Promises, penned a treatment for the project in the fall. Unfortunately, it didn’t thrill Warner executives, who gave notes. (There's that word again.)
Before things could go to the next level, which may or may not have included hiring another writer given Knight’s very busy schedule, Gunn and Safran were hired, and development promptly ended.
Crisis on Infinite Supermans
Just staying on topic of the dream to bring back Henry Cavill: Dwayne Johnson wasn’t the only one who had that idea. Former head of DC Films Walter Hamada was also working on a long-range plan to return Superman, and Cavill, to the DC cinematic fold.
Sources tell us that cameos in forthcoming DC movies of next year would have breadcrumbed to a giant tentpole movie inspired by the now-classic Crisis on Infinite Earth comics of the 1980s. That comics mini-series featured multiple timelines and heroes from other dimensional Earths and, just as the Flash movie was returning Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck in their Batman incarnations, this new movie project would have returned Cavill as Supes.
Johnson, however, had his own plans and muscled his own Cavill return.
The Great Beyond
In the aftermath of the news of Wonder Woman 3 hitting the skids, several items have popped up (here and here) about how there was a plan to spin off a Batman Beyond movie from Flash and that Christina Hodson, already in the (old) DC fold thanks to writing Batgirl and Flash, was penning it. Here are a few more details:
Hodson pitched her take, which had executives excited, and had actually commenced writing…when, about two weeks after the hires of Gunn and Safran, she was told to stop.
Some Batfans’s hearts may break when we tell them the project was looking to resuscitate a romance between a Michael Keaton Batman and Catwoman (would Michelle Pfeiffer have returned? Who knows?)
But as tough as some of this may sound to some fans, keep in mind that Gunn and Safran can and will resuscitate some of these heroes.
They know, and may even love, Terry McGinnis. They may bring back Deathstoke, who was a villain in the Ben Affleck-Geoff Johns-written Batman movie when Affleck was going to star and direct it.
Maybe a John Stewart Green Lantern movie will finally happen. And you know Superman and Wonder Woman will return in one shape or another. Whether Cavill and Gadot come back, however, will be up to Gunn and Safran.
Last edited by Holt; 12-09-2022 at 04:49 PM.
I mean, honestly, I don’t know if there’s that much of a chance of Gunn actually going through with a reboot. There’s one kinda big glaring thing people are forgetting and it’s that Gunn himself has projects both past and upcoming set in THIS canon. I mean, the man literally announced Peacemaker season 2 HIMSELF at Comic-Con.
On top of that, if it’s true that it was indeed Jenkins who walked away from Wonder Woman 3, then I don’t know if we can say that Gadot is done. It actually would make her cryptic tweet the day before the WW3 news make MORE sense since it seemed like SHE was staying on (the “I can’t wait to share it with you” part), even though it made it seem like something has changed. So, obviously, them needing to get a new director and new script would be a huge change, even if the actress herself is staying on.
Last edited by Green Goblin of Sector 2814; 12-09-2022 at 05:39 PM.
Here is the philosophy that I think we are gonna be seeing moving forward
Same faces…different universe
The next Henry Superman movie, if it happens, will be set in its own continuity that belongs to Gunn, ditto to Wonder Woman and anyone else
Just as Superman and Lois isn’t set in the arrowverse
I doubt that would have actually happened. They bring him back for what? A brief cameo before they hard rebooted the universe? And if the intention was to work with Cavill, why deny him a chance at another solo? This just reads like Hamada trying to cover for himself to be frank. They might have made Cavill an offer for CoIE but I bet it wouldn’t have been what he wanted and he wouldn’t have returned.
As for the rest it looks like everything is on pause for the moment until next week when Gunn & Safran unveil their plan to Zaslav.
For when my rants on the forums just aren’t enough: https://thevindicativevordan.tumblr.com/
Michael Keaton and Michelle Pfeiffer were going to reunite for Batman Beyond.
Seems like people are coming out of the woodwork to bury Gunn and Safran.