Not necessarily. You can easily shove Batman or Superman in something to get it off the ground yet it still not be a small cog in a larger machine. Batman Soul of the Dragon definitely won't be connected to anything. Heck even Connor, Steel, and all the Superman related characters didn't NEED to be in a movie in continuity with Judas Contract... they just needed to be in a movie with Superman in it.
By Shared Universe are we simply talking a larger hero (Batman, Superman, etc) guest starring? Or more like if it is connected to all of the other animated movies?
Last edited by Mistah K88; 01-27-2021 at 05:14 PM.
I'm fine if they are going for a mix of interconnected movies and stand alone ones.
There are some stories you can only tell in a prior established universe and continue arcs of fan favorite characters and add more depth to them. It allows the standalone movies to be more experimental by focusing on stories that couldn't be told under a shared universe.
Which is a good example of the advantage of a connected universe: you can do long term storytelling that one and dones don’t allow. Take for example something like Blackest Night: I have no freaking clue how you would do that as a stand-alone movie. It needs to be a movie set in a shared universe in order to have proper impact, because first you need to slowly kill off certain heroes like J’onn and Arthur over time, give them proper epic deaths so we can feel and mourn their loss, so when we get to Blackest Night the horror feels much more visceral. Blackest Night is a story that only really works as a culmination to long term storytelling imo.
I mean do you think we'll see Richard Dragon, Lady Shiva, and Bronze Tiger again? 'Cause I sure don't. I mean you're right, we could see a Judas Contract movie that has Batman awkwardly shoved in there as the main character I just don't think that's a good idea.
In much the same way those movies don't need to be in continuity with each other, you don't have to watch them and think of the other movies they're in continuity with each other, meanwhile those of us that want to see, say, Superboy in a Teen Titans movie can have that to look forward to. Again, assuming that they all don't end up as cannon fodder in a movie that kills them all and then completely blows up the earth and salts that universe so nothing can ever grow there again
Last edited by Mistah K88; 01-28-2021 at 12:01 AM.