You can do this DCEU, we believe in you!

Belle: Loki is here and The Suicide Squad is coming, and man, I wish DC would pull it together so I got the same chill down my spine in anticipation for the DCEU as I do for Marvel. No matter how much Marvel gets on my damn nerves there is a coherent thought process behind the universe. They are setting up a way to bring all of their properties under the same umbrella via Loki and you know that it was planned at least 3 years ago, if not longer.  

Sherri: Exactly. They need to find their Kevin Fiege, the single point person to direct all their efforts.

Belle: They had it. For all his faults Zack Snyder had a clear vision and was unselfish enough to get out of the way of other directors and help them with their interpretations. He was on set for Wonder Woman, Shazam and Aquaman and he was helpful and encouraging without pushing his own view of how those characters should be. All he did was make sure that the through line of what points they had to hit was there overall. That’s what DC had and they shite on it because they couldn’t be patient. All they had to do was let that man grieve. That’s it. Just…not be dicks.

Sherri: Everyone wants what Marvel has but doesn’t want to put in Marvel’s work

Belle: 

And weirdly you know who pulled it off? The MonsterVerse.

Sherri: True that

Belle: Without copying Marvel at all. They just quietly built a shared universe right under our noses over the course of almost 10 years. Is it perfect? No.

Sherri: Yup

Belle: GvK actually irritated me the second time I watched because I still don’t know why Skarsgard and Hall were there when we had established characters who filled those roles and would’ve made more sense but they still built to a massive thing that left hooks for sequels. Same with The Conjuring Universe. And it looks like Mortal Kombat is setting up to do this as well. What kills me is that all of these franchises are also owned by Warner Media, so we know they know how to do this.

Still despite this ongoing mess with AT&T, I have a small bit of hope that the DCEU will get itself together. This is their chance to get rid of their Ike Perlmutters, of which they have many, and get in their Fiege.  

Sherri: You can make an interconnected universe that isn’t great but, for what they are supposed to do, they are good. That is what the MonsterVerse and the ConjuringVerse are for me.


Armand: If they put the creatives in charge the way Marvel does, that’s probably the best case scenario.

Sherri: Yes, because I have to say Disney understands marketing and releasing films but they also know that writing, production and directing is not their place. They say “we want a movie about a dragon” and then get the right people to build the story. I’ve been talking to my friend about what we’re talking about here. He is also a Marvel/DCEU fan and he pointed out that the closest thing to a Kevin Feige that DC has is Greg Berlanti, whose team does the DC shows for the CW (of which “Arrow” was the cornerstone) and also does “Titans” for HBO—where he could let loose and go even darker and harder than “Arrow,” but because he doesn’t have control of “Justice League”  there’s still that incongruity (especially the weirdness of not being able to weave “Titans” with “Justice League”.)”

Belle: The biggest issue with that is Berlanti, like J.J. Abrams, seems to only be able to do two decent seasons of a show. From Everwood to Batwoman the man is not great at sustaining his writing and characters. 

Ron: DC’s biggest mistake, other than not having a Fiege is starting out with the Trinity. They should’ve started with Flash, Shazam, HawkWoman and the Green Arrow/Black Canary combo. Basically make the live action version of the Justice League series. Make them the cornerstone of the film series and then you bring in a threat so big that the team has to get the Trinity and the heavy hitters of Green Lantern, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter. Especially as this a post-Jason Todd’s death universe so it would make perfect sense that Bruce has shut down and hasn’t gone looking for other heroes. If they weren’t going to keep Zack Snyder on they should’ve called Paul Dini and Bruce Timm in and recreate/update the animated series but darker. That’s it. 

Belle: Exactly. I’ve literally been saying for years that every DC animated series and film is 10x better than anything DC has put out in live action, hands down, so why not just transfer that team to oversee the films and bring in directors under them? Warner’s has made this far more difficult than it needed to be and now here we are.

The bottom line is that everyone wants DC to win but based on everything that’s come before it’s not likely unless they learn from their mistakes. Between the Ray Fisher situation and the racist/sexist mess going on behind the scenes of DC Comics and the DC television series; the war they have ongoing with every single director for their films and the lack of focus we don’t trust them. And we want to.

The AT&T merger is DC’s chance to make some positive changes, hopefully they won’t waste it.