A lot’s been going on inside WarnerMedia over the past few months, especially as far as DC Films is concerned.
SnyderVerse fans and Zack Snyder himself have really suffered because of the turmoil going on at the very top of the company.
To cut a long story short, it’s a mess and it doesn’t look like this mess will be solved any time soon.
The good news is that it looks like AT&T is starting to step in.
We’re hearing reports that they are thinking of greenlighting a Ben Affleck Batman series for HBO Max.
There were also a whole bunch of announcements made about the future of DC Films.
We’ve heard that Walter Hamada’s DC Films and J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot will be working on a new Superman movie featuring Calvin Ellis rather than Kal El.
This would be the first time Superman will be played by a black actor on the big screen, and that’s a pretty big deal.
We also learned that DC Films was making a Blue Beetle film, a Zatana movie as well as an Hourman picture.
This means that there is a lot of stuff to come from DC Films, which is in a way good news.
However, then there was the not-so-good news.
Warner Bros. Pictures and DC Films don’t want to continue the SnyderVerse
Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures
Read more: Dwayne Johnson’s Fight With WarnerMedia To Restore The SnyderVerse
Warner Bros. Pictures cancelled Ava DuVernay’s New Gods film, as well as James Wan’s The Trench, which came as a bit of shock.
There was also that terrible interview Variety did with WarnerMedia Studios’ CEO Ann Sarnoff in which she referred to the SnyderVerse fans as “toxic”.
She also revealed that Zack Snyder’s Justice League would be the end of the SnyderVerse and that they would be moving away from Snyder’s vision.
Sarnoff also added that they would be exploring the Multiverse more in future movies, but I doubt she even knows what the Multiverse really is.
Andy Muschietti is currently filming The Flash movie in the UK, and we all know that the film will be exploring the Multiverse.
There have also been rumours that this Flash movie will be hitting the reset button on the SnyderVerse.
So, the question is, why all of these course corrections?
Why are the higher-ups at WarnerMedia so desperately trying to move away from the SnyderVerse and Zack Snyder?
Why haven’t they released the actual numbers that Zack Snyder’s Justice League’s been doing across all platforms and on HBO Max?
Why so many course corrections inside WarnerMedia regarding the future of DC Films?
Credit: DC Films
Read more: Restoring The Snyderverse: Inside The Civil War Between WarnerMedia
Well, the answer is two-fold. It has to do with money and wanting to adopt a new formula when it comes to their DC Comics movies.
The fact of the matter is, Warner Bros. Pictures is struggling financially.
The pandemic hit the studio harder than the rest, and Warner Bros. is now looking at Walter Hamada – the President of DC Films – to help them make movies for less money that end up bringing more cash in.
This was why he was hired in the first place.
Hamada made a name for himself for being able to make films on a tight budget that end up making a lot of money.
He was at New Line Cinema before taking the DC Films gig, and while he was there he was responsible for their very profitable horror films.
The Conjuring, Annabelle, The Conjuring 2, Lights Out, Annabelle: Creation, The Nun… These were all films he executive produced and they made New Line Cinema a lot of money and cost them pretty little.
What’s the future for DC Films?
Credit: DC Comics
Read more: Zack Snyder’s SnyderVerse Will Reportedly Carry On Via HBO Max
Right, so, what’s happening as far as the future of DC Films is concerned?
Well, this is where I have some pretty interesting information for you.
A pretty well-placed source revealed to me that Walter’s plan for DC Films is to keep money tight and get Bad Robot to do most of the work.
Here’s what they had to say:
What I can tell you is that the last I heard, Walter wanted to hand over almost all the DC stuff over to BR [Bad Robot].
Our source then added that Walter and Bad Robot’s plan is to follow the Marvel formula for future DC movies.
In other words, make them more connected with movies which will then spinoff into TV shows on HBO Max.
He [Hamada] wanted them to try and make like their version of the MCU – away from Snyder’s stuff. So, this meant letting Abrams and co. come up with a load of new stuff based on pretty unknown DC IPs.
DC Films and Warner Bros want some of that Marvel magic
Credit: Marvel
Read more: WarnerMedia CEO Claims Walter Hamada Offered Ray Fisher The Role Of Cyborg In The Flash Movie
Our source then went a step further by mentioning some of the properties that Hamada and Bad Robot were thinking of making:
There were a load of others being talked about that actually sounded pretty cool. Zatana, Blackhawk, The Spectre, The Question, Mr. Miracle (that was pretty far along actually. Then nothing)… Midnighter was the thing people were getting excited about. They were talking of a series. That came straight from BR.
The source continued:
We were being told that JL Dark was the BIG one for BR and Hamada. That would really kick things off. The Ellis Superman movie would have linked into that series and then they would have made other stuff linked to that series too. So, this is where the whole Marvel formula comes in. They wanted it all to be linked – shows lead into movies – movies lead into shows..
Our source then went on to discuss how Hamada’s aim was to keep the costs for all of these movies and TV shows to a minimum.
They also added how money is a huge issue for Warner Bros. Pictures at the moment.
Walter [Hamada] also wanted to keep costs DOWN! We used to get told that all the time. It was really from the top, so Walter and Jason [Emmerich]. They both wanted to keep costs to a minimum. Used to tell us that this was the key in keeping DC things alive and our salaries paid. Money is a huge problem for WB and DC Films. HBO is connected to that too. They’re feeling the pinch.
Money is the main reason why the SnyderVerse is dead at Warner Bros.
Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures
Read more: Jared Leto Calls For WarnerMedia To Restore The SnyderVerse
This suggests to me at least why Warner Bros. Pictures isn’t that intent on carrying on the SnyderVerse.
Zack Snyder’s movies, up until this point, haven’t been cheap to make.
This isn’t down to Zack. It’s down to the executives that greenlight the budgets.
However, they do seem to see the SnyderVerse as being too expensive and not lucrative enough to continue.
That said, they are spending quite a bit of money on films such as The Flash, Black Adam, Aquaman 2 and Wonder Woman 3.
It seems as though Warner Bros. Pictures is willing to spend the money on those films, but not on Snyder’s movies.
This could change should AT&T step in and greenlight budgets for HBO Max.
That could still happen, but as far as Warner Bros. Pictures is concerned, the SnyderVerse is dead and the Bad Robot/HamadaVerse is alive… for now.
We have reached out to representatives at Warner Bros. Pictures for comment on this story.
They have yet to reply.
What do you make of this news?
Are you at all surprised that Warner Bros. Pictures and DC Films are looking to spend less money on their future DC Comics movies?
If you have any questions about this article, you can contact me directly on Twitter @EJLauder. My DMs are open.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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