UPDATE: According to THR, Walter Hamada, the head of DC Films, is close to exiting the company due to CEO David Zaslav’s clear desire to do a reset as far as the studio’s strategy towards superhero movies go. According to the article, Hamada’s decision is the result of the shelving of Batgirl, as he wasn’t consulted and is worried about the effect this will have on the people who made the movie. However, Hamada is expected to remain in place until the release of Black Adam on October 21st, and no final decision in regards to his future at the company has been made. That said, the future for WB and DC looks like it’s going to be shaken up in a pretty big way over the next few months.
While Marvel Studios have enjoyed tremendous success with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Warner Bros. hasn’t been so lucky with the DC Universe. Although the franchise may have once started with a cohesive plan, regime changes and controversies have left fans uncertain about its future.
During Warner Bros. Discovery’s second-quarter earnings call, CEO David Zaslav claimed that they’ve done a reset of the DC Universe and have a ten-year plan in the works.
You look at Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman — these are brands that are known everywhere in the world. We have done a reset. We’ve restructured the business where we are going to focus, where there is going to be a team with a ten-year plan focusing just on DC. We believe we can build a much more sustainable business.
David Zaslav has brought former Disney CCO Alan Horn onboard as a consultant, with the hope that the new DC Universe can use the structure of the MCU as an inspiration. “It’s very similar to the structure Alan Horn, Bob Iger and Kevin Feige put together very effectively at Disney,” Zazlav said. “We think we can build a much stronger, sustainable growth business out of DC. As part of that, we are going to focus on quality. We are not going to release any film before it’s ready … DC is something we can make better.”
Although David Zaslav recently shelved the Batgirl movie, he remains excited about the upcoming DC Universe movies, including Black Adam, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, and The Flash. “We are very excited about them,” Zazlav said. “We’ve seen them. We think they are terrific, and we think we can make them even better.” The Warner Bros. Discovery CEO added that “The objective is to grow the DC brand. To grow the DC characters. But also, our job is to protect the DC brand, and that’s what we’re going to do.” Given the ongoing Ezra Miller situation, the future of DC Universe still has a few controversies to deal with. This is far from the first time that there’s been a big plan for the DC Universe, but I hope it succeeds this time, mostly because I love the characters and want to see them return to the big screen once again. Fingers crossed.