I feel for the folks over at WB. It’s really hard to imagine any film in the history of movies being called a failure as it passes the $700 Million mark in box office. Still, that’s what happening, and it’s looking more and more like the critical thrashing the film received, along with a a lukewarm fan response that resulted in a 69% drop of in box office totals between its first and second week, are going to have some big ramifications. Amazingly, so far, one of those ramifications has not been to remove Zack Snyder as director of the film.
Before I continue, let me just clarify my Snyder position. The man can frame a shot like almost no one else. Sure, he is to the slow motion shot what JJ Abrams is to the lens flare, but we all have our foibles, right? My problem is that within the beauty of his visual style, there isn’t an iota of fun. When I see a comic book related film (unless I was going to see an adaptation of something like Maus or Pride of Baghdad), I want to enjoy myself. That doesn’t mean dark stuff doesn’t happen. All stories need darkness to some degree, but his worlds tend to be so bleak that I end up not wanting to live in them, even for the 2 and a half hours that he’s presenting them.
OK… so back to the aftermath. THR is reporting that there’s a lot of talk inside WB about changing up the proposed follow up slate of Justice League related films. Wonder Woman, who fans are now looking forward to seeing in a solo film after her 14 lines in BvS, has now been moved up. Instead of it’s original date of June 23, 2017, fans will now be able to see it on June 2, 2017. This is actually a bold move on the studio’s part as it puts it up on the same weekend as Bad Boys 3 and Captain Underpants.
Meanwhile, the big rumor is that Warner Bros is considering releasing less of their DC hero films. Instead, focusing on the bigger name heroes like Batman, as well as guaranteed hits like their LEGO films and the upcoming Harry Potter spin-off: Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them.
As to how this will effect the rest of the slate, we’ve yet to see, but there’s already been some talk coming out of the studios that make it look like the Cyborg film (the least well known of the upcoming Justice League roster) could get the axe in favor of retooling the Flash film so that he can be given more of a buddy role there. While this might make sense from a financial perspective, it also means that they’ll be taking their only black super hero (until they get off their asses and announce Jon Stewart as the next Green Lantern), and cancelling his film in favor of having him buddy up with another white guy.