The DC movie universe has been in an eternal state of transition for years, putting new co-CEO's James Gunn and Peter Safran in a difficult spot as they construct a 10-year plan for the franchise. While there's a number of popular actors cast as iconic characters and a lot of world building established, the fractured nature of the "Snyderverse" poses a challenge to any long-term planning, while fully rebooting presents its own set of potential drawbacks.
The original DCEU plan under Zack Snyder set up a shorter arc for the universe leading to multiple Justice League movies, but Warner Bros. was never fully committed to Snyder's plan, eventually replacing him altogether with Joss Whedon in the middle of Justice League's post-production. The franchise mostly abandoned Snyder's plan, but didn't abandon his universe, kicking the can down the road for future WB and DC administrations to deal with, and now, five years later, the problem lands in James Gunn's lap, and the answer isn't any easier, with Gunn admitting their plans won't "make every single person happy..."
Snyderverse Canon Has A Lot of Complicated Baggage
One of the biggest challenges facing James Gunn as he takes on the DC universe is Snyderverse's baggage. In the fallout of Snyder's Justice League replacement, Whedon's on-set behavior, and the movie's poor reception, the future of the cast came into question. For a long time it wasn't clear if Henry Cavill would return as Superman, Ben Affleck publicly swore off of playing Batman, and Ray Fisher's dispute with WB led to Cyborg being excluded from The Flash. While the situations with Cavill and Affleck seemed to have turned around, Ezra Miller found themselves at the center of lots of tabloid drama, and now the future of Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman is also in question.
It may not be impossible to repair those bridges to retain the full cast, but it's a complex situation and surely makes starting over with a clean slate more appealing when making long-term plans. Additionally, there's a number of major story elements set up by Snyder's plan, such as the Knightmare future, that make moving forward in any direction other than a completion of Snyder's plan difficult. Considering the polarized reception to Snyder's DC movies (as with anything related to Snyder), it's hard to chart a new 10-year DC movie plan that only partially embraces Snyder's canon, but that doesn't make it any easier to simply toss it all aside.
A Total DC Movie Reboot is Wasteful
A total reboot and fresh start for the DC movie universe could be an appealing nuclear option, but that also wastes years of development. Warner Bros. spent hundreds of millions of dollars marketing these versions of the characters, and despite the divisive reception there is a passionate fanbase for Snyder's versions of the characters, especially Cavill's Superman and Affleck's Batman. It might not be easy to pick up those stories and run in a new direction, but it'd also be a tremendous waste to simply abandon these characters and start over, spending hundreds of millions more on marketing to sell audiences on new versions.
Almost every Justice League actor other than Affleck was far less known when they were originally cast, but in the last decade, Cavill, Jason Momoa, and Gadot have all become some of the biggest stars in Hollywood. Gunn may have experience with rising stars, putting the spotlight on actors like Chris Pratt and Dave Bautista with Guardians of the Galaxy, but throwing away actors like Cavill, Momoa, and Gadot to start from scratch is a massively wasted investment.
James Gun's DC Movie Canon Decision is a Lose-Lose Scenario
Granted, some would argue the Snyderverse is a great illustration of the sunk cost fallacy. The studio has already squandered multiple opportunities to capitalize on the characters and stories developed under Snyder's watch, so how many times should they try to make it work before moving on? Is it worth the time and money of giving it one more spin, or is it best to take this opportunity to simply clear the table and start the 10-year plan from scratch? There's advantages and disadvantages to both directions, but it seems Gunn and Safran have chosen to embrace more of a soft reboot, as Gunn said in his recent Twitter thread:
"in the end, the drawbacks of that transitional period were dwarfed by the creative possibilities & the opportunity to build upon what has worked in DC so far & to help rectify what has not."
Gunn's tweets acknowledge that, while the ultimate cost-benefit analysis of rebooting compared to maintaining elements of Snyderverse canon shows there's big negatives to both sides, the cost of a total reboot made the opportunities presented by maintaining some of the existing canon the better option. It's not clear exactly what Gunn thinks "worked" in the old DCEU plans and what needs to be "rectified," but surely the cast is a major component of his decision.
As Gunn acknowledges, he and Peter Safran were fully aware of the complicated situation with DC Films and a number of hard decisions that needed to be made for the franchise to finally move forward. Figuring out how to handle Snyderverse canon is one of the first big decisions the duo has to make, but could also be the most impactful decision, as it has major implications on the rest of their 10-year DC movie plan. With The Flash introducing multiverse elements, and repeated talk of some kind of Crisis on Infinite Earths movie, there's a number of ways Gunn can pivot the existing canon into a new direction.
There's still a lot of questions for how this choice will effect Gunn and Safran's long term plan. Will the studio repair its relationship with Ray Fisher so he can return as Cyborg? Will a strong PR push repair Ezra Miller's image? Is Ben Affleck's Batman an option for more than just cameos? Will major teases such as Darkseid's invasion from Zack Snyder's Justice League have an impact on the 10-year plan? There was immense untapped potential in the original Snyderverse plan, so hopefully this newest administration at Warner Bros. Discovery and DC Studios will finally be able to make some of it pay off.
