It’s impossible to talk about the DC Extended Universe without mentioning the divisive nature of the franchise. Nearly every article you read on the topic starts out mentioning that fact, an issue that traces its roots all the way back to the very first movie, Man of Steel. While the Superman reboot initially saw a fairly positive reception, some fans and critics took issue with Zack Snyder’s tone and the fact that Superman snaps Zod’s neck to save civilians at the end.
The events of Man of Steel became the source of the core conflict in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which was met with even louder complaints. Things were initially looking up for Suicide Squad, until the movie's tone (and content) made some significant deviations from the marketing, earning it another strong rejection by critics.
Things finally seemed to be turning around with Wonder Woman. Despite some pre-release negativity, critics were happy, fans were happy, the box office was happy, and while there was still some doubt cast at Justice League, it finally seemed like the DCEU was getting generally positive buzz for the first time since before Man of Steel. That is, until it was announced that fan favorite composer Junkie XL was leaving the project due to scheduling conflicts, and Danny Elfman would serve as his replacement during Joss Whedon's reshoots.
Whedon and Elfman both have a positive association from much of their past work, but the situation has an unavoidable appearance of WB making massive last minute changes to Zack Snyder's original vision. A lot of this confusion, and much of the past divisiveness in the DCEU news cycle, would be completely avoidable if Warner Bros. were better at communicating plans.
Nobody’s Setting a Narrative
These communication issues are nothing new; it's been a problem since the beginning of the DCEU, starting with the way Warner Bros. announced its plans for DC films. While Batman v Superman got a proper (almost surprise) announcement at San Diego Comic-Con, the rest of the DCEU slate was mentioned in an almost offhand manner during a WB investors call, omitting many details that fans and media would normally be interested in and leaving people to connect the dots on their own, contributing to the impression of a disorganized and rushed shared universe.
Compare this to Marvel who, two weeks after WB’s “announcement,” held an event for fans and critics where they unveiled titles, logos, release dates, and casting confirmations for a whole slew of films. The thing is, only a few of the movies Marvel announced at that event stuck to their original release plans, and an Inhumans movie isn’t even happening anymore. Yet Marvel Studios doesn’t get the same negative flack over that because it projected a much more confident image out the gate, with the announcement designed to hype fans, leaving less room for speculation and negative spin over the state of the studio.
Looking back, Warner Bros. has (so far) stuck closer to planned release windows than many of the projects announced by Marvel, and it could be argued that DC films have actually been the more organized of the two brands since 2014, but allowing the news to be spun the way it has given anything but that impression.
Most DC news doesn’t come in the form of official announcements or press release,s but through leaks and various scoops. Rumors from 4Chan regularly make the rounds, because there’s not much else for hungry fans to go off of. The DC panel at San Diego Comic-Con’s Hall H is frequently the most exciting of the bunch, with official footage and cast appearances getting fans hyped up, but very little official news direct from the studio during the other 11 months of the year allows the cycle to repeat.
As the universe was initially forming, it was regularly said that the DCEU needed a central figurehead to help guide things, and it seemed like that desire was finally fulfilled when Geoff Johns was brought on as the head of DC films with plans to serve as a producer along with Jon Berg. While his impact seems to have made a difference on the film side, he hasn’t stepped into that public figurehead role typically associated with Kevin Feige, taking a mostly hands-off approach when it comes to DC news, allowing this trend of rumors, leaks, and speculation to continue.
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The Rumor Mill Churns
After the devastating loss of Carrie Fisher, Lucasfilm was quick to snub rumors that she was going to be replaced for Episode IX with the use of motion capture like her younger version was in Rogue One. The announcement was short and to the point, nipping the fan rumor mill in the bud before it got out of control. Warner Bros. should take note.
To give Johns some credit, recent rumors that 2018 would see as many as 4 Batman related movies were debunked on Twitter with Jon Berg and Geoff Johns mocking the notion in a brief exchange, but this is, unfortunately, one of the only examples of these rumors being addressed head on, and it was via Twitter instead of a more formal announcement.
Ben Affleck’s departure as director of The Batman was also much more of a circus than it needed to be, with all official sources staying mum on the topic until it was already widely circulated that he wanted out, obviously resulting in a lot of negative spin before Affleck finally announced that Matt Reeves would be taking his place. Even Marvel didn’t suffer as much negativity for Egar Wright’s exit from Ant-Man, which had the appearance of a much less amicable split. Silence from WB led to the rumor growing to the point that people were claiming Affleck wanted out of the role entirely, leading to even more supposed behind the scenes drama, when simply confirming the rumors that he was stepping down early on and being more transparent with the search for a new director would have shattered the air of secrecy that lent credence to the rumors of deeper troubles.
All Marvel movies experience reshoots, yet they aren’t subject to the same rumors that DC movies face every time they confront additional photography and, once again, this is largely due to how up-front Marvel is with some plans. DC producers and directors have responded to reshoot rumors in interviews or via Twitter a few times, but it’s always reactionary, allowing rumors of troubled productions to spread. As seen with Wonder Woman, that was nowhere near the case, yet the movie suffered from negative publicity all the way until release as a result
Too Much Room For Confusion
Compounding the problem, whenever there are statements made about plans for the universe and its intended direction, it tends to happen in interviews, meaning that the contextis lost to spin. Most recently, Geoff Johns told The Wrap the plan for the DCEU is to “Get to the essence of the character and make the movies fun. Just make sure that the characters are the characters with heart, humor, hope, heroics, and optimism at the base” (which is simply a reiteration of comments made a year ago).
The problem is, Man of Steel and Batman v Superman were ultimately - debates over execution aside - stories about heart, hope, heroics, and optimism. Obviously there’s a lot of disagreement on that point, so the narrative following his statements quickly becomes “Geoff Johns is going to change the DCEU to add heart, humor, hope, heroics, and optimism," which is obviously a slight against fans who loved DC’s existing approach and believed that they were already doing that.
Combine that with the fact that Joss Whedon and Danny Elfman have replaced Zack Snyder and Junkie XL on Justice League, and it’s more than understandable that fans are confused and upset over the franchise’s future - especially after Snyder's vision on Batman v Superman was handicapped by the theatrical cut. Sure, it’s been specified that Whedon is only fulfilling Snyder’s original plan, and Junkie XL had a scheduling conflict, but if Warner Bros. and DC Films aren’t going to tackle these issues head on by officially coming out to set the narrative, then every article about these movies will continue to open with a paragraph detailing the divisive nature of the DCEU.
