Why DC's 5-Year Superhero Plan Could Be A Bad Idea

With Marvel’s ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ currently setting August box office records, it should be clear that with the right team of creatives behind it and the right group of actors fronting it, you can make movies about characters who seem a little ridiculous even on the comic book page (we’re looking at you, Ant-Man and Aqua-Man).

That’s basically what Warner Bros and DC Entertainment are banking on in a big way. In addition to shifting the release date of the highly-anticipated ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ to March 25, 2016 (in order to avoid clashing with Marvel’s ‘Captain America 3’), Warner Bros. recently penned in release dates for nine (!) more DC Comics-based superhero movies between now and 2020. That means standalone movies about Batman, the Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and more are likely on the way.

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The WB/DC plan is a very clear response to Marvel Studios, which has already found huge success with films like ‘Iron Man’, ‘The Avengers’ and ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ and has 11 more films planned through 2019. Fox and Sony also have multiple ‘X-Men’/’Fantastic Four’ and ‘Spider-Man’ movies set to be released in the same period, all designed to ape the Marvel Cinematic Universe model.

But this isn’t necessarily a case when “hey, everybody’s doing it” is a good strategy. Here are four reasons why this approach is a bad idea for the DC Comics movies:

The cascade effect

As we’ve already seen this with Zack Snyder’s ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ problems with one movie can have a cascade effect on the other films. ‘Batman v. Superman’ has already had its release date changed an unprecedented three times.

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Those delays will almost certainly push back filming on ‘Justice League’ (also directed by Snyder), which, in turn, will ripple out to whatever other films Warner Bros. has planned. There’s a reason why Marvel has been tackling their superhero movies in smaller phases of 2 to 4 films at a time. It’s just easier to manage and smarter business.

Greenlighting movies without scripts or directors is backwards

In Hollywood, movies usually only get the greenlight if there’s a good script and a decent or promising director is hired. Warner’s aggressive release schedule makes it clear: they have a plan and they are going to make these movies whether or not they currently have scripts or filmmakers.

That’s not to say that the future DC superhero movies won’t be good films or have great writers and directors involved, only that the way the studio is setting it up is antithetical to the way most movies are made. It increases the chance for screw-ups, and, as mentioned above, can foul up a release calendar.

Marvel is guilty of this as well. They locked ‘Ant-Man’ into a release date and only then did they hire writer/director Edgar Wright and a cast. Wright’s departure from the project and replacement by Peyton Reed has cast doubt on whether ‘Ant-Man’ can be completed in time to make its July 2015 release date, a delay which could cause issues for other Marvel films.

A long-term plan assumes the early success

Say Warner does get scripts and hire directors for their superhero flicks scheduled for 2019 and 2020.

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What happens if one of the films leading up to those movies, like ‘Justice League’, is a flop? What then? That’s a huge amount of money and investment for something that might not get made.

Warner Bros. has been burned like this many times before. The Ryan Reynolds-headlined ‘Green Lantern’ was supposed to be a launchpad for more DC movies (the film even laid the groundwork for a sequel), but because it was a critical and box office failure, all those plans went out the window, wasting years of effort and who knows how many millions of dollars. And now the studio has to start from scratch with that character.

If the ‘Dark Knight’ trilogy or ‘Man of Steel’ are any indication, ‘Batman v Superman’ will have no trouble finding an audience.

Read more: Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice Trailer Recreated Using Toys

But that’s still no guarantee that less popular superheroes like Green Lantern or Wonder Woman won’t jeopardize the larger DC Cinematic Universe plan if they fail to perform.

Groundwork

Unfortunately for the other studios, particularly for Warner Bros., the shared universe approach is probably not going to work as well for them. Marvel only got to the point where it could lay out plans for eleven films after making ten successful movies over a six-year span (everything since 2008’s ‘Iron Man’). With movies and TV series like ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ and the upcoming ‘Defenders’ family of shows on Netflix, Marvel has already done the heavy lifting and built out a world for their characters to inhabit.

What has Warner Bros. done to set up nine movies? They made 2013’s ‘Man of Steel’. That’s it. While that movie is certainly a good starting point, perhaps Warner should also emulate Marvel’s cautious approach to building a universe.

Do you think Warner Bros and DC have what it takes to pull this off? Do you think Superman, Batman, and the rest of the Justice League can exist in a shared movie universe much like Iron Man, Captain America, and the Avengers? Let us know in the comments.