I Mean, How Many Batman Actors Can We Have at This Point?

The DC Entertainment Universe needs to give up before they destroy even more meaningful stories.

Since the premiere of Iron Man in 2008, it feels like there’s been a new superhero movie selling out at the box office every few months. The Avengers. Ant-man. Captain America: Civil War. Avengers: Infinity War. Captain Marvel. It’s never-ending, and there’s a reason for that – Disney has made billions of dollars from these films and continues to profit from them to this day due to merchandise, television shows, and theme parks. These films have made it clear to all those in Hollywood that superhero movies are king – well, at least the Marvel ones. DC, Marvel's comic competitor, has been playing catch up with their movies for the past decade, leading to them abandoning their fan base and history to make a quick buck. In my opinion, DC needs to just give up their big-screen universe dreams.  

Photo by Joel Muniz on Unsplash

As a lifelong DC fan, I can see that their live-action films are a mess. While they are making money, these movies lack direction, have barely any support from fans, and struggle to make an impact since they constantly ignore the source material. DC has dominated the animated movies and television space for years, bringing in new fans and entertaining old ones, but these fans, including me, have been let down time after time in the live-action space. The characters that used to be filled with life, love, and memories are now empty shells, destroying any possibility of a meaningful story in exchange for a big payout. Warner Brothers, the franchise owners, don’t seem to notice or care. In fact, they're trying to fail all over again by hiring new directors and producers, recasting their primary roles, and remaking their previous unlikeable films. It's time for DC and Warner Brothers to call it quits. There is no saving the DC cinematic universe, and it's time to stop ruining the stories comic fans like me love just for profit.

To understand why DC has to give up, one has to look back on how they started. The first significant DC Entertainment Universe (DCEU) film was Man of Steel, a Superman film in 2013. It was a decent movie and had almost everything that makes Clark Kent/Superman the iconic hero: a red cape, fairness, compassion, and good hair. Big DC comic fans like me were hopeful – would we have a successful live-action film franchise featuring all of our favorite characters, just like Marvel fans? Well, maybe somewhere in the multiverse, but in this reality, things fell apart quickly. 

 Fast forward to 2016, Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice premiered with little to no explanation. An easy comparison would be if Marvel released the first Iron Man movie and then jumped straight into Captain America: Civil War. Both are about two crucial characters in conflict with each other, with lots of other characters being involved. The MCU protagonists already had almost ten movies where the characters had been developed. We cared about them and their motivations and understood the conflict between the two sides. The DCEU just had one film. Instead of Batman getting his own introduction, he was tossed into the first act of the second Superman movie. Now, we all know the basic story of Batman; we’ve seen it almost four times already, but some form of individual introduction would have been helpful to set the tone for Ben Affleck’s Batman and the expanded universe. The same goes for Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman, Lex Luthor, and Doomsday, other very important characters in the franchise who were kind of shoved into this film for dramatic effect. It was like these characters and their stories meant nothing.  After this, there was Suicide Squad, which had no place in the barely constructed universe, and Wonder Woman, which was surprisingly a good movie but came out way too late.

But the chaotic, disorganized, and confusing stories transitioned into the next big team-up film in the franchise: Justice League, which came out in 2017.  Justice League broke hearts, with even more characters being added without introduction films, poorly written dialogue, and a dramatic fan battle over the infamous ‘Snyder C,’ which was supposed to save the DC Universe as we knew it (surprise: it didn’t). Basically, instead of growing their own characters organically, the DCEU tried to catch up to Marvel by shoveling over a dozen movies worth of development into a few short, cruel hours. The results are tedious and confusing movies with characters nobody really cares for.  Instead of paving their own way, DC let their greed take hold.

As a diehard fan, this is heartbreaking. My favorite characters deserve more than sloppy, sandwiched-together films to make some fast money in superhero-dominated Hollywood. Real DC fans know that they are more than just people in capes and tights. Batman is a story of a young boy who had everything but lost the thing that mattered most and how, even after years of suffering, you can still love and build a family. Superman depicts a reality known by many young immigrants: the feeling of missing something you never knew, always being out of place, and how no matter what you do for others, they may never see you as one of them. These stories may just seem like unrealistic comic books, but they mean something. They are powerful. Viewers would never get this by just seeing the DCEU movies. They feel empty and are just carcasses of the memories that mean so much to fans. Changing the actors and trying again isn't going to change the fact that they lack the soul of the heroes they are trying to represent.

 If DC continues down the path of rebooting their franchise, they may never be able to salvage their dignity and could lose the thing that matters most – the fans they’ve impacted. 

On the other hand, it is possible that this reboot could bring glory to the DC name. Warner Brothers has given James Gunn the reins for the new films. With his successful work in the Marvel universe, it’s possible that he has the right experience that is needed to tell these stories in a way that is meaningful and respectful to the source material. It is also possible that with the current downturn of Marvel films, DC may finally find its place in the live-action movie industry. But, even if these newer films do gain traction, the previous damage is already done. It will also be confusing for the average fan to tell what is included in this new series and what isn’t. 

In my humble opinion, DC should just return to its roots in funny CW television shows and award-winning animated films. At least in those mediums, they remember what matters most – the stories. DC and Warner Brothers need a reality check – they messed up and missed the Superhero explosion, and remaking a live-action universe they’ve already fumbled once isn’t going to save them.