Whenever a standalone franchise begins to suffer from the law of diminishing returns, there’s always a studio executive hovering over the big red button marked “crossover” to try and inject some new juice into a flagging property, with Warner Bros. presenting the perfect solution should James Gunn‘s DCU go the same way as its predecessor.
Of course, the comic book saga has been celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, but the fact both Shazam! Fury of the Gods and The Flash tanked at the box office indicates that it won’t be going out in a blaze of glory, especially when Blue Beetle is barely being marketed and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is being battered by nothing but bad buzz.
In fact, seeing as the DCEU hasn’t had one of its movies crack $400 million at the global box office since 2018, you could also say it isn’t even the studio’s most consistently bankable IP anymore. Ironically, that accolade should probably go to the MonsterVerse instead, which is where a new comic series comes in.
Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong is a guaranteed billion-dollar hit as a feature film based entirely on the insanity of its premise, and if we’re never going to get that Fast & Furious crossover with Jurassic World, then seeing another team of erstwhile superheroes battling against gigantic monsters would be a more than acceptable substitute.
Sure, it’s far too early to predict doom and gloom for Gunn’s DCU despite many proclaiming otherwise, but at least WB has the tantalizing prospect up its sleeve for emergencies, with source material to draw inspiration from to boot.
Published: Jul 20, 2023 01:41 am