Whether you’re a fan of the DC Extended Universe or not, there’s no denying that the franchise has struggled to achieve the same sort of success with its shared universe model as Marvel has with the MCU. Five films in and only one has been deemed an all-round smash-hit – Wonder Woman. Given that, it’s no surprise that the latest comments from a DCEU producer suggest future installments will ditch the crossover angle and be much more standalone.
Warner Bros./DC Films exec Charles Roven made some illuminating remarks when speaking to ComicBook.com recently. He promised that future DCEU movies would focus on “standalone characters,” a practice that would ensure that there will be a “constant freshness” to the franchise.
“Warner Brothers has been – even before Wonder Woman came out – developing standalone characters, like they did with the Joker and Scorsese: they’ve got a project, and they’ve got a number of projects with a Batman standalone, and things like that, and each one of them has different directors.
So it doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s going to be a commonality of creative synchronicity in what each one of those directors are doing… The great thing about that is that that means there will be a constant freshness.”
Though Wonder Woman‘s all-mighty success must have helped clarify this strategy, Roven is telling the truth when he says the DCEU was already moving away from the earlier darker movies helmed by Zack Snyder.
It’s interesting that the producer mentions the upcoming Joker standalone film, too, which is being produced by Martin Scorsese. This will be the first modern DC pic to take place in a separate continuity. Paired with Roven’s words, it looks like we should expect many more of these “Elseworlds”-type projects to come in the next few years. The Batman solo vehicle that Roven also mentions could likewise become one of these, especially if Ben Affleck hands the part of the Dark Knight to someone else.
The only DCEU movies with release dates hammered down right now are Aquaman (December 21st), Shazam! (April 5th) and Wonder Woman 2 (November 1st 2019), but we’ll let you know should anymore pics join them.
