With Superman, Batman and even Wonder Woman-centric movies having failed to wow audiences, critics and even their own DC fans at the box office, Warner Bros. Pictures will now have to move away from this “Big 3” and focus on their other intellectual properties if they are to make “good” movies. Similar to how Marvel was cut-off at the knees when they had to build a cinematic universe without their most popular characters – Spiderman, X-Men and the Fantastic Four, WB will have to rebuild the DCEU around their lesser known properties (because they messed up their most well-known and valuable ones), if they want to eventually succeed. James Gunn’s upcoming ‘The Suicide Squad’ and its subsequent spinoff series ‘Peacemaker’ should be a good place to start.
This is a very similar situation we were in around 5 years ago, when both Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice had been released and were disliked by many, especially the latter (more than the former). With many expecting David Ayer’s Suicide Squad to be the only movie to be the saving grace of the DCEU (thanks to some brilliant casting choices and cinematic trailers), the much anticipated teamup movie failed miserably according to the critics and the film was barely held together by stars Will Smith, Margot Robbie and surprisingly Jai Courtney.
But now years later, we now know what the issues were. Warner Studios controlled everything about the DCEU, including the plotlines, runtime, and deadlines. After the behind-the-scenes fiascos happening on multiple DC movies on set, it doesn’t take a genius to understand why so many cast and crew members decided to leave or quit the franchise.
Right now, James Gunn’s upcoming The Suicide Squad’ is finally filling us (and undoubtedly some DC fans as well) with hope. Hoping for a semi-decent movie (which is all one hopes for nowadays when it comes to a DC movie) might usually be a stretch but after seeing what James Gunn did with the (relatively unknown) Marvel Superhero group Guardians of The Galaxy (at the time), this movie and spinoff series might just provide the much required DC-reset that Warner Bros needs.
The Suicide Squad seems to be extremely chaotic, filled with slap-stick comedy (we think), and generally does not give us much hope for the future – if it wasn’t James Gunn helming the project. But this general chaos in the movie can actually be used as a good thing. The Suicide Squad can be the DC’s Avengers – a chaotic, ragtag team of people with powers and/or abilities who come together to protect the earth. They are not required to be “heroes” to do that and the 2016 version of Suicide Squad actually proved it.
For now, we will have to wait till 4th of August 2021, which is when The Suicide Squad comes to theaters around the world.
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