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*Disclaimer: This article solely reflects the author’s opinion. Reader discretion is advised.*
Before the 2000s, when it came to superhero movies, only two characters had a good reputation with the audiences. Big-screen adaptations featuring Superman and Batman were box-office juggernauts, while movies with Marvel characters went straight to TV, and even the ones that made it to the big screen flopped hard. But today, films with Marvel characters have become a pop-culture phenomenon.
DC, on the other hand, seems to struggle to gain the same success on the big screen as Marvel did till 2021. It seemed to get its act together by hiring James Gunn and Peter Safran as the CEOs of DC Studios in October 2022. Fast forward to two years later and the trailer of the new Superman movie directed by Gunn has had fans hopeful.
What should the new DCU learn from the now-defunct DCEU?
While people are hopeful about the upcoming movies, there are still some lessons that Gunn and Safran should learn from the failures of the DC Extended Universe, and to be fair, even the mistakes from the 20th century. Here are some of the numerous lessons for the upcoming DC Universe that has kicked off with Creature Commandos:
Stick to a creator
Zack Snyder is the latest in the long list of directors that were mistreated by Warner Brothers. Justice League was not the first time a movie featuring Superman had a troubled production. Back in the 1970s, Richard Donner, who had directed most of Superman II along with Superman: The Movie (1978), was fired from the sequel. He was replaced by Richard Lester, who made the movie comedic.
Similarly, Tim Burton was booted off a third Batman movie and replaced by Joel Schumacher. However, he was replaced before he could film even a frame for his version of the third Batman movie. DC decided to fire Burton because 1992's Batman Returns was way too dark and disturbing, forcing McDonald's to recall the movie's Happy Meal toys.
Schumacher's first Batman movie, Batman Forever, was a huge success even if it had and still has a mixed critical reception. But his second movie, Batman & Robin, was such a bomb that the character of Batman remained absent from the big screen for almost a decade. It was not until Christopher Nolan's 2005 reboot, Batman Begins, that fans and audiences at large saw The Dark Knight on the silver screen.
In all these cases, the management at Warner Brothers seems to be the problem. If they had not interfered and stuck to a creator, they would not have to face endless fan campaigns. This leads to the second lesson.
Don't recut movies
When it comes to movies featuring DC characters there are three different examples of alternative directive cuts because of Studio interference. They are Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut, Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice Ultimate Edition, and Zack Snyder's Justice League. The first Suicide Squad movie directed by David Ayer also has a supposed "Ayer Cut," but it's not officially released.
Avoid setting up future movies right in the middle of a movie
One of the debated aspects of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice is the entire "Knightmare" sequence that's right in the middle of the movie. It sets up the events that would've unfolded either in Justice League: Part Two or Three, directed by Snyder. Today, this scene just feels pointless. Apart from that, the Knightmare timeline is an adaptation of the divisive Injustice storyline.
It was a clear case of putting the cart in front of the horse. Movies or movie franchises that have done this have not worked well. Look at Avengers: Age of Ultron and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 as examples. Setting up the sequel in the post or mid-credit scene is different, and halting the movie right in the middle to do so is different.
Get the characters right
One of the problems with DCEU despite promising casting choices (except for Jesse Eisenberg) was failing to capture the essence of the characters. In the comics, Jonathan Kent instills the morals of Superman in young Clark, yet Man of Steel got Pa Kent wrong. Superman cares for people, and yet, in his battle against Zod, he seems to care very little. And he genuinely avoids taking a life.
Batman has had his no-guns and no-kill rule ever since the 1940s, despite carrying a firearm and killing before that. He was a killer in 1939, i.e., the year he was introduced. However, National Publications (eventual DC Comics) editor-in-chief Whitney Ellsworth instructed writers to implement the no-kill rule for both Batman and Superman.
Despite that, Snyder chose to ignore canonically established rules in the DC lore for shock value. He has all the right to put his own spin on iconic characters, ignoring established rules. However, if one is going to ignore the rules, then they better write a logical story. If you are going to write a story where Batman kills, then it makes no sense that The Joker is still alive, especially when it's established that he killed Robin.
Batman can be dark, but he is not a murderer.
Get the point of stories right
If DC wants to get its stories right, then the studio must choose the director who is right for the project. Honestly, Zack Snyder was never right for adapting DC characters Batman and Superman. In fact, he was never even right for Watchmen, one of the bleakest DC stories. The 2009 Watchmen movie is a shallow adaptation of a phenomenal graphic novel.
Zack Snyder committed a cardinal mistake by making Rorschach the noble hero and making Doctor Manhattan responsible for humanity's destruction in the end. That's not the case in the Watchmen graphic novel. Allan Moore, the man, was crystal clear about his views on Rorschach and the character's fans. He said:
“I wanted to kind of make this like, 'Yeah, this is what Batman would be in the real world'. But I had forgotten that actually to a lot of comic fans, that smelling, not having a girlfriend—these are actually kind of heroic! So actually, sort of, Rorschach became the most popular character in Watchmen. I meant him to be a bad example. But I have people come up to me in the street saying, "I am Rorschach! That is my story!' And I'll be thinking: 'Yeah, great, can you just keep away from me, never come anywhere near me again as long as I live'?”
From this quote alone we can ascertain that the author never intended Rorshach to be a noble hero. However, Snyder totally missed the point of the character and adapted him in an antithetical way. Superman and Batman are completely on the opposite end of the spectrum of Watchmen. If Snyder missed the point of a story that suited his taste, he missed the point of characters in the mainstream DC Universe.
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If DC Studios is serious about having a brand recall value similar to that of the MCU, then James Gunn and Peter Safran better learn from the failures of DCEU. Based on the Superman trailer, it looks like they may get the Man of Steel right. But after that, DC does need to knock Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, Clayface, and Lanterns out of the bat, too.
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