Warner Bros. has completely changed directions with the DC universe
The incredible success of Wonder Woman both critically and at the box office has put a new light on things
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Your support makes all the difference.DC finally caught a break with this summer's Wonder Woman - a film which succeeded both critically and at the box office.
It seems like Warner Bros. has been given a fresh dose of confidence with the win, plus an entirely new perspective on their own approach. Vulture dug deep into the studio's ambition to conjure up a beast as truly formidable as Marvel's MCU.
While the DC brand has had plenty of success elsewhere - with the fan communities built around its TV shows like The Flash and Supergirl for example, or the Batman: Arkham video game franchise - its films have struggled in their reception and failed to overshadow Disney's might at the box office.
In response, DC are looking at a new strategy, namely in the concept of the DCEU. Which, as it turns out, has never been an official title, but derives from a 2015 Entertainment Weekly article by Keith Staskiewicz (via CBR).
"Our intention, certainly, moving forward is using the continuity to help make sure nothing is diverging in a way that doesn’t make sense, but there’s no insistence upon an overall storyline or interconnectivity in that universe," explained DC Entertainment head Diane Nelson.
A technique already witnessed to a degree with Wonder Woman, whose references to Batman v Superman remained fairly minimal; as DC chief creative officer Geoff Johns stated, "The movie’s not about another movie."
"Some of the movies do connect the characters together, like Justice League. But, like with Aquaman, our goal is not to connect Aquaman to every movie." Or, as Nelson added, "Moving forward, you’ll see the DC movie universe being a universe, but one that comes from the heart of the filmmaker who’s creating them."
Partially, the new perspective covers Warner Bros.' back when it comes to the announced Joker film produced by Martin Scorsese, which will be completely unconnected to the Jared Leto version of the character; it's set to be part of a new, as-yet-unnamed side label of completely standalone films.
Wonder Woman is out now on Digital Download and out on 4K UHD, Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray, and DVD 9 October.
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