With the news that Warner Bros. Discovery is looking to potentially restructure and refresh the DCEU, and add a Kevin Fiege-esque figurehead for the move, the future of many of the studio's existing properties are under scrutiny. What will be rebooted, what will be recast, and what has the potential to be shelved?
The highest on the list of speculative projects that fans and executives alike are interested in is the return of Superman to the DCEU. New Warner CEO David Zaslav himself has even said that he believes the character of Superman has been underutilized in their cinematic efforts. With that being said, what could a new take on Superman learn from the previous installments in the studio's catalog?
The last time audiences saw Superman on the big screen it was during Zack Snyder's Justice League, cameos played by stand-ins in Shazam! and Peacemaker notwithstanding, and there hasn't been a solo Superman film since Man of Steel in 2013. Looking at the Man of Steel's presence on screen over the last decade, even the last 20 years, it isn't hard to see why a possible overhaul is on the table.
Superman Returns from 2006 is an example of all the main elements of a Superman story coming together only to equal less than the sum of its parts. When the project was announced, there was intense hype for the return of Clark Kent and his crime-fighting alter-ego to the big and the casting of Brandon Routh in the titular role only intensified that. As a visual representation of Superman, Routh was perfect, looking eerily like a young Christopher Reeves. The rest of the cast was also promising, featuring Kate Bosworth, Frank Langella, Sam Huntington, and James Marsden.
Where Superman Returns fell down was in pacing and also in the timing of the story the film was telling. Instead of fully rebooting the character, the film took place as Superman returned to Earth after 5 years in space and focused on the re-establishment of his relationships and where he fit in on Earth.
By critical standards the film was a moderate success, praised for the story and grossing 6th highest at the box office for the year it was released. Where the film fell down was running overly long and being too light on action for the return of an iconic superhero. Fans went into the film expecting an action-packed comic book tale and felt that the movie underdelivered. Unfortunately, this led to the end of Routh's short tenure as the Man of Steel until he recently reprised the role in Legends of Tomorrow on the CW.
When Man of Steel was announced in 2013 as a reboot of the character with Henry Cavill cast as the titular hero, fans were once again hopeful. Once again the film had an all-around solid cast, featuring Amy Adams, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, and Laurence Fishburne. This time, however, the film received much more mixed reviews and appeared to suffer from the opposite problem than the previous film; too much action and poor pacing. Tonally the film was also much darker than previous entries in the Superman story, prompting audiences to feel it was too removed from the all-American, wholesome hero the world loves.
Speaking of dark tone, if any Superman film suffered from complaints about the characters' morality it was Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice. Perhaps the most anticipated out of any of the previous movies, the promise of Batman and Superman meeting on the big screen was one that was perhaps too big to fulfill. In a plot that pits the 2 heroes against each other, Dawn of Justice sees each hero determined to eradicate the other while Lex Luthor watched, hoping they would finish each other off.
While having Batman and Superman face off against each other is not an inherently bad idea, Dawn of Justice seemed to be another failure of execution from Warner Bros. Once again the release of the film was plagued by pacing and story criticisms as well as derision in some cases for the Martha plot point and how it was used. The brief appearance of an interpretation of Doomsday and the supposed death of Superman wasn't enough to save the film from critical failure.
Again with Zack Snyder's Justice League many of the same mistakes were made with the character and film in general. Described as uneven in tone and lacking in substance the film repeated the old pattern that so many DCEU films had fallen prey to. Looking at these previous attempts to bring Superman back to the big screen what should Warner Bros. Discovery learn about any future attempts?
It's not just about having access to an IP and cramming as many nods to comics or different characters into a film. The story and characters have to be developed. While these are famous characters that a huge amount of the movie-going public knows, having them on screen for the sake of having them there will never work. Looking at Marvel's success in the MCU, the difference is easy to see. Making characters that audiences care about as well as balancing story and action. Marvel isn't perfect, but the studio knows how to engage an audience with its characters. That is where Warner Bros. Discovery really needs to learn. It's time to make people care about Superman again.