Thanks to his friendship with Ben Affleck, writer/director Kevin Smith has had a bit of insider access to the goings-on behind Zack Snyder's upcoming Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. The filmmaker got a first look at the new Batsuit all the way back in November of last year - a good six months before the rest of us - and just last week he was the one who revealed that the costume isn't actually black, but instead is basically ripped from the pages of Frank Miller's classic arc The Dark Knight Returns. It's not entirely clear if Smith really knows what he's talking about or if he's just sharing bits and pieces hinted at by his actor buddy, but if he really is getting all of the facts than his most recent revelation may be the most interesting yet.
In the most recent episode of Smith's Hollywood Babble-On podcast, the filmmaker has outlined what he believes are Warner Bros. and DC Comics' big plans for the future of their comic book movies. As has been suggested by rumors in the past, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice apparently won't so much be a sequel to Man of Steel as will be used simply to set up a larger universe that will grow bigger with each new film. Said Smith,
"They’re obviously beginning something, and there’s a stretch of these flicks. This is the beginning of the Justice League, as we all suspected as they were announcing that cast. We were like, ‘This is the beginning of a Justice League movie.’ From what I understand now, it’s no longer like, ‘This is Superman 2.’ They’re not doing these things. They’re doing like, ‘Here’s Man of Steel. Here’s Batman/Superman: Dawn of Justice.’ The next one is not like a sequel to one of the characters. They’re just going to keep building their universe for about five or six movies. But all of them…it’s supposed to tell one massive story, which is all Justice League oriented."
Basically, it would seem that WB and DC are doing something completely different than what Marvel Studios has developed, choosing to instead create one gigantic franchise full of superheroes instead of multiple smaller ones that come eventually together in an event film. Instead of having individual Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Green Lantern movies, it looks like the studios are going to instead go with Justice League, Justice League 2, Justice League 3 and so on.
While the Marvel Studios system has certainly been proven to work, this is very much an interesting idea in its own right. The strategy could potentially allow more resources to be available for each DC Comics movie, which could possibly make each one as big and epic as possible, and it would also allow the stars of the franchise to have much looser schedules and allow time for them to work on other projects between superhero suit ups. On the other hand, the downside of not doing solo hero titles is that we're probably going to have to wait a long time between each of the films, which is kind of a bummer given that Marvel is able to produce two movies a year.
We should probably take all of Kevin Smith comments about Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and DC Comics movies with a grain of salt, but if he is right, what do you think of this idea? Is it what you expected? Do you think it will work? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
