Blogs and Ends – Peacemaker to Be the New Face of the DCU Edition
Clickbait! got you!
That p-r-o-b-a-b-l-y isn’t true. I say probably because who knows with Warner Brothers? However, there are a fair amount of smoke signals going up saying that James Gunn is suddenly on track to be DC’s new chief executive officer. Sure that sounds nuts but let’s look at the situation from David Zaslav’s point of view.
The Discovery CEO is about to become the Warner Brothers Discovery CEO. The first thing a turnaround CEO is going to do is look at the worst-performing divisions of the company and decide who has to go. Then he is going to find out if there is anybody already in that division that can find his ass with both hands and promote him.
Walter Hamada was a horror producer that got bumped into the top slot because he had a moderate success with Shazam. He has however been flailing wildly since then. There is no creative vision in evidence, he’s just throwing some DC at the wall to see what sticks. He may not need to be fired but he can’t be allowed to keep making creative choices.
The Batman will make money but you are nuts if you hand over the DCU to a Bad Reboot alumni. Matt Reeves is not building a universe he is just ripping off classic scenes from better movies and slapping a bat-shaped logo on them.
Speaking of Bad Reboot, rumors are starting to swirl that JJ Abram’s black Superman movie is being quietly starved of resources. That means it is being sent to the dungeon of development hell. Zaslav isn’t going to kill it outright because of Hollywood politics but it was always a terrible idea that was going to blow hundreds of millions and then auger in at the box office.
The new Flash movie looks like a confused mess. It’s based on the Flashpoint storyline which is a good way to get rid of the Snyderverse but what do you replace it with? We have had a number of leaks that strongly indicated they were going the M-She-U Woke route. That was understandable when production started because a Woke superhero franchise would just be following in Kevin Fiege’s footprints. However, 2021 was the year that Fiege turned into shit-Midas. Woke movies and TV shows have been bombing for a year, and it would appear that David Zaslav isn’t interested in following a losing trend.
Nobody has a unified vision for DC. Truth be said, Zack Snyder never got the vibe of DC Comic’s heroes. This is the guy who famously stated he wanted to destroy Superman and have Batman raped in prison. From Murder Batman to Kaiju Superman to Moaning Myrtle Wonder Woman that is what he delivered. He was always a godawful choice.
He has his fans to be certain but he has never delivered a Justice League that felt like the JLA. Joss Whedon came closer than Snyder ever did.
The only successful creative still standing with a vision for the DCU is James Gunn.
That is the rumor at the moment. That James Gunn is going to be handed creative control of the DCU. The Suicide Squad wasn’t a box office monster but it did great on streaming which is what Warner Brothers cares about this week. Peacemaker was also huge on streaming. So that’s two hits in the bag for Gunn, making a natural choice by Warner Brother’s currently undemanding standards.
I’m surprised it didn’t cause more of a stink with the Woklings. The weird thing about Peacemaker is that it subverts the expectations of the Woke. There will be a scene where all the talking points of critical race theory are being presented to Peacemaker in a positive light. The Woklings are very comfortable with that scene. And then Peacemaker agrees with the argument and vows to murder more white people from now on. The effect on the Woklings is like walking into a mist of vinegar, they know something has gone wrong but they can’t quite put their finger on what.
It may well be a disaster but at least it will be an interesting disaster.
NEXT
Gundam weighs in on the Lord of the Rings trailer.
Nothing that hasn’t been said already but Gundam is amusing as always.
NEXT
Netflix’s Marvel shows coming to Disney +.
Which is kind of surprising to me for a couple of reasons. First, those shows were contractually locked. Neither company could use those shows if the contract wasn’t renewed. Which means that Disney had to have bought out Netflix’s rights in total.
Second, those shows were R-rated and they are going to Disney +. Disney has up to now been very clear about there being no adult content on their service. This means that either Mickey the Great and Terrible has changed his mind about this or they are going to edit these shows into pablum.
If they leave them as is, it kicks open wide the door to R Rated content on what was advertised from the start as a family-friendly streaming service.
If Disney edits the shows into harmlessness then the show’s fans aren’t going to watch them.
I honestly can’t figure out which one is more likely.
Okay, I’m done here.
