Despite extended universes being all the rage right now, a major player in the business of superhero films is reportedly moving away from the newest fad. In a new interview with Vulture, DC Comics Chief Geoff Johns says that the company is scaling back on the integration level of its various films after Justice League arrives in cinemas in November.
Despite initially attempting to create something similar to Marvel’s MCU with their own set of films and heroes existing within the same universe, critical reception wasn’t too kind until this year’s Wonder Woman, and now Johns confirms that while DC won’t give up continuity between their films, they will de-emphasise the idea of all these films sharing the same world and crossing over constantly.
“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 story line or interconnectivity in that universe”, Johns told Vulture.
This makes sense considering the recent news regarding the standalone Batman movie and the potential of a Martin Scorsese-produced gritty Joker origin story. These films may have tangential links to the DCEU as it were, but are free to mould their own stories without having to bend over backwards to connect everything to the other films.
Johns continued: “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. 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”.
It’s an interesting development, and a pleasant surprise that DC seems more interested in allowing their solo films and characters to take centre stage, without every release being solely another step towards the next big-budget team-up. Could this allow multiple variations of the same character to exist within the DC canon, with different directors putting their own spin on, say, Batman?
While Marvel has hit a bit of a rut with their creativity as all films must aim towards mega-scale team ups like The Avengers, DC is trying a different tactic, one that could reap bigger rewards and, most importantly, better films.
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