"Geek Theory - Episode #2 "The DC Cinematic Black Hole"" Transcript

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[Orchestral music. Zoom out from space image overlaid with “Dreamer88” onto a comic-book page, then into a spiky speech bubble labeled “The DC Cinematic Universe.” Stock images and footage for rest of video.]

Warner Brothers and DC Comics are absolutely obsessed with creating their own cinematic universe, much like Marvel has done over the past few years. Man of Steel, the recent Superman movie, was their first attempt at creating such an interconnected universe. We all know that the next Superman movie will feature Batman. In what capacity, though, we’re not quite sure. Will it be a team-up? Will they be fighting against each other? Or will Batman be absent altogether, with only Bruce Wayne playing into the story? That last option’s the one I’m hoping for, and it’s also the least likely to happen, so I’m not getting my hopes up.

But why are they so determined to put Superman and Batman into a single movie, especially since Man of Steel was the first really successful Superman movie in decades even though it performed well below Warner Brothers’ expectations? Well, that’s the reason right there. Batman is a license to print money for Warner Brothers. Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy grossed almost $2.3 billion worldwide; Man of Steel has taken in $662 million worldwide, which is definitely respectable, but nowhere near the numbers for The Dark Knight or The Dark Knight Rises. So, you take Batman, who can bring in a fortune, and Superman, who does pretty well at the box office on his own, and throw them together, and voila! There, you have the beginning of DC’s cinematic universe!

But the problem is that Batman is really the only DC character that has consistently done well at the box office. Superman has been hit or miss, at best. The Green Lantern was an absolute disaster, to say the least, and they haven’t really had the guts to put anyone else on the silver screen, no matter how many times people cry for a Wonder Woman movie. So, Warner Brothers and DC are basically betting the farm that a Superman and Batman team-up will bring in billions of dollars, and to be perfectly honest, they’re probably right. But it’s going to take a lot of work to create a cinematic universe that can realistically feature characters like Batman, Superman, the Green Lanter, Wonder Woman, and the Flash, let alone Aquaman. Movies are not comic books, and sometimes, the suspension of disbelief is a little harder to come by. I know that DC wants a cinematic universe that can compete with Marvel, but I think they may be going about it in the wrong way.

Batman is the only DC character with a proven track record in feature films, so why not milk that property? I’m not saying that they should just blindly make more Batman movies because I, along with a lot of other people, feel that Batman is a little overexposed. But there are plenty of characters within the Batman universe that are ripe for cinematic portrayals. They could create a cinematic universe based entirely around Batman characters such as Robin, Batgirl, Nightwing, Batwoman, even Commissioner Gordon. It could even have the story follow on directly from The Dark Knight Trilogy. Batman is gone, yes, but crime still exists, so other people have to take up the mantle of crime-fighter in Gotham City and the surrounding areas. So, the characters could easily interact with each other. DC and Warner could beat Marvel to the punch by having Batwoman be the first major LGBT superhero to hit the big screen. And they could have different tones depending on which characters are in each movie, such as lighter tones for Batgirl and Robin, appealing to a younger demographic, making it safe for you to bring the small kids to the movies again, and have darker tones for Commissioner Gordon, Batwoman, and Nightwing, more in line with Man of Steel and the Dark Knight series.

And if the person playing Robin wants to leave the series, no problem! There have been so many different characters portraying the Boy Wonder in comics that an actor change would mean very little and could quickly be explained away. And you wouldn’t have to spend a whole lot of time in each movie introducing new villains because Batman’s most well-known villains frequently spill over into these other characters’ stories. There is so much potential here, but it’s like it hasn’t even been considered by people at Warner Brothers. Had they done this instead of Batman v. Superman, they might have even avoided the whole Ben Affleck backlash, and we would all be better off.

So, what do you guys think? Do you think the Batman Cinematic Universe is a more realistic goal for Warner Brothers and DC? Or do you think they can actually pull off a Justice League movie within the next couple of years? Let me know in the comments below. Don’t forget to like and subscribe, and I will be back soon with another episode.