David Zaslav, the much-maligned head of Warner Bros. Discovery, has come forward again making new pronouncements about his views on the way Warner Bros. has been handling the DC universe to date, and what the future has in store forBatman.
After the cancelling of DC FanDome and the canning of theBatgirlmovie, which was supposedly going to bounce around between the different films in their multiverse, fans were left wondering just what exactly was going on behind the scenes at WB and DC. While discussingJames Gunn’s plans for DC Studios, Zaslav offered some into just that, saying that there won’t be “four Batmans” running around.
Related:DC FanDome Officially Cancelled By Warner Bros. Discovery For This Year
Zaslav stated that the multiverse will be done away with to create a grand unified theory of DC comics, with one Batmaninstead of many of them, something that will be promoted under new DC Studios heads Gunn and Peter Safran. How this will all work out remains to be seen. “I think over the next few years, you’re going to see a lot of growth and opportunity around DC, there’s not going to be four Batmans,” Zaslav said at an RBC event (viaThe Wrap). “And so part of our strategy is driving the hell out of DC, which James and Peter are going to do. I think they’ve thrilled the fans. I think they’re going to thrill you over a period of time.”
But who is going to be the one true Batman for the DCEU going forward? The best bet would be Affleck, who was brought back forThe FlashandAquaman 2, and the smart money lies there since Gunn’sSuicide SquadandPeacemakerwork are in the SnyderVerse, which is where the Affleck Batman resides (See Also:The return of Henry Cavill as Superman). That said, this could also mean the death knell for the recently released and newly beloved Matt Reeves Batman universe with Robert Pattinson as the man in the bat suit.
Michael Keaton’s time as Batman, who was said to be the grand unifying theory behind the DC multiverse, is probably dead in the water. Warner Bros. has been chasing the success Disney and the MCU have built ever sinceIron Manfirst lit up screens in 2008. However, they tried to leapfrog to disastrous results by not doing the work ahead of time that would have allowed the studio to hit on the multiple tones that their franchise has been known for.
