How DC’s formula has failed fans
In October, it was announced that Henry Cavill would be bidding adieu to "The Witcher" series, with Liam Hemsworth taking over the role of Geralt of Rivia in the fourth season. Being a massive fan of the books and the videogames, Henry Cavill's portrayal of the dashing, reserved, devoted, and empathetic character in The Witcher was lauded by fans and critics.
Cavill frequently expressed his wish for Geralt to grow into a more emotional and friendly character in season 2, as opposed to the grunting white wolf from the first season. Due to creative differences, the writers chose to devise The Witcher's lore in a manner they wanted.
Fans even thought that Cavill's departure from "The Witcher" alluded to the fact that he was fully invested in his comeback as Superman. However, it was recently revealed that he was dropped by studio heads James Gunn and Peter Safran, as they planned to shift their upcoming "Superman" project to a younger version of the iconic character.
Gunn has previously been responsible for Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy" trilogy, DC's "The Suicide Squad" and the HBO series "Peacemaker".
The DC universe is a jumble of disjointed narratives that have been striving to find their footing. Compared to movies released by the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), the DC superhero films have fallen short of fan expectations on multiple occasions.
The only saving grace, in some cases, was the actors and actresses who stayed true to some of these iconic characters. Of them, Henry Cavill's portrayal of 'Man of Steel' was one of the few redeeming elements of DC's cinematic universe. In fact, when his cameo appearance was revealed in DC's most recent venture, "Black Adam", fans were overjoyed to see him donning his red cape once again.
As a fan, it is heart-breaking to witness DC's continued self-destruction, with them selecting executives, writers, and creators who are incapable of understanding what fans really want from these characters in the first place. It seems as though they have a penchant for irrelevant and futile projects without taking the bigger picture into account.
The MCU introduced characters like Wanda Maximoff, Captain America, Thor, etc. over time, slowly laying the building blocks in place to eventually get to their box-office breaking hits like "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Avengers: Endgame". It was only after their origin stories were already put in place, that they would venture out into making the "Avengers" movies.
On the other hand, while Superman got his very own movie, the newer version of Batman—starring Ben Affleck—would get a cross-over movie with Superman: "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice". Wonder Woman, too would have a brief appearance in this movie, before going onto have her own solo-film. However, the studio would then put together the catastrophe which is "Justice League", adding three more superheroes—Aquaman, Cyborg and Flash—to the mix, none of whom had any solo-movies at that point.
Altogether, the "Justice League" movie made no sense, it did not seem at all natural. In some ways, the movie felt like it was artificially thrown together to compete at the box office with Marvel's "Avengers", for nothing more than a quick cash-grab.
After "Justice League" flopped, they restructured their plans, shifting their focus to origin stories rather that crossovers. This led to movies likes "Aquaman" and "Shazam!", which were somewhat positively received. However, their constant back and forth kept catching up to them.
At present, after Warner's merger with Discovery, the studio ended up axing the "Batgirl" film starring Leslie Grace—a movie which has been completely shot. Simultaneously, however, the studio has been persistent in its attempt to release "The Flash", despite numerous scandals surrounding the film's lead star, Ezra Miller.
DC's vision for their cinematic universe has never been concrete. Much of their plans seem to stem from trying their best to emulate Marvel's formula. Sadly, it is hard to copy the success of Kevin Feige and co, particularly because so much of it was centred around their unique creative vision.
Perhaps, what is more indulging about Marvel movies is their brilliant casting. From Robert Downey Jr. to Chadwick Boseman, along with a long list of side characters who have nailed their representation of these beloved comic book characters.
Maybe, if DC had stuck to their guns and backed Henry Cavill for one last Superman project, they could have been able to capture some of the magic we initially saw on Zack Snyder's "Man of Steel".