WB Studio TourPhoto: Matt Winkelmeyer (Getty Images)
Can DC ever chart a course to emerge from Marvel’s shadow? That’s been the question for the past 10 years (since the conclusion of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy). Newly-crowned Warner Bros. Discovery boss David Zaslav thinks he has the answer, which is… basically the same thing the guys before him were trying to do.
“You look at Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman — these are brands that are well known all over the world,” Zaslav said at the infamous WB results prompt (per ). “We did a reset. We’ve restructured the business, where we’re going to be focused, where there’s going to be a team with a ten-year plan that’s just focused on DC. We believe we can build a much more sustainable business.”
Oh dear, a 10 year plan? Why has no one thought of this before? It’s an odd bit of corporate gaslighting to pretend we’re not all over the place for the attempted Zack Snyder verse. Also, it’s not much of a “reboot” when just one movie (Batgirl) has been canceled and the rest – all of which are still enmeshed in the Snyderverse to some degree – are going on (even the dreaded Flash movie).
“It is very similar to the structure of Alan Horn, [former Disney CEO] Bob Iger and Kevin Feige worked very effectively together at Disney,” Zaslav said, as if copying and pasting from the MCU manual worked for each of its predecessors. Maybe he wants to keep in mind that Feige is someone that directors actually want to work for; The Marvel boss’s compassionate reaction to Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah after Batgirl was canned only makes Zaslav and DC look worse in comparison.
But Zaslav is determined to “focus on quality” and “not release a movie until it’s done,” which sounds more like the baseline for the film industry than an innovative new strategy. “The aim is to expand the DC brand. To make the DC characters grow,” he said. “But our job is also to protect the DC brand, and we will do that.” DC fans will surely sleep better knowing that this is the guy protecting their beloved heroes.