If you have followed DC for a while the phase Warner Bros. Discovery is not new to you. It’s been rough few years being a Warner Brothers fan. While I have posted more DC things on this site more than anything, WB in general has been my favorite movie studio nearly my whole life. Whether it was Looney Tunes, Tiny Toons or Animaniacs being so synonymous with that said logo, or visiting Six Flags & making the connection that it’s WB’s Disneyland. Seeing the Batman Forever boatshow was mindblowing (Yes I enjoyed Batman Forever as a kid & still do & YES Even I say #ReleaseTheSchumacherCut.)
I also love alot of films in their library. Whether we’re going back all the way to Casablanca, to A Star Is Born films, the Wonka films, Matrix, Harry Potter, Mad Max, Little Shop Of Horrors, DC Comics Superheroes, Lord of the Rings & so much more. So, what happened to this studio that’s given it such a bad reputation? It could be a number of reasons. Prior to Discovery, the Film studio has had multiple ownerships since the 60s, 7 Arts, Kinney, Time, AOL, & most recently AT&T. Where as a company like Universal got picked up by NBC which itself got bought out by Comcast.
The biggest high-profile controversy has been how they’ve handled their DC Comics properties since 2013. Granted, a few fans out there would have criticism before then whenever they tried to do characters based in the DC Universe outside Batman & Superman and even with those two they didn’t always get it right when it came to public reception of some of their movies especially when they tried to put them together for the first time.
Now, I’ve talked about Zack Snyder before & I have dabbled a bit in his core fanbase, but in light of the very amplified reaction that’s been trending online, not only have a large number of the base doubled down on #RestoreTheSnyderVerse on Twitter but now #BoycottWB & #DCEUisDead have also have had some noticeable traffic.
It is important to note that not every single Snyder fan are making these declarations. While I myself am a supporter of this movement, I do not believe in joining in what is essentially the equivalent of a virtual angry mob. I get a sense of something that was reminiscent in a scene from the film Bruce Almighty where Bruce mistakenly thinks he’s hearing the entire world’s thoughts only for God to point out that it isn’t the world but just Buffalo, NY. That’s what Twitter seems like. It isn’t a proper sample of how many people like Zack Snyder let alone how many people buy tickets to the movies.
What caused this higher than normal angry mob? For the last week or so Social Media personality Grace Randolph has been dropping scoops that Batgirl & Supergirl will be taking over for Batman & Superman in the DC Extended Universe going forward as Henry Cavill & Ben Affleck would no longer be part of the franchise anymore & furthermore the films Mr.Snyder has done would be erased out of continuity similar to how X-Men: Days Of Future Passed erased X-Men: The Last Stand & X-Men Origins: Wolverine out of continuity.
It is important to address that Randolph isn’t exactly the most reliable scooper. She has made claims that have been debunked on several occasions. On few occasions she has been right as well but her track record isn’t the most reliable. She is the Duracell Batteries of Social Media scoopers & I have not had the best luck with those batteries in the past.
But even if this true, it’s important to remember that a synergy is happening this year. That’s one of the reasons why there hasn’t been any films with a release date after 2023. A part of that is also because of the Pandemic, but as someone who worked for a company that did a synergy, jobs do get rotated around. My boss got promoted, I was moved to another position. So yes it’s absolutely important to take what Randolph says with a mountain of salt.
I understand the frustration with Warner Bros. They’ve done things that have left their clientele & audiences wanting to just burn bridges with them. It seemingly happened when Christopher Nolan jumped ship to Universal. I have my own issues with the company, but I am trying to be hopeful Discovery will reshape Warner Bros, and it merges into Warner Bros Discovery. to be a more trustworthy consumer brand. Maybe they’ll just follow the trends the company is going for now. It’s possible but here’s the thing: Discovery’s streaming Service Discovery+ has around the same amount of Subscribers as HBO Max.
Some people have endorsed the idea that DC should be sold to Disney or another company but it is sort of being sold. It’s basically a new company when it merges & becomes Warner Bros.-Discovery. Shake ups will happen. Corporate realignment, layoffs, new sponsors, & more importantly new leadership. From my understanding, I haven’t heard any bad PR from Discovery so there’s plenty of optimism.
For what it’s worth, I know where this anger comes from. If you read my ‘Why I’m Done With Marvel vs. DC’ Article I have my own frustrations with everything that has been going on. I’m just tired of hearing how much Marvel has succeeded compared to how much DC has failed. I have found that being optimistic about the things I like instead of the things I hate has helped me deal with the stressful discourse. Some of these fans are having a ‘if you can’t beat em, join em’ mentality. I don’t have to join them. I’ve already joined them & I’m sticking with my preference too. I’ve never been a Coke vs. Pepsi guy. I lean more Coke but I don’t have a quarrel with Pepsi.
