Warner CEO: DC Universe will reduce linkage to get on the right track

Recently, it was reported that Warner's new plan for the expansion of the DC Universe is only the sequel to "Aquaman" in 2022. Apparently, their planning for this universe has undergone a huge change. Apart from Jason Momoa's "Aquaman" and Gal Gadot's "Wonder Woman", Warner seems to no longer intend to dive into the hero team-up plan or make its films have the same dark tone.

Kevin Tsujihara, CEO of Warner Bros. Pictures, said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times that they will focus on expanding the DC universe beyond the two big books "Batman" and "Superman". They are no longer timid and will give opportunities to producers and characters that are not so popular, and create more opportunities from a creative perspective:

"With Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman, we saw what we could do with characters other than Superman and Batman. Obviously, we wanted to put Batman in the right place and give him a strong movie, but Aquaman is a perfect example of what we can do. They're all different from each other, and the tone of each movie is different."

The problem is that we now have a solo Superman movie, a Batman v Superman movie, and a Justice League team-up movie, and none of them have been well-received or performed as well as Wonder Woman and Aquaman. Just a few years ago, studio executives were saying that no one wanted to see these obscure characters on the big screen. So this about-face from Tsujihara and the executives is a bit surprising. To pull this off, they needed some magic bullet, like getting Todd Phillips to create a Joker movie, and now they seem to think they have finally found the formula.

"In terms of new movies, we have Shazam, Joker, Wonder Woman 1984 and Birds of Prey, and it feels like we are on the right track. We have the right people doing the right things."

There were rumors that Superman would play a supporting role in Shazam, but the rumor was quickly dispelled. In fact, the only connection between Shazam and other DCEU movies is news headlines, figures and other peripherals, which is the design idea.

"The universe is not as connected as we thought it would be five years ago. You're going to see individual characters have their own experiences in the movies. That's not to say we won't go back to connecting universes in the future, but for now, this is the right strategy for us."

Just like the reboot that DC Comics experienced, we have clearly entered a new era for the DCEU. Warner executives have finally discovered the problems with their strategy, so let's see what changes will happen next.