Even after going to Disney will DC overcome its creative control issues
According to a recent CNBC report, the new Warner-Discovery merger has made it easier for a future sale to occur, so in a few years, we might be living in a world where Disney owns DC as well as Marvel. Let’s look at what that reality would look like.
Watch: What the $43B WarnerMedia/Discovery Deal Means for HBO Max & DC Comics
A massive interconnected DC universe
Marvel head Kevin Feige has made the MCU the Star Wars of this generation. People who grew up with these Marvel movies would rave about the epic saga which Fiege created. And if Disney gets their hands on DC, it’s not hard to imagine a deep interconnected massive saga for DC as well.
The one big gripe DC fans have with Warner is their inability to craft a universe as Disney supported Marvel did for its characters. To imagine that there might be only one Justice League movie till DC is rebooted again is just terrible on all accounts.
Warner’s management of DC is horrible with them rushing a Justice League movie without introducing all the characters and then totally ruining the movie by removing Zack Snyder and giving it to Joss Whedon at the end of the shooting schedule. Ben Affleck and Ray Fisher still don’t have a solo movie about their Batman and Cyborg.
This sort of abysmal management definitely won’t occur under Disney. They define proper phases for a universe and introduce every character, give them sequels to see them grow and have proper weight in the team-up movies. The culmination of the original Avengers with Endgame was one of the best moments in film history in the last two decades and it comes as no surprise that it is the highest-grossing movie of all time.
Room for individualism at Disney?
The one issue with Marvel is a lack of creative liberty in their movies. All of their movies have to fit into the complex timeline developed by Kevin Feige. So while Warners has been incompetent lately, they did give their creators a lot of freedom to impose their personality on the movies they made. For example, Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy and Zack Snyder’s DC trilogy would never be made under Disney. Simply because Disney has a PG 13 policy. It’s only after acquiring R rated IP’s like Deadpool, Logan etc from Fox that the house of mouse showed some leniency towards that genre of content.
Related: Marvel Studios Struggle With Horror Genre In Doctor Strange 2 And Blade
The two directors have a very distinct vision for their DC characters which might not fit with their traditional outlook but many fans love their styles and storylines imposed on their favourite DC characters.
This sort of individualism doesn’t happen over at Disney/Marvel. For them, it’s all about fitting each movie in a larger timeline and universe, which often leaves individual movies feeling meaningless because it’s always about the next movie. Edgar Wright was not allowed to direct his Ant-Man movie because he had a slightly different vision for his version.
And it is weird to look from the outside to think that Wright wasn’t allowed to do his version because he has done so many impressive movies throughout his career. Scott Derrickson didn’t return to Doctor Strange 2 as well. So while there are a lot of positives for Disney buying DC, there are a lot of negatives as well. It is going to be an interesting few years for Warner because if they fail to resurrect DC, it might be handed over to their rivals.
