DC cinematic universe

If you liked the scene in Batman v Superman where Bruce Wayne watched YouTube videos about the future members of the Justice League, you'll love Suicide Squad. Instead of just one scene of plot-stopping fan service, Suicide Squad delivers an entire first act of soul-deadening exposition. The movie spends nearly 30 story-free minutes with a Machiavellian bureaucrat while she sits in a restaurant discussing a top secret personnel file. Here is Deadshot, the world’s greatest assassin; this is Harley Quinn, the Joker’s psychotic girlfriend. Oh, and have you heard about Captain Boomerang? And on and on and on.

If there’s one thing superhero movie fans know, it’s that you don’t leave your seat once the credits start rolling.

The next time we see Ben Affleck’s Batman, he might be locked up.

There’s been a lot of chatter surrounding recent changes at Warner Bros. regarding their DC Extended Cinematic Universe. Following the underwhelming debut of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice this past March, despite racking in $871 million worldwide, reports surfaced about executive shake-ups at the studio. Warner established a dedicated division called ‘DC Films,’ which is now spearheaded by DC Comics chief creative officer Geoff Johns. But that didn’t seem to be the last of it. Last week, the New York Post reported that Warner Bros. would be undergoing even more management changes over the next six months.

Jena Malone never got to make her big screen debut in the DC Cinematic Universe. Her mysterious character was cut from the theatrical version of Zack Snyder‘s ‘Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice,’ but now we have the very first look at her.

We know Ben Affleck has written the script for his solo Batman movie, but the question remains, what will it be about? Will we get a story of the Dark Knight true to the comics, or something entirely new? It now looks like we’ll get a mix of both.

Success is relative. A lot of movies would kill for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’s box office grosses. $869 million worldwide and counting? That’s got to be a hit, right? Yes and no. That total’s short of the $1 billion worldwide that has become the new benchmark for mega blockbusters. In just 11 days of release, Captain America: Civil War’s already made almost $100 million more. Then there are the film’s tepid Rotten Tomatoes and CinemaScores. This is the movie that’s supposed to launch at least a half dozen other franchises. So while the results weren’t disastrous, they weren’t great either.

The Batman vs. Superman follow-up, Justice League, quietly began filming in London last week, and while there wasn’t a big splashy announcement, we do have a new and interesting bit of casting. In addition to all the many known cast members both returning — Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot, Amy Adams — and new — J.K. Simmons, Jason Momoa, Ezra Miller — there’s one more good guy joining the film: Willem Dafoe.

The Suicide Squad cast assembled at CinemaCon yesterday to introduce their upcoming movie, and as they walked the red carpet prior to their big presentation the cast all reminisced fondly about all the creepy junk that Jared Leto sent them during filming.

Batman vs. Superman opened to negative reviews and mixed word of mouth. All that could have been forgiven if it was a box-office juggernaut, but after an impressive opening weekend, Dawn of Justice is sinking like a stone. With the film now unlikely to reach $1 billion — the new benchmark for franchise success in Hollywood — Warner Bros...