UPDATED: Earlier today, we’ve shared a post from producer Patrick Schumacker that had a curious DC Studios logo. What caught everyone’s attention was that he deleted the post quite swiftly which made many think that perhaps there’s more to this image. Now, The Wrap’s Umberto Gonzalez has shared that the logo may have the title on it but it’s simply a holiday gift that was handed out.
Well, here’s a sudden surprise but it seems like producer Patrick Schumacker, who has worked on the DC series Harley Quinn and Powerless, has shared an interesting new post on Social Media before swiftly taking it offline. That action has sparked quite a bit of interest as @FlashFilmNews was fast enough to get their hands on the image that reveals DC Studios new logo. As the division is new, formerly known as just DC Films, we’ve long wondered if they’d unveil one in the near future. It seems it may have found its way online faster than anyone may have expected.
What makes this logo stand out is that it’s taking cues from Jim Lee‘s redesign as part of the New 52. The fact it includes Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and The Flash may also be our first look at what could be the slate. Though, we still have to say that perhaps its not the official logo and just one version they played around with but why would there be a sweater printed? It could also be something he purchased as a fan but DC Studios didn’t exist before James Gunn and Peter Safran took over as co-CEOs, as it was always known as DC Films under Walter Hamada.
We still can’t say this is the final design but the fact that Schumacker swiftly deleted it before it went online is a bit telling. Perhaps a reveal was planned for today and he just accidentally scheduled it for the wrong time, but with James Gunn teasing a slate reveal in January, perhaps a logo reveal is something they want to offer as a little holiday gift. We’ll see if something follows in the coming days.
Dwayne Johnson‘s 15 years of dedication and passion to Black Adam didn’t result in the type of box office he or Warner Bros. Discovery hoped for and any of Johnson’s future plans for the character seem to have been blown to bits by the change in leadership at DC. However, if you didn’t catch the film in theaters and still want to see it, it’s now as easy as ever.
Black Adam, which had previously been available on VUDU for a $24.99 rental, is now available on these platforms at these prices:
HBO Max: free with subscription
VUDU: buy for $19.99
Prime Video: buy for $19.99
Redbox: buy for $19.99
The film was not well-received critically, compiling a 39% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 41 Metascore on Metacritic. Audiences seemed to enjoy it a bit more, giving it a B+ Cinemascore. If you already subscribe to HBO Max, you can enjoy what looks like Dwayne Johnson’s one and only DC film appearance for free starting today!
The third episode of Doom Patrol feels like a fairly self-contained, one-off outing on its surface throughout most of the episode. By the end of “Nostalgia Patrol”, though, it is clear that the episode is an integral part of the season’s moving plot. After the first two episodes’ focus on the 2042 apocalypse and the team trying to grab its footing immediately after the decision to be the Doom Patrol, the restart of the crew’s daily lives almost feels disconnected. The stuck-in-a-movie plot came across like a stand-alone bit in classic Doom Patrol side adventure charm, but it ultimately serves as a clear launching pad for a parallel overarching storyline for the season—Immortus will rise.
Doom Patrol is not known for answering open questions swiftly or without ambiguity. But even when the show goes to off-the-wall territory, it often stays strangely connected, and Season 4 may be no different. The concept of immortality has long tied many characters and elements together, some not as obvious as others. Immortus rising, then, is likely to bring back familiar faces and concepts from past seasons. And with a strong possibility (given the non-stop shakeups and breakups of HBO Max and the DCEU) of Season 4 being the show’s final season, bringing everything together in the end makes the most sense.
The group’s first interaction with the adversary is passive, psychological, emotional, and successful. General Immortus promises to be a force this season that goes to the heart of the Doom Patrol, exploring the shady Immortus Initiative and Niles Caulder’s mildly disturbing actions that led to him collecting and experimenting on our main characters from the beginning. Notably, it seems likely that the fact that the main characters do not appear to age will be addressed, potentially giving viewers more opportunity to explore the cohesive force that bound such a misfit team in the first place.
The core plot of this episode—Rita and others being caught in her old movies—allowed it to be characteristically wacky while also giving it new color and texture that helps the series maintain its “comicbook-y” feel. But among the brevity of the concept was Doom Patrol’s defining emotional distress. Of course, Rita’s profession of love for her family despite her feeling fully rejected was the highlight, but Vic’s bittersweet and uncomfortable reunion with his old friends struck a competing, darker chord. Madam Rouge’s drunken monologue-montage of self-loathing, guilt, and desperation yet again shows this unlikely team member’s merit as a new character to get invested in.
At the end of the day, Doom Patrol has barely explored an actual, traditional superhero team because everything is personal in this series. The characters’ personal lives are constantly in the direct line of fire. Not many comic book or action properties take this kind of route. Instead, they opt for big world-saving heroics and ignore the detailed mechanics of the “humans” in the middle of the story. Doom Patrol, for that reason, is somehow one of the most realistic comic book shows at the same time it is easily “too weird” for many crowds.
Once upon a time, director Guillermo del Toro was deep into development on a big screen adaptation of Justice League Dark for Warner Bros. Even after del Toro left the film in order to work on Pacific Rim Uprising, work continued on bringing his vision to the screen. That vision would have featured DC Comics’ characters John Constantine, Swamp Thing, Deadman, Etrigan the Demon and Zatanna, along with appearances from others such as Doctor Fate and Detective Chimp and was far enough along in development that a great deal of concept art was generated for the project.
Obviously, the film never came together with several directors opting for other projects instead. Earlier this year, JJ Abrams announced plans to develop Justice League Dark characters for a series of projects on HBO Max but those plans seem to have already materialized as well, causing fans of the characters to wonder if they’ll ever find their way together on screen.
However, the silver lining there is that without Justice League Dark ever having been made by anyone, the option for del Toro to pick the project back up remains. While nobody is suggesting that any of the others who passed would have done poorly, it’s hard to imagine many creatives better for the job than del Toro. In a recent interview with Comic Book, the question of whether or not the director had any interest in revisiting the project now that there was a new team of visionaries in place at DC. Unfortunately, it doesn’t sound promising.
Oh, I don’t know. My love for Swamp Thing, The Demon, knows no bounds, but I don’t know. You don’t get a manicure from a big machine, that’s what I learn, you lose a few fingers. So I don’t know if I want a manicure from a big machine. As Danny Glover would say, “I’m too old for this shit”.
Guillermo del Toro
That’s certainly not a no, but it also isn’t a yes. Perhaps a sit down with DC Studios co-heads James Gunn and Peter Safran might turn del Toro around on this, but given all the uncertainty surrounding the future of the newly minted studio, there’s no telling if Justice League Dark is in the plans now or ever will be.
While the report didn’t explicitly assign the “shuttering” of Man of Steel 2 to Gunn, the implication that he and Safran had shut it down as they transitioned to their new role was there. However, according to Deadline, Warner Bros. Motion Picture heads Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy had shut down a pitch for the film from producer Charles Roven before Gunn and Safran came on board. The report from Deadline indicates that at no point had the sequel ever been given the go-ahead nor is the idea that one might still happen off the table. It simply all depends on the pitch.
This may go some way in helping to decode Gunn’s social media response to THR’s story in which he said “some of it is true, some of it is half-true, some of it is not true, & some of it we haven’t decided yet whether it’s true or not.” It turns out that as always, hardcore fans are best off waiting for an official announcement from DC Studios before getting too excited one way or the other.
James Gunn, the co-head of the newly created DC Studios, took to social media in an attempt to smooth the tidal wave of disruption caused by THR’s revelation that Wonder Woman 3 wasn’t moving forward and that Henry Cavill was not likely to return for a sequel to Man of Steel. Of THR’s piece, Gunn explained that “some of it is true, some of it is half-true, some of it is not true, & some of it we haven’t decided yet whether it’s true or not“, adding that he and co-head Peter Safran “still have a lot more questions to ask & answer.” However, it appears that the transition at the top has left things in chaos.
According to Deadline, the studio’s “lack of communication to talent reps and content creators” has ruffled more than a few feathers. Reading between the lines of the report, many of the people behind the DC projects that have already been in the works at Warner Bros. Discovery are just as in the dark as fans. According to one insider, the lack of communication “is creating a riot” and straining relationships.
Deadline reports that one of its sources called into question why Gunn and Safran would be interested in scrapping established franchises that have already had some measure of success in order to start over, saying “These franchises which already make a lot of money, why stop them? How can a studio that’s bearing so much debt afford to start from scratch? There are scripts and actors’ schedules to be figured out.” A fantastic question and one asked often in the online discourse that followed THR’s news. However, as Gunn indicated on social media, in searching to tell what he calls a “cohesive story across film, TV, animation and gaming” a rough transition was always expected.
Just how rough and how extended that period will be is another question entirely.
The opening two episodes of Doom Patrol, “Doom Patrol” and “Butt Patrol”, show that the series is still the best comic book adaptation on television. Amidst the DC Entertainment turmoil, Doom Patrol is a strangely shining beacon of hope despite being wildly underrated and skewing away from the comfortable tone and subjects adopted by most other projects. Season 4 proves that there is simply something overwhelmingly unique about the HBO Max show.
After finally ending last season as the “Doom Patrol”, we briefly see the superhero team in some classic action. The time machine introduced in Season 3 could be a key player going forward—it is used to facilitate the hero antics, but it is clear after Episode 1 that it can have a much larger role. Time travel played a large role previously, and Episodes 1 and 2 leave it questionable whether Season 4 will expand or retract it. Considering the team is trying to prevent a future apocalypse, a lingering question about a person they collided with in the time stream, and a General Immortus prophecy tease, there is a strong chance Doom Patrol will be playing with time as much as it ever has.
HBO
Just as time never stops, there is a never-ending theme of doom in the series. Aside from, obviously, the title, the group is relentlessly in a state of “doomed.” Not only does this season appear to revolve around the Doom Patrol stopping an apocalypse they themselves caused, but the main characters have also already met their future dead and ghostly selves and have started to dig their own graves in the aftermath. The show is a lively spectator sport where the viewer is constantly rooting for the loser. But as much as we might think we want a win in Doom Patrol, does that feel natural?
It all naturally leads to a consideration of how Season 4 could fall short, and the answer is stagnation. The three preceding seasons all felt like they were building to a larger moment where the group of misfits become the titular Doom Patrol. They did, but we certainly do not spend much time in that mode. Instead, the group generally falls back into its dysfunctional family routine. This is the irreplaceable heart of the show, but one wonders if this season will show more movement—with the conclusion of Season 3, the forming of the Doom Patrol, and the slow buildup to an expected “superhero team show”, settling back into old territory might not be enough.
That being said, Doom Patrol is generally the antithesis of commonality or familiarity. The current story is certainly intriguing—and ties in previous hits from last season—but only time will tell if the show can for a fourth time bring fans to a place wildly outside of any comfort zone. Still, some of the foundations laid are stronger than others.
HBO
Jane’s story is perhaps the trickiest one to predict here. Historically, her inner workings have been an extraordinarily strong subplot throughout all seasons, but it seemed to come to a strong peak last season. Episode 2 suggests that this aspect could be winding down, but the lingering solo subplot of Jane unraveling the depths of hers and Kay’s psyches—regardless of its quality—is starting to feel tired.
In any event, the cast remains yards above their peers. Diane Guerrero seems impossible to beat, pulling off multiple characters effortlessly. April Bowlby and Michelle Gomez are once again humble pillars of the show, both on their own and as a duo. While Rita in particular has become the closest character there is to a lead, her and Madame Rouge’s dynamic feels both grounded in traditional storytelling technique and entirely refreshing. Jovian Wade’s Victor is in quite an interesting place as a character—Cyborg without any of the cyborg. So far, it seems like Season 4 is in no hurry to “correct” that aspect and Wade shows promise of a very strong and nuanced performance over the season. The Brendan Fraser-voiced Cliff has some of the most emotional scenes of the first two episodes, and he and fellow faceless Larry (voiced by Matt Bomer) always find their way to being some of the most emotive characters in the series.
In sum, the first two episodes of Doom Patrol’s Season 4 capitalize on all of the series’ wonderful elements that have propelled it in the past. So far, there is a seemingly extra-cohesive plot, which may help glue the season together better than some of those in the past that felt slipperier than perhaps ideal. Of course, the first episodes raise many questions about the plot, but the biggest question may be how far the series is willing to stretch its core concept of a misfit bunch of powered-up rejects toward what its title can represent.
Earlier this year, Aquaman star Jason Momoa posted a shot of him alongside Ben Affleck teasing the latter’s inclusion in the upcoming DC release Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom. Fans of Affleck’s Batman believed that this meant Affleck was back as the Bat, booting Michael Keaton’s version of the character and signaling a return to the Snyderverse continuity. According to one insider, a recent test screening of the film might not be the best Christmas present for those hoping to see Affleck return to the role.
Following a test screening of Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom, KC Walsh shared the news that Affleck was nowhere to be seen in the cut shown to a test audience.
So what happened between Momoa’s tease and the test screening? Perhaps Affleck was just visiting? Maybe he did shoot scenes and throughout the chaotic front office upheaval at DC, which has found James Gunn in charge of storytelling, the decision was made to pull any Batman-related scenes from the film. At the moment, wild speculation is the only recourse for fans as they ponder what this means for the future of Batman outside of the Matt Reeves-led Gothamverse as many online rumors have led them to believe that Affleck was going to return to the role long-term. Again, a lot has changed since this Summer and until Gunn and DC co-chair Peter Safran present their long-term vision for DC Studios, fans are going to be left in the dark.
DC’s The Flash will now open one week earlier than previously expected, moving to June 16, 2023. The film, which was originally slated to hit theaters on March 23, 2018, is now on its seventh release date since being announced.
The Flash movie is moving up by one week and will now open on 06/16/23
The film has been a considerable source of controversy as star Ezra Miller was at the center of a series of increasingly bizarre scenarios. Amid these scenarios, rumors have swirled about a potential recasting but at the same time, early screenings of the film have been generally positively received.
According to director Andy Muschetti, the film will be an adaptation of the iconic DC Comic story Flashpoint, though not a one-to-one page-to-screen translation. Principal photography for The Flash ran from April through October of 2021. The most recent move gives the DC film one more week to breathe ahead of the release of Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny, which is slated for a June 30th debut.
Batgirl never made it to theaters but has somehow become one of Warner Bros. Discovery’s most talked-about films. The film, which was directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, was scrapped earlier this year before it had a chance to release and has since developed into one of superhero cinema’s greatest mysteries. While canceling movies isn’t unusual for Hollywood, it is a bit strange to dump a project after it’s completed filming, and fans are desperate to know what they would have seen had Batgirl been made public. Its cast, led by promising newcomer Leslie Grace, featured the grand return of Michael Keaton as Batman and a redemptive villain role for internet darling Brendan Fraser, who is in the midst of an immense career comeback.
With so much untapped potential in a single project, many hope that Batgirl might one day receive the Zack Snyder’s Justice League treatment and get its time in the spotlight via streaming release. The flames of these desires were stoked by the news that a private screening of the film was held for cast and crew on the Warner Bros. Discovery lot, lending credibility to the idea that a mostly-finished version of Batgirl could exist somewhere in storage. Unfortunately, during a recent conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, Arbi and Fallah revealed this was not the case. Speaking candidly, Arbi explained that the footage shown to those involved with the film was totally unfinished, and not even their latest edit.
While the duo shares the hope that a final cut of the movie can eventually be released, they also say there’s a long way to go before that happens:
We still needed additional photography, there were a lot of scenes missing, and the VFX was not there. I don’t know if [Warner Bros.] are really gonna go for that, but we’ll see, sometimes we think it’s fucked, but sometimes it’s like … maybe!
Adil El Arbi
As previously mentioned, the studio was in a similar boat with Zack Snyder‘s version of Justice League after releasing a heavily edited take by Joss Whedon in theaters instead. Intense internet scrutiny lead to WBD spending quite a bit of additional money to complete Snyder‘s vision and drop it on HBO Max. The payoff wasn’t as large as anticipated, however, which may impact Batgirl‘s odds of a second chance.
For Arbi and Fallah, this experience of losing a filmed project and not getting it back has been somewhat unreal. The former reminisced on the unfortunate circumstances of their last few years before commenting on Batgirl‘s status:
You’ve got to imagine, we’re two fanboys, and for one second we were in the Batman universe, following in the footsteps of Zack Snyder and Christopher Nolan, and then it was just like we woke up and it was a dream.
Adil El Arbi
Ever upbeat, Arbi does manage to find a silver lining amongst all the disappointment:
This is something that never happened before, so we’ve kind of become part of movie history without even trying!
Adil El Arbi
The duo is now working on their next film, a political thriller titled Rebel.
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