In the never ending saga of the sinking ship known as the DC Extended Universe (DECU) the solo Batman film possibly starring Ben Affleck has been delayed. Director Matt Reeves has begun work on War For the Planet of the Apes thereby pushing the start of production of The Batman into 2018. The movies original 2018 release date is now impossible to meet and has been pushed back to an as-of-yet specified 2019 release. There is now the obligatory rumor that The Batman is getting the dreaded page one re-write which could be possible as Matt Reeves' contract to direct reportedly gave him complete creative control and the current script was written before he was involved with the film, and that could push The Batman back even farther. This ripple has forced Justice League 2 from its 2019 slot. Originally Justice League 2 was going to compete against the still untitled fourth Avengers film for the summer box office but now Avengers 4 will most likely have an easier opponent in a DC hero solo film.
I can imagine other movies being rearranged or canceled as well. DC still have not begun production on The Flash which was also scheduled for 2018 pushing that back to who knows when. Then DC perhaps being overly ambitious -- aka "throwing shit against the wall to see what sticks" -- have recently added Nightwing, Gotham City Sirens which focuses on the female vigilantes of Gotham, a possible Harley Quinn solo film, a solo Deadshot film to their film slate, maybe more I can't keep track. None of the additions have release dates confirmed meaning they could also rearrange the schedule. This is just the latest batch of rumors and bad decisions that have convinced me that DC has no clue what they are doing other than desperately trying to catch up with Marvel. The thing is if they took the time I don't doubt that they could make quality movies with the library of iconic characters they have. Unfortunately for fans, it's obvious that Warner Brothers and DC are just in it for the cash.
Case in point several years ago Warner Brothers had one of the highest grossing franchises in history with Harry Potter. Every installment seemed to make more money than the last and by the time it was over the series of films made almost $9 billion dollars world wide. Then the Marvel Cinematic Universe took over, Disney starting making Star Wars films again, even 20th Century Fox overshadowed the young wizard with their X-Men saga and Harry Potter fell farther and farther down that list. Warner Brothers have been feeling the sting and have not been a serious contender in years. Now they are frantically trying to reclaim the box office throne by green-lighting a movie for just about every DC character ever created. Plus they are shamelessly stretching a 120-page encyclopedia about the mythical creatures around Hogwarts into a trilogy of films in an attempt to recapture the magic of Harry Potter. Like I said, they are in it just for the cash.
The final Defender arrives this Friday on Netflix. Unfortunately, Iron Fist has some of the worst reviews any MCU property has ever received. Currently, the Netflix series has a rotten 13% aggregate score. Maybe the DC fanboy conspiracy theorists will finally admit that Disney is not bribing critics. Ironically Marvel fanboys now have a conspiracy theory of their own and this one has a ring of truth to it. Some of the reviews decry the slow burn which all the Netflix series are guilty of, 13 hours or so is a lot of time to fill on the origin of one character and their arch rival. However, all are guilty of the slow burn but not all were judged so harshly. What's up with that? Some of the reviews specifically or subtlety mention "white-washing" and Finn Jones the white-male lead actor as the Asian-inspired martial arts master. Problem is Danny Rand, this version of Iron Fist in the comics source material, is and always has been a rich white kid who survived a plane crash and learned the way of the Iron Fist in the mythical city of K'un-Lun. What the conspiracy states is that this is backlash for the casting of Tilda Swinton as The Ancient One in Dr. Strange, an actual and unfortunate example of the white-washing of an Asian character into a white American or European in Swinton's case. Is Iron Fist the worst Marvel project ever or are the critics being unfair and making a statement about the lack of diversity in the MCU and Hollywood in general? I'll be binge-watching Friday.
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