Warner Bros. Discovery is a Mess and I Have Opinions

For some reason I find myself having a lot opinions about the reveals that resulted in the recent merger of Warner Bros. and Discovery.

My major feeling is that this major corporation doesn't seem to realize where its biggest problem is at. Warner Bros./Discovery (WBD) today (8/4/22) has its earnings call which made the internet react vociferously. For the full meeting's TL;DR I suggest you follow Alex Zalben's Twitter thread or Adam Hlaváč's to get the full picture.

This all began because the cancellation of HBO Max's Batgirl movie as well as the Scoob! sequel leaked. Now, personally the reason this is a big deal is because the Batgirl film had a stellar, diverse cast that seemed to cater to my entertainment preferences. The film was going to star Michael Keaton, JK Simmons, Brendan Fraser, Jacob Scipio, Corey Johnson, Rebecca Front and it was going to headline one of my favorite actors to come out of In The Heighs; Leslie Grace. I was following Grace's social media as she teased the Batgirl film and hyped it up. Unfortunately it wasn't until Bilall Fallah and Adil Ell Arbi shared their disheartening IG post that I finally believed the news.

This leads to today's earnings call which resulted in me being very opinionated as I tweeted steadily and angrily.

I'll try to explain some of my reasoning now that I am not limited by 280 characters on Twitter. As you can see, I was very heated about this topic which is something that feels very unattached to what I feel like I usually am opiniated about. As I mentioned in the tweets, I am more of a Disney/Marvel fan than a Warner Bros./DC Comics. I have theories and I jump up and down at all the Easter Eggs. I usually feel a lot at potential that isn't fulfilled too. That latter one might be why this is the such a big deal personally. I'm not pitting Marvel vs DC, that's dumb. Having a lot to love is always a great thing. Yet, the constant comparisons irritate me to the point that it leads me to want to root for DC, not for it to "beat" Marvel, but so we can get two franchises/universes reign our fandom hearts. Warner Bros. is an excellent movie studio that has really gone above and beyond to bring amazing entertainment for all of us throughout the years. They way they have treated the DC Universe and its incredibly extensive and compelling library of characters... is lacking.

The company and franchise comparisons are incredibly unnecessary as they each have hurdles to overcome. The DC characters and stories require not to be so relatable, but they need to fill the modern legends and myths of the "real world". Their stories need to be told the same way that the folklore of old was told around campfires and in houses of worship for this pantheon. The DC Universe has stories of gods among us and it is from there that you look for the relatable. The Marvel comics are usually the opposite as you look for the extraordinary in the relatable humdrum. The Fantastic Four are a family of smart people before superheroes. Spider-Man is a teen with teen issues before he's the neighborhood's friendly. The X-Men are students and typical humans before the become mutants. Opposed to the DC characters who start out as aliens, millionaires, underwater kings, and amazons and then you dig for stories that make them relatable. There are some characters that follow the Marvel model in the DC universe and those are my favorite stories. Like the scientist turned speedster and the pilot turned space cop, but most of the time those aren't on the forefront. So, like I mentioned on Twitter the mistake that WBD is making is trying to follow a formula that belongs to another franchise without making its characters household entities that are known past their hero emblems.

Anyway, this rant and opinionated blog post is mostly to organize my beef regarding the future of WBD. These thoughts that maybe I can decipher further by playing a game on my own. I can pretend that I am actually working as a creative director for WBD and map out a hypothetical decade-long plan for the future of the new DC Universe that goes up on-screen...

To Be Continued... (Hopefully) Batgirl For Life.