Many fans were quite shocked when Warner Bros. announced aJoker Origin Movie, which claimed that this character won’t be tied to any other iteration of The Joker, coming just one year after Jared Leto’s portrayal of this iconic character inSuicide Squad. This lead to many questions about theDCEU movie timelinemoving forward, since this project does not appear to be connected to that overall continuity, and now we have confirmation of this approach from DC Entertainment president Diane Nelson. Here’s what she had to say in an interview below.
“Our intention, certainly, moving forward is using the continuity to help make sure nothing is diverging in a way that doesn’t make sense, but there’s no insistence upon an overall story line or interconnectivity in that universe. Moving forward, you’ll see theDC movie universebeing a universe, but one that comes from the heart of the filmmaker who’s creating them.”
This statement falls in line with a report from August, which claimed that DC Entertainment is developing thisJokermovie, which is reportedly eyeingLeonardo DiCaprio to star, under a separate, as-of-yet unnamed production banner that will not have any connectivity to the DCEU. At the same time, Jared Leto is still expected to return as The Joker inSuicide Squad 2, although there were reports that the news of thisJoker Origin Movieangered the star. This approach was tested byWonder Woman, which did ultimately connect to the DCEU, through two present-day scenes that bookend the movie, although it was largely a stand-alone movie that showcasedWonder Woman’s origins, and it’s this approach that the DC Entertainment plans to keep using. Here’s what DC Entertainment chief creative officer Geoff Johns had to say about their approach below.
“The movie’s not about another movie. Some of the movies do connect the characters together, likeJustice League. But, like withAquaman, our goal is not to connectAquamanto every movie.”
If the critical (92% on Rotten Tomatoes) and commercial ($412 million domestic, $820.5 million) worldwide) success ofWonder Womanis any indication, it certainly seems like the studio is finally moving in the right direction. While bothBatman v Superman: Dawn of Justice($330.3 million domestic, $873.2 million worldwide) andSuicide Squad($325.1 million domestic, $745.1 million worldwide) fared well at the box office, they were both trashed by critics and some fans, leaving some to wonder if the DCEU was finished before it even started. Now with the universal success ofWonder Woman, and with theJustice League early reactionsthat surfaced last week, it seems the DCEU is back on the right track. There is still much to be done, though, with no director in place forThe FlashorCyborgyet, not to mention theGreen Lantern Corpsproject. This new report fromVulturerevealed that DC Entertainment plans on announcing the name of this new production banner “soon-ish,” so hopefully we’ll find out more about this unique approach in the weeks and months ahead.
