How Joker Could Change DC Comic Book Movies Forever
DC Black is incoming...
Only a few months away from release, DC's upcoming Joker solo movie could prove to be the start of a whole new movement inside of Warner Bros. and how they tackle their slate of upcoming superhero movies. Todd Phillips' flick is already providing a break from the regular DCEU fare, boasting an R-rating, no connection to the wider Batman mythos and a tiny (in superhero terms, anyway) budget, but it seems as though the director is hoping for it to be more than a one-off experiment.
In fact, he's been pushing for Joker to be the movie that kicks off a brand new division over at WB, titled 'DC Black'. Pitching the idea back when the filmmaker began shopping around his take on the iconic villain, his vision was for the studio to create a new slate of films that didn't fit the regular superhero mould, had smaller budgets, riskier directors, and no grand ambitions to kick off an extended universe of interconnected films.
Johnny Sobczak relayed the the original pitch on Twitter, gained via an Empire magazine interview:
“He suggested they begin a new division called DC Black, separating itself from the current crop of DC films. It was also a way of differentiating from Marvel.”
Going on to explain how the new branch would work, Phillips described how WB could do something brand new:
"I said ‘Let JOKER be the first, then let’s get f***ing great filmmakers to come in.’ Instead of trying to live in the shadow of the beast (MCU), let’s do something they can’t.”
Whether or not the studio will actually follow through and make this new breed of superhero movie a reality (especially now the DCEU has turned around thanks to Wonder Woman and Aquaman) remains to be seen, but Phillips is right. Disney and Marvel would never consider releasing a movie built around the sensibilities of Joker, and there's a huge untapped market ready to be embraced.
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