As we all know, there have been numerous superhero movies this year - and last year, and the year before that. You can bet that before the year is out, we'll see a few more, then a handful more in 2019. I'm not complaining - I enjoy at least half of them - but it can be hard for those that couldn't give less of a damn about these characters to put up with how prolific the sub-genre has become.
Though they were by no means at the beginning of the new trend in Hollywood, it's Marvel Studios who perfected the formula and rhythm of the hype-into-release-into-hype cycle. Their connected universe is putting out around three movies a year now, while every other studio tries to figure out their secret recipe.
In this situation, the DC universe of movies (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Henry Cavill's moustache) are the Chum Bucket to Marvel's Krusty Krab, and everyone wants to know how the Krabby Patty is made.
DC got a pretty mixed reception to Man of Steel and Batman v Superman, but they turned things around with Wonder Woman, which managed to be a cultural milestone, critically-acclaimed, and a box office hit. Suicide Squad, while met with a deluge of negative reviews from fans and critics, was a big hit with general audiences too.
Then came Justice League, Warner Bros' answer to The Avengers. Even with a built-in audience of comic book fans eagerly waiting for its release, it didn't make nearly as much money as they were hoping it would. By time Marvel's next release, Black Panther, came around - it managed to make more in four days than the Justice League did in its entire domestic run.
So where do they go from here? Well, it looks like they are hoping to shake things up a bit by shifting the focus away from superheroes... to supervillains. After all, Suicide Squad was a huge hit for them, and it was chocked full of villains and anti-heroes, so you can understand the logic. There have been rumours about everything from a Birds of Prey movie to a Joker movie in the works, but now we may have a confirmation that some are on the way in the future.
A bio on the Warner Bros. website for Walter Hamada, the president of DC-Based Film Production, reads:
"Walter Hamada is President, DC-Based Film Production, Warner Bros. Pictures. In this role, he oversees WBP’s slate of films based on Super Heroes and Super-Villains from DC, as well as titles based on other characters and stories also licensed from DC, including its Vertigo and MAD Magazine imprints."
It may be only a word in his description, but the fact the studios' official website makes specific reference to films based on "Super-Villains from DC" makes that potential Joker origin movie a real possibility. Whether it's actually a good idea, we'll have to wait and see.
