Nobody expected this one from Warner. I honestly just wanted to see the Coyote VS ACME live action/cartoon hybrid movie saved from cancelation. But here we are. A new DC Animated film. But after Super Pets, why even be surprised?
It's a wholesome tale of Bruce and Damian, and saving Christmas from the Gotham villains.
Here's the one and only... Zack Snyder's Justice League!! A several hour-long miniseriesmovieseries something?
Featuring Black Suit Superman! A new design for Steppenwolf! Doomsday!! Martian Manhunter, maybe? And Suicide Squad's breakout star.. the return of Jared Leto's the JOKER!!
We're livin' in a society! Wait! They actually said it?
It's all the hilarious "Badman" sketches Pete Holmes did for CollegeHumor, way back when. A great lil' compilation to have a good times with this fantastic take on Christian Bale's Batman:
Here's a bunch of news from DC/Warner's live streaming event Fandome, with my take on all this stuff.
Let's start off with the "big elephant in the room". The big grey dark and gritty elephant in the room, in slowmo.
Snyder’s new cut of Justice League will stream exclusively on HBO Max in 2021.
Alright. I like some stuff in here, they clearly put the new scenes in the forefront. But don't believe this is what Snyder had in mind. This is a Snyder cut "in retrospect", what with the positive and negative feedback from Joss Whedon's finished cut for theaters. I'm sure he didn't had Darkseid in mind from the go, this is more like correct course-fixing for Steppenwolf's bad reception. Maybe bringing in ideas from the scrapped Justice League Part 2 they never made (Martian Manhunter, etc.). My honest take on all this? Making it 4 hours long isn’t going to make it any better.
Next up is a new trailer for Wonder Woman 1984, which is still looking pretty good if you ask me:
I like Cheetah's design. Not sold on her actual CGi though.
New trailer for a new season of The Flash:
Anyone still watching the show? I love the character. But this is way too much CW soap opera and not enough superhero for my taste...
Finally Matt Reeves' finally shows itself, and it looks pretty dope:
You can sort of feel this is built upon what Matt Reeves would have done had he continued upon's Chris Nolan's excellent Dark Knight trilogy. Like this was Matt Reeves' Dark Knight 4. Matt Reeves keeps saying he considers this an adaptation of Batman: Year Two, but I don't feel it so far. No Batfamily, no Robin, no colorful villains? I dunno... Anyways, it does look great. I'm half-sad we never truly got the BatFleck movie. ..
We also got a look at the highly anticipated James Gunn take on ....THE SUICIDE SQUAD! Looks like Gunn got ambitious with this one, which is awesome:
AND IT LOOKS AWESOME!! Now that's what the first film wanted to be! I like how this is both clearly a sequel to Suicide Squad... and they simply titled it the same The Suicide Squad. Lots of fun great characters, colorful set pieces and costumes. This seems actually fun. Suicide Squad/Birds of Prey wanted to look like this! Looks like it's a big turnover for the SS ip. The film is set to come out on August 6, 2021.
And what about the game-side of things? Well, we got two different continuations of sorts of the Batman Arkham games.
First up returning developer Rocksteady exploring other parts of the DC Universe. With the long rumored Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League game, their first new game since Arkham Knight.
Basically more of the same, the change of characters will be nice, and hey it's not that far from Batman's Gotham streets and universe. I already love the way this looks, less off-putting as Square Enix' Marvel's Avengers. Here we have full-fledged expressive characters, not off model not quite there-realistic Avengers. Nice synergy with James Gunn's film here, while not trying to imitate and being its own thing. I'm sure we can expect quality content and gameplay, if they avoid car segments/forced tank minigames. I'm getting a bit tired of evil Superman in DC media, though..... It will be released in 2022 on PS5, Xbox Series X and PC.
And if you're itching for some more Batman-centric game instead, worry not. Warner Bros clearly had a plan when they got WB Games working on an Arkham episode.
Acting as a successor of sorts to the Arkham series, Gotham Knights is a new Bat-centric game, this time being developed by WB Games Montreal. The studio behing the decent if less popular Batman: Arkham Origins (I still consider it better than Arkham Knight, SUE ME!). While the plot has to take place after Knight FOR REASONS, the game will instead focus on the Batfamily members of Nightwing, Batgirl, Robin and Red Hood. I can dig it! It will also allow for single play or two-player co-op (please, local couch play!!!). And visually and gameplay-wise, it really looks like more of the same, which I'm fine with. Gotham Knights is coming out sometime in 2021 on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and PC.
All in all - the Suicide Squad is being reinvigorated as a franchise. More Bat-stuff. DC is moving forward in both games and movies, I'd love to see the comics do the same...
Any modern Batman vs. Joker confrontation Warner Bros. will put out on the big screen won't ever be as epic as this surfin' scene from the Batman '66 show:
Harley Quinn's getting her own animated series! And it's "not for kids"! It's edgy! Look at how cool she is! You dig that, kids!? (Well, I can totally see kids loving it, just look at her fortnite dance-moves...) Sigh. These sort of modern cartoons make me feel old, somehow...
The series finale for the awfulawesomehorriblefantastic strange? DC series Gotham is upon us. In which they will finally give us a proper Joker, a time skip AND a Batman in costume!
I love keeping up with this show. I haven't watched any of it since the pilot, but I love keeping up with it.
The original BATMAN VS TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES comic book miniseries were surprisingly awesome. So of course Warner Bros animation is turning it into a direct-to-video movie. Check it out:
I'm not entirely sold on the artstyle, but looks fun!
A seemingly really weird/really crappy standalone Joker movie's coming soon. Did you know? Like we all needed a standalone Joker film and/or an origin story for this cult classic Bat-villain.
Warner Bros announced this project as a Martin Scorsese production, which will directed by comedy director Todd Phillips (Old School!). Because, yes, let's humanize this sociopathic villain. And it all sounds pretty weird.
And then things just keep getting weirder.
Joaquin Phoenix will portray The Joker. Mostly a regular joe who gets "turned" into The Joker we now know.
AND wait for it! He's gonna be called "Arthur Fleck" in this film. Because, yes, this means DC's biggest villain will be A. Fleck. Ben Affleck. Get it???? Some writer's thinking he's super clever, I'm sure...
And here's a first look at Joaquin Phoenix as both A. Fleck and The Joker in full-on makeup, from Todd Phillips' Instagram: