Walter Hamada, The Father DC Films Needed

IMAGE VIA WARNER BROS

“He walked into a shitshow, and he’s been trying to clean it up” this is one source described what’s currently happening with DC Films boss Walter Hamada is up against much like a new father dealing with a baby’s nappy.

This reveal came from a brilliantly reported and written piece from The Hollywood Reporter as to what’s happening at Warner Bros and their DC Universe.

Much like a new father, he seen what people have done before and is going to ignore all that and do it his way and as the THR source excitingly put it “he has a plan.”

So what is Walter’s “specific design for this universe”?

One of them will be done is not having a writers room as previous examples haven’t done brilliantly for example at Paramount with their Transformers franchise and then you’ve got Universal and their Dark Universe focusing on the studio's monsters and we all saw how that went.

The next thing is he and his boss Toby Emmerich won’t be announcing any projects in advance as this was something they believed to have bedevilled the DCU since 2013’s Man of Steel.

This says to me, while this year’s San Diego Comic-Con will be a chance to show everyone the new DC Films with an amazing Hall H. Don’t expect films that won’t, or no way near to, be made, which means depending what happens between now and then Man of Steel 2 announcement might not happen.

IMAGE VIA WARNER BROS

This might not make plenty of fans happy and think negatively towards Hamada, but like any good parent he’s not your friend and will tell us what’s happening when he wants too.

Following the announcement of Hamada appointment to head of DC Films productions insiders told the US trade Hamada “spent months going over the projects in development” all 75 of them “culling certain ones, elevating others, keeping an eye on the big marquee heroes while developing lesser-known characters that could pop big.”

You don't get as big marquee as Superman, the marquee superhero of all superheroes. So a Man of Steel 2 has got to happen especially with everyone still in love with Henry Cavill and want him to stay as Clark Kent.

IMAGE VIA CLAY ENOS/ WARNER BROS

As for the films we know are happening, James Wan’s Aquaman starring Jason Momoa is the only DC movie opening this year in the UK on Dec 14 and Dec 21 in the US. Meanwhile, next year we’ll see two more films with Shazam! directed by David Samberg and Zachary Levi as the superhero then finally Wonder Woman 1984 (Wonder Woman 2) began filming yesterday.

THR went on to basically confirm Joaquin Phoenix will be playing the Joker in the Todd Phillips standalone film with a budget of $55 million and will beginning shooting this autumn (fall for the US readers).

IMAGE VIA DC COMICS

This is a fantastic budget to basically make a gangster movie with the Joker and this is Hamada bringing his previous experience of the Conjuring and other horror films to practice as they’d have similar small budgets. Furthermore, this project called kick-start a new DC label known as “DC: Dark” or “DC: Black.”

Either way, both these titles sound shit especially when they could use the Elseworlds banner and then these films would be self-explained.

Moreover, DC are doing a clever thing by giving fans an outlet to see dark and broody films from these characters while keeping the main universe with likely the tone we’ll get with Aquaman and Shazam!

IMAGE VIA CLAY ENOS/ WARNER BROS

This has been highlighted with the news that The Flash is actually going into production in early 2019 (no seriously!) with Ezra Miller starring and Game Night directing duo John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein taking the helm. The film will not be tackling the sombre themes previously thought and instead use Back to the Future as a touchstone.

Elsewhere, Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn will return in the female-centric Birds of Prey with filmmaker Cathy Yan taking control of the project. Then Batgirl is currently in development with Bumblebee screenwriter Christina Hodson working on the script.

Finally, what’s happening is Matt Reeve’s Batman? Well THR gave an update on that too and revealed the filmmaker handed over the first act of his screenplay during Memorial Day weekend (between 26-27th May) and will indeed focus on a younger Dark Knight with the likelihood of Ben Affleck wearing the cowl ever again.

While I believe a trade as trustworthy as The Hollywood Reporter, the Affleck news is still a rumour as it seems to change every fucking week and even with Reeves’ younger caped crusader it could be set in the past and Affleck could be in the present, though unlikely.

IMAGE VIA CLAY ENOS/ WARNER BROS