When the DC Extended Universe was essentially started by Zack Snyder's Man of Steel, Warner Bros. seemed to have full confidence in the director and his vision until Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice became a disappointment for them at the box office. Not only did this cause the studio to massively change their plans, but it also changed the proposed two-part Justice League movie into just a single film.
It didn't help with Ben Affleck dropping out, which forced Warner Bros. to essentially make their planned Batman movie with him an Elseworld story instead with a new actor. However, in a recent talk at a conference, Warner Bros. Entertainment Chairman seemed to reaffirm their commitment to having their DC Universe more connected again.
NEWS
Ann Sarnoff, Chairman of Warner Bros. Entertainment, was invited to speak at CES 2021, a global tech event, and spoke about the future of the DC Universe.
In one of her sessions, Sarnoff said that moving forward “Everything's connected now & we're building a DC Universe plan that's much more centrally connected, but individually executed,” and that such planning is necessary “so people feel a pride of their efforts.”
WHAT THIS MEANS
It seems to be what Ann Sarnoff is saying is that while many of their DC Universe movies will still be connected at some base level like The Flash, Warner Bros. wants to still allow them to be “individually executed,” with a recent example of this being Wonder Woman 1984. Despite Warner Bros. reportedly wanting to make changes to the film, Patty Jenkins was still ultimately allowed to make the movie she wanted.
It will be interesting to see how connected some of these DC Universe movies will be since there will be two different Batmen existing simultaneously, with Matt Reeves' The Batman even having an HBO Max spin-off series. This plan also seems to allow for more control for the directors over the movie they're making without necessarily adhering to a grand overarching plan for the universe.
