The Warner Bros. Thread | Will NOT merge with Paramount...capitalism is still terrible

[Mojoguy]

55 minutes ago, Last Man Standing said:

Great move, alienate current fans of a popular Superman show in order to sell your Superman movie.

They released Superman Returns right in the middle of Smallville's run. I wonder what changed? Should Zaslav or James Gunn be held responsible?

Edited February 17 by Mojoguy

[Speedorito]

17 minutes ago, PlatnumRoyce said:

They don't but this is a regular occurrence. 

 

• DC explicitly vetoed the use of Blue Beetle in Arrow Season 2 because they were planning a BB/BG film (which died). This is why they renamed Ted Kord as "Ray Palmer" and gave the Atom an Iron Man suit.
• Amanda Waller and The Suicide Squad were featured as a "1-2 times a year" character on Arrow but both were killed off in preparation for (Deadshot also went from being a slightly more frequent than that reoccurring villain to being killed off for the same reason)
• John Constantine was killed off of/retired from Legends of Tomorrow presumably in preparation for JJ Abraham's JL: Dark tv show that never actually happened (you can tell the CW lost Constantine rights because they continued to use the actor).
• Gotham & Arrow both clearly had explicit bans on using Harley Quinn despite both shows trying to get around this by implication.
• Deathstroke started off as a main character of Arrow but was written off for years due to Affleck's Batman using the character.

Yeah I’ve watched most of the Arrowverse stuff during its prime and all the changes and blocks were annoying. Not surprised that this way of thinking is still alive, even with all the changes and the Arrowverse being over.

[Mojoguy]

1 minute ago, Speedorito said:

Yeah I’ve watched most of the Arrowverse stuff during its prime and all the changes and blocks were annoying. Not surprised that this way of thinking is still alive, even with all the changes and the Arrowverse being over.

Which had the better Deathstroke? Arrow or Titans?

[Scubasteve716]

People thought a guy was brought in to have a plan and give a brand purpose and they thought he was going to keep a mediocre, cheaply made, CW show that not many people watch? 

[Speedorito]

1 minute ago, Mojoguy said:

Which had the better Deathstroke? Arrow or Titans?

I’ve never seen Titans, but I thought Manu Bennett was good as Deathstroke in the early seasons of Arrow.

[Speedorito]

4 minutes ago, Scubasteve716 said:

People thought a guy was brought in to have a plan and give a brand purpose and they thought he was going to keep a mediocre, cheaply made, CW show that not many people watch? 

It was probably going to end soon anyway based on the recent cast changes and CW restructuring their network and cleaning house. Which is why attributing the cancellation to competing with a blockbuster film with larger audience is an odd reason.

[WittyUsername]

My understanding is that S&L did reasonably well by modern CW standards, which is why it didn’t get canceled at the same time all the other CW shows were canceled. 

[PlatnumRoyce]

2 hours ago, Scubasteve716 said:

People thought a guy was brought in to have a plan and give a brand purpose and they thought he was going to keep a mediocre, cheaply made, CW show that not many people watch? 

I think this is Zaslov just as much or more than James Gunn. When Zaslov bought WB he made multiple explicit statements indicating he thought this was a bad strategy. I disagree and I think it is exactly what comic book publishers should be doing (it raises awareness of characters while not risking audience blowback due to the niche nature of such productions). However, WB's been very open about this, people just weren't listening. 

 

Zaslav explicitly said multiple times he didn't want multiple batmen/supermen running around and he doesn't want multiple non-compatible universes of DC content. 

Edited February 18 by PlatnumRoyce

[excel1]

On 2/16/2024 at 5:18 PM, ChipDerby said:

As long as the streamers don't start forcing contracts, I'm fine with any bundles they want to do. Whatever.

 

soon all streamer will merge into a concept known as cable tv

[ChipDerby]

3 hours ago, excel1 said:

 

soon all streamer will merge into a concept known as cable tv

 

Then people will cut those again. And the process will repeat

[ChipDerby]

22 hours ago, Speedorito said:

I’ve never seen Titans, but I thought Manu Bennett was good as Deathstroke in the early seasons of Arrow.

The Titans Deathstroke was great.

[ChipDerby]

22 hours ago, Scubasteve716 said:

People thought a guy was brought in to have a plan and give a brand purpose and they thought he was going to keep a mediocre, cheaply made, CW show that not many people watch? 

 

I LOVE Superman & Lois. I was a big fan of most of the Arrowverse (except coincidentally, Arrow). CW has cut ties with almost every DC show. I'm honestly shocked they renewed S&L anyway. I'm thankful it will have one final season. DC should just cut ties with the CW for now.

[Macleod]

2 hours ago, ChipDerby said:

 

I LOVE Superman & Lois. I was a big fan of most of the Arrowverse (except coincidentally, Arrow). CW has cut ties with almost every DC show. I'm honestly shocked they renewed S&L anyway. I'm thankful it will have one final season. DC should just cut ties with the CW for now.

 

Haven't caught up with the last season, yet, but from the first two seasons, it is a good show, and yes, a damn sight better than any recent seasons I'd seen of the other CW DC superhero shows.  But they were already cutting costs, and as I said in another thread here, Warner Bros. surely A) didn't want to be embarrassed again like during the SMALLVILLE/Superman Returns competition that happened, and B ) Yes, surely Zaslav and/or Gunn were involved in making the decision here, as others have said, Zaslav has been very clear about his feelings on this matter in interviews already!  I also think it's amazing that it's even getting a 4th season!

Edited February 19 by Macleod

[ChipDerby]

3 hours ago, Macleod said:

 

Haven't caught up with the last season, yet, but from the first two seasons, it is a good show, and yes, a damn sight better than any recent seasons I'd seen of the other CW DC superhero shows.  But they were already cutting costs, and as I said in another thread here, Warner Bros. surely A) didn't want to be embarrassed again like during the SMALLVILLE/Superman Returns competition that happened, and B ) Yes, surely Zaslav and/or Gunn were involved in making the decision here, as others have said, Zaslav has been very clear about his feelings on this matter in interviews already!  I also think it's amazing that it's even getting a 4th season!

 

Even with the cut costs, I think they did a bang up job on the effects in most of the show. S3 was easily the best of the series.

[grim22]

7 hours ago, ChipDerby said:

 

I LOVE Superman & Lois. I was a big fan of most of the Arrowverse (except coincidentally, Arrow). CW has cut ties with almost every DC show. I'm honestly shocked they renewed S&L anyway. I'm thankful it will have one final season. DC should just cut ties with the CW for now.

DC and CW will be parting ways, as will Warner and CW. And it has zero to do with the new ownership and more that production costs got untenable.

 

The secret behind CW producing shows which cost a lot and got next to no viewership (their best shows top out at a million) was Netflix.

 

Back in, I want to say, the 2015-16 period, Netflix and CW got into an agreement where Netflix would pay a good chunk of production costs for the DC shows and spinoffs as well as Riverdale and some other WB CW shows. That expired in like 2021 which is when the big culling started along with the CW itself changing hands.

 

The moment the Netflix money ran out, combined with CBS and WB no longer owning CW, all shows started to get the axe. S&L was on it's way out soon as well.

[PlatnumRoyce]

8 hours ago, grim22 said:

The secret behind CW producing shows which cost a lot and got next to no viewership (their best shows top out at a million) was Netflix.

 

The smoking gun there really is Batwoman. Despite being a Batman property, having absolutely awful ratings and having to recast the show's lead in a messy situation, the show kept on trucking because these shows were clearly profitable from day 1 as netflix co-productions.

 

 

Quote

(their best shows top out at a million).

 

though they were at ~3M viewers when that Netflix deal was signed. 

Edited February 19 by PlatnumRoyce

[Macleod]

3 minutes ago, PlatnumRoyce said:

The smoking gun there really is Batgirl. Despite being a Batman property, having absolutely awful ratings and having to recast the show's lead in a messy situation, the show kept on trucking because these shows were clearly profitable from day 1 as netflix co-productions.

 

Let's not get our Batgirls and BatWOMANs confused, now...  😉   But they *both* were kind of "smoking guns" recently for Warner Bros. 

[PlatnumRoyce]

1 hour ago, Macleod said:

 

Let's not get our Batgirls and BatWOMANs confused, now...  😉   But they *both* were kind of "smoking guns" recently for Warner Bros. 

It's always going to be funny to me that this character got her own tv show. Yeah, I know the character was reintroduced in the late 2000s/early 2010s but this is the version of the character I've organically stumbled upon reading old comic books as a child. It's just the goofiest example of peak-Superhero possible. It's a combination of wanting to do Batman without having access to Batman (see also how Arrow always liberally borrowed Batman villains) and the CW-ness of the CW.

 

 

Edited February 19 by PlatnumRoyce

[Last Man Standing]

200k likes for concept art is crazy. Feels like people are more ready for a new Batman Beyond adaptation than WB think.

[Macleod]

2 hours ago, Last Man Standing said:

200k likes for concept art is crazy. Feels like people are more ready for a new Batman Beyond adaptation than WB think.

 

Yes.  Just prior to James Gunn's new role, the studio was apparently developing a Beyond-styled further Keaton live-action entry (with Michelle Pfeiffer's Selina Kyle/Catwoman set to return!), but this kind of film probably has the potential to do even better!