David Zaslav’s actions as the new CEO after the merger of Warner Bros. and Discovery have been subjected to worldwide controversies. All this dates back to the cancellation of Batgirl which marked David Zaslav’s first step taken to change the future of DC. While the fans hoped that he would be the angel to the Cinematic Universe of DC, he didn’t help much yet in cleaning the mess. On top of it, Zaslav has also to deal with the competition and comparison it has to face all year long from the Marvel Studios.
While previously also David Zaslav announced that they are working towards a long-term 10-year-plan for DC, the fans want to see updates. Instead, all we are seeing is a series of movie delays and reports from various sources stating how DCEU is in desperate need to get its Kevin Feige.
The Marvel Competition for David Zaslav
It can be stated as a Universal Truth that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the main cause of why we fans can discuss so many cinematic universes and franchises at present. This is mainly due to their positive approach, sheer dedication, and most importantly a visionary personality like Kevin Feige. Although DC also started to follow the same route as DCEU but once again it didn’t work out. At this point, David Zaslav came in and people hoped he would do something, but the future still seems blurry for the House of Superman.
A leading Talent Rep recently reported that Zaslav has to constantly face the unjust competition with Marvel which also makes the situation very rough:
“Zaslav doesn’t know what he doesn’t know,” says one leading talent rep. “That’s scary. And you’re always going to be compared to Marvel. It’s unfair. By the time they were being judged, it was working. It’s the exact opposite at Warner. It’s rough all around. Who the f*ck would want that job?”
It should be noted that Kevin Feige got a uniform path to work on which can be cited as a reason for MCU’s success. Whereas on the other hand, DC has gone through repeated controversies and recently some cancellations which led it to be nothing more than a scattered mess.
Reportedly the upcoming Flash movie is also going to reboot the whole DC universe. Although the test screening of Flash has been impressive still it can’t be denied that DC needs to bring everything back on track and work on getting an ultimate Endgame for DCEU.
Can David Zaslav really improve the DC Universe?
Although the cancellation of Batgirl raised several voices about how David Zaslav didn’t care about the hard work of the people, a large section of the audience found hope in him. Many of them appreciated his vision of 10 years. But they need to work on something uniform. At this point when Marvel is establishing plans for its Phase 6, WBD is still delaying projects and looking for rebooting the universe with Flash.
The lack of a unified pathway is also discussed by another rep who explained how the MCU wins over DC:
“DC is so fragmented,” says one talent rep. “J.J. [Abrams] had this one, Zack Snyder had that one, Todd Phillips had the other thing. And they’re all such huge egos.”
David Zaslav also has a bigger burden because of the pre-existing Zack Snyder fiasco. Even though it has nothing to do with him, constant criticism and judgemental minds are targeting WBD for all that happened with the Snyder Cut. Then there’s always the demand of bringing Henry Cavill back. Undoubtedly they have taken loads of hate on themselves which needs to be addressed.
If WBD fails to find a Kevin Feige for DCEU who will help to bring the whole universe back on track, they can definitely proceed with DeLuca and Abdy with that responsibility. At least this can give a proper direction to the movies.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
