Comic book fans tout Flashpoint as one of the all-time greatest Flash story arcs in the history of DC Comics. The same fans rejoiced at the news the forthcoming Flash movie will be an adaptation of Flashpoint. Speculation exists that the purpose of the Flash movie will serve the same one as the comic book. The time-altering outcome of Flashpoint rebooted DC Comics’ continuity to modernize the modernize and streamline things for new readers. The feature film version could serve the same purpose for the cinematic world of DC heroes and villains.
Speculation, however, doesn’t mean the news reflects concrete facts. Right now, only rumors exist. The notion the entire universe stands to be rebooted with the film could be a proverbial bridge too far for the studio. Failure to reboot the DCEU, however, may prove to be a worse mistake. The shared universe franchise truly needs to go into a new direction. Flashpoint may provide a face-saving method of achieving such a result. And a big change in the DCEU is overdue.
There’s no way to put a positive spin on the current situation with the DCEU. Something drastic needs to be done with the upcoming films in the DC Extended Universe pipeline, reveals Screen Rant. The abysmal failure of the Justice League motion picture positively shocked executives at Warner Bros. Worse, the DC Comics movies are being rejected by audiences. The box office rejection occurs just as Marvel Comics’ Black Panther earned well over $1 billion worldwide. DC Entertainment/Warner Bros. look really weak in comparison to Marvel Studios.
Has the bad reputation of the DCEU gone so far that a reboot won’t work? Sad to say, that remains a possibility as well. If the reboot flops, no one’s going to learn about the DCEU intends to head down a new and improved path. The course correction won’t end up correcting anything.
The DCEU’s branding problems shouldn’t have reached such depths, but the studio and creative teams remained on the same course leading to more disappointing films. Fans clearly for gave the first two or three poor films a pass. Now, with the obvious box office failure of Justice League, movie audiences are departing DC comics projects en masse.
Turning things around won’t be impossible, but the process definitely won’t be easy either. If the forthcoming Aquaman movie turns out to be a crowd pleaser, the franchise has a chance. Another disappointment would likely destroy the DCEU for good.
