Anghus Houvouras on why Warner Bros. needs to combine TV and film for the Justice League…
It must be difficult right now for Warner Bros. sitting back and watching Marvel just lap up billions of dollars from their comic book movies while they struggle to find a strategy. The general perception has been that Warner Bros. is stagnating on their DC properties. Hedging their bets by cramming characters into lower risk propositions to test the waters. For example, shoe-horning Wonder Woman into the Batman vs. Superman movie or giving The Flash a television series instead of the feature film treatment.
If Warner Bros. wants to succeed with their big screen Justice League movie which was recently announced, they need to consider thinking outside the box. Simply aping Marvel’s moves will always leave them playing catch up rather than setting the pace. In order for Warner to maximize their DC Comics characters, they need to make a play that hasn’t previously been employed.
They need to make their movies and television series seamless.
This is the one card they have to play that would set them apart from the competition. A move that would mirror the narrowing gap between the cinema and the living room. Marvel has already started to toy with this paradigm with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., a series that has been a mixed bag for fans and had tenuous ties with the movie world. Every so often you get Nick Fury for three minutes or an episode with Lady Sif.
Warner Bros. could redefine the paradigm by merging their cinematic offerings and TV series into one seamless world. One where the TV characters actively operate within the movie world. A Justice League movie featuring Arrow and Flash from their respective series would be that novel move that would be innovative enough to separate them from their rivals.
This is hardly a new idea. In fact, fans have been clamoring for this kind of cross media synergy for quite some time. Marvel is making moves like this, albeit slowly, bringing characters like Daredevil and Luke Cage to series via Netflix, but they have yet to integrate all these separate media pieces into one unified project.
The Justice League movie is a major opportunity for Warner Bros. to forge a new path. One where TV series superheroes fight alongside their cinematic counterparts. This is how Warner Bros. could differentiate themselves from the competition. Though it requires a kind of fearlessness and innovation that has never been their strong suit.
Maybe that’s about to change.
Anghus Houvouras is a North Carolina based writer and filmmaker. His latest work, the novel My Career Suicide Note, is available from Amazon. Follow him on Twitter.
Originally published April 28, 2014. Updated April 12, 2018.
