Verdu, DC, Snyder: Weekly Round Up

22nd March 2021

Verdu, DC, Snyder: Weekly Round Up – It’s not unusual for these weekly roundups of movies news to transform into something not unlike a Disney/Marvel press release, such is the volume of news that comes out of the superhero focused studio. But this week the studio with the most news is in fact their main rivals, Warner Bros. and DC.

For those of you who don’t know, somehow, with the advent of the superhero movie and then the extended universe as formed and mainstreamed by Marvel, the other big superhero comic book producers, DC, were left in the dust and struggling to catch up. While Christopher Nolan finished off his critically and commercially acclaimed Dark Knight trilogy, the filmmakers turned their attention to Superman, arguably the world’s most iconic superhero, with the standalone adventure Man of Steel.

Now, that movie, starring Henry Cavill, was not all that poorly received in the grand scheme of things, but what followed was a mess of epic proportions. Whatever side of the fence you sit on when it comes to the dueling studios, it was clear that DC’s attempts to kick start their own Cinematic Universe simply was not working, and everything wound up coming to a head with the release of the now infamous Justice League.

As the story goes, Zack DC, Snyder was forced to step down (whether that be for tragic personal issues or a studio decision remains to be fully seen) and his version of the movie was chopped up, recut, and had new footage inserted by the studio’s new choice for director, Joss Whedon. The film was a mess, and after one of the biggest and most successful fan campaigns of recent memory, Warners agreed to allow Snyder to restore his version of the film, and thus the Snyder Cut was born.

Released this week, the Snyder Cut has been met with relative praise. There’s no doubt in my mind that it’s an improvement. It may be bloated, and it may struggle with the usual modern blockbuster issues of mistaking set-up for the sequel as story for the current movie, but there’s no denying it’s a more coherent, prettier, better made movie.

Perhaps inevitably the fans have already begun demanding the sequel that would be – something the film goes out of its way to play up to, given the last thirty minutes or so is essentially a commercial for it – but that looks incredibly unlikely now, especially given this week’s first piece of news. When asked about the likelihood of seeing the proposed two sequels to Snyder’s Justice League, the director responded with, “Warner Bros. haven’t really expressed any interest in making more movies with me, and that’s 100% fine. I understand”.

Sadly, then, depending on who you ask at least, it will seem that the Snyder Cut will be the last time Snyder has any active involvement in the DC Cinematic Universe, but it is worth noting that both The Flash, starring Ezra Miller and featuring Ben Affleck as Batman, and Wonder Woman 3 remain in development at this time.

Speaking of The Flash, this week we also learned that actor Billy Crudup – who appears in the Snyder Cut* as the titular character’s dad – has had to drop out of filming for that movie due to scheduling conflicts with the Apple+ drama The Morning Show. It remains to be seen whether or not the part will be recast, although we do know that the Snyder Cut isn’t considered “canon” in terms of the DC Cinematic Universe.

Perhaps somewhat ironically, the news of Crudup’s departure from the project as Barry Allen’s dad comes at the same time as Spanish actress Maribel Verdu has been announced as having been cast as his mother.

Verdu, who some may recognize from Gullmero del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth, is joining a pretty impressive ensemble that, alongside Ezra Miller, includes both Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton as Batman, Kiersey Clemons as Iris West, and Sasha Calle as Batgirl. The film is going to be directed by Andy Muschietti, who is perhaps best known as the man behind both the recent IT movies.

About Batgirl, it would seem that Warners has something up their sleeve with regard to the character, as was revealed at this week’s AT&T presentation, where the studio gave a hint of 24 DC project currently in production or development.

Of course, Joss Whedon was supposedly working on a Batgirl movie prior to his stepping down from the project, but it would seem that Warners are keen to keep this prospect alive and are intending to move forward with a Batgirl movie anyway (probably a good thing… but let’s not get into that). Whether or not this film will feature Sasha Calle remains to be seen, but a solo Batgirl big screen outing is quite an exciting prospect nonetheless.

*Billy Crudup is also in the theatrical cut of Justice League not just Snyder’s cut.

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