Warner Bros. chairman and CEO Kevin Tsujihara, speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference, discussed what he perceives to be the difference between DC and Marvel Comics and the movie, television and video game properties based on them saying, “The worlds of DC are very different. They’re steeped in realism, and they’re a little bit edgier than Marvel’s movies.”
I do agree with Tsujihara when he says DC is “edgier” and “steeped in realism” if we’re talking primarily about Christopher Nolan‘s The Dark Knight franchise, but from what I’ve seen I don’t think Man of Steel, Green Lantern or Constantine had any larger sense of realism than what Marvel has been delivering. After all, characters such as Iron Man, Hawkeye and Black Widow are nothing more than human beings with no real “super” powers and sometimes I think DC adaptations get a little too caught up in this idea of “edgy” and “real” and forget to embrace their characters’ comic origins. I’m not a comic book reader, so maybe I’m way off, but hopefully someone can help out in the comments below.
Otherwise, Tsujihara added, “The big franchises are becoming more and more valuable. You don’t have to explain to the consumer what a Batman v Superman is.”
He also commented on the decision to create separate franchises for television and movies such as the “Gotham” and “Flash” series saying, “[T]he movies and the television shows and the games, everything looks very different… you have to be able to take advantage of the diversity of these characters.”
Next up for DC is Zack Snyder‘s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which, you have to give it to Tsujihara, that title pretty much says it all. [Variety]
