A little over a 10 years ago, Disney’s live-action division was considered to be in trouble due to its inability to launch a new popular IP like they had with Pirates of the Caribbean at the beginning of the 2000s. So then-Disney CEO Bob Iger pursued the purchases of Marvel Comics and Lucasfilm, in much the same vein that Disney solidified its animation dominance at the beginning of the millennium by buying Pixar Animation Studios (another Iger decision). Problem solved. In the wake of the wild success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, every studio to varying levels of success tried to copy the shared universe formula, including most visibly Warner Bros. when the studio rushed into the DC Extended Universe with the one-two punch of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and Justice League (2017). The reception for those left Warners’ superhero strategy—and its overall franchise vision going forward—a bit disorganized from the outside perspective. But the studio still made more DC-inspired superhero movies, more films set in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and even was only a few years removed from turning J.R.R. Tolkien’s slender children’s novel, The Hobbit, into a bloated nine-hour retread of Lord of the Rings nostalgia. However, what’s interesting about Zaslav’s latest comments is he seemed to suggest WB spent the 2010s not playing it safe enough. At a glance, it could be easy for some observers to excuse this as media executive bluster—a listing of valuable IP that remains in the studio’s vault or at least licensed control. Social media had no end of amusement today as users noted it’s been nine years (and not 13) since the last solo Superman movie (and only six since the character appeared in the title of a film). Similarly, it’s only been 11 years since the mainline Harry Potter franchise ended via Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part II. And, pfft, does he not count Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them?! But what’s interesting is the new WBD CEO apparently does not. The head of Warners is implicitly admonishing previous administrations for not making more Harry Potter movies… even after they ran out of source material novels 11 years ago. And before Wizarding World enthusiasts quickly point out that J.K. Rowling authorized an official sequel to her seven Potter books via the two-volume play The Cursed Child, we must stress it does not appear as if Zaslav is speaking strictly of adapting Broadway theater. Warners played this game a decade ago, too, when it turned the aforementioned Hobbit novel (barely bigger than a short story) into a meandering and ultimately disappointing trilogy. It was teh first attempt to remake Lord of the Rings’ success while at least nominally honoring Tolkien’s source material. After all, Tolkien ended his actual Lord of the Rings story for good and all when the Fourth Age began in The Return of the King, and the last of the elves and ring-bearers departed these shores. If we are to take the Warner Bros. Discovery CEO at his word, it would seem the paradigm is changing again. Previously, the quest for ever new popular IP still operated within the confines of adapting stories to their ultimate conclusions: the ring is destroyed; Gandalf and Frodo leave Middle-earth; and Harry Potter lives long enough to see middle-age and his kids going to school at Hogwarts. Unlike superhero comic books, there are emphatic, final punctuation marks on these tales. WBD might just be preparing to change that approach with even nerd cultures’ most sacred texts. And honestly, I suspect most fans would be fine with more content. Game of Thrones was the most popular show on TV before it ended, and as Zaslav alludes to by citing House of the Dragon, it appears that as long as there is more story left to tell, everyone acts a lot happier. Save perhaps the talent who want to create news stories for a theatrical audience.
