With the end of the Nolan bat verse DC needs to move forward with making a cohesive cinematic universe that leads up to The Justice League. This process will be started next year with Man of Steel but after that it appears DC is still trying to figure out how to develop their cinematic universe. So I decided to write what I would do if I was in charge of constructing this universe. One thing that DC needs to do in order to be as successful as Marvel is to not rush the process and make sure they show off their unique characters in the right way. A word of warning for anyone who has not seen the Dark Knight Rises I will be discussing the ending sequence of the movie as that plays into my version of the DC cinematic universe.
I would move forward with The Flash movie after Man of Steel. Rumors are that DC has a solid script for The Flash that focuses on Barry Allen's job as a forensic scientist and solving crimes. I like this idea and believe it would give the world a different kind of superhero movie and would set this movie apart from other superhero movies. So in order for this movie to be truly successful the right actor needs to be cast as Barry Allen, he needs to be funny and have a knack for crime solving. My first choice to play this role is James Roday from Psych; the reason I want Roday as Flash is because he has the perfect personality to embody Barry Allen. I would focus on Barry trying to solve the crime of his wife’s murder; so this means Professor Zoom would be the villain of the movie. Professor Zoom would also be a great villain in order to showcase the Flash’s powers. After the movie I would have an end credit scene just like Marvel did that helped set up their cinematic universe but since the Justice League does not have a Nick Fury one of the heroes needs to pick up the slack of bringing together the Justice League. I would have Hal Jordan to be the one to bring together the group. Hal and Barry are great friends in the Justice League so I would play on this in the end credit scene.
Next I would move forward with the Wonder Woman movie. The justice league needs its main female hero so it is obvious that this movie will eventually come to light.The most important aspect of this movie needs to be showing Wonder Woman as a physical power that could hold her own alongside superman and batman. In order to show this the villain of the movie needs to be a pure physical threat this villain could be Ares the god of war or Devastation. The movie also needs to tell the origin story of Diana leaving Themyscira and coming to America seeing as a lot of the non comic reading public will not know her real back-story. Once again the right actress must be put into this role as she must be able to hold her own in an action sequence but also needs to be a great actress. My first choice for the role is Olivia Wilde she has shown that she can handle action sequences and I believe she is an underrated actress.
After Wonder Woman I would go with an Aquaman movie, the reason I would make an Aquaman solo movie is because it would be different than any other superhero movie that has been made so far and these different kinds of superhero movies (like the detective type Flash movie before it) are what will set the DC universe apart from the Marvel universe. The Aquaman movie would have to be done mostly underwater which is where the different look and feel of the movie will come from but this is also where the risk comes into play for this movie as it will cost the studio a lot of money in order to make the underwater effects look convincing. The movie also needs to display how powerful Aquaman truly is since outside of the comic book world he is a joke because of his fish based powers. The movie not only needs to showcase all of his powers but his personality that has made him a fan favorite for many comic book readers. It also needs to focus on his battle within between his wants to protect both the people who live on land and his city under the sea. The actor that I would pick to play Aquaman would be Daniel Craig. I think he has the personality that would embody Arthur Curry perfectly he can be serious and broody but yet can also have a sense of humor. I would go with Black Manta as the villain of this movie.
Next I would move onto a Green Lantern sequel; even though the first movie did not live up to expectations it did have a few bright spots and if you get a better director and a better villain the Green Lantern franchise could be successful. I would have two villains in this movie Sinestro and Star Sapphire both of whom were teased in the first movie. Both of these would challenge Hal in different ways and would cause him to use every ounce of power that he has. In this movie I would introduce Martian Manhunter, perhaps he could seek out Hal and warn him about one of the two threats or there could be a fight scene on Mars in which J’onn J’onzz rescues Hal. A very important aspect of this movie would be a better split between the time that Hal spends on earth and in space.
The next movie would naturally be the spot where the Batman reboot would be made, but I am not a fan of rebooting a movie shortly after a story arc with the character has just ended especially a great one like the Dark Knight trilogy. I would actually incorporate the Nolan bat verse into my DC cinematic universe and move forward with a Joseph Gordon-Levitt Nightwing movie. I feel like rebooting Batman would be setting up the movie for failure because there really is no way it could live up to the expectations that the Dark Knight trilogy has set up for it. Also there is no way Warner Bros could cast Bruce Wayne better than they already have with Christian Bale; so a rebooted Batman would be set up to fail from the beginning. Instead I would introduce a new character in Nightwing. In order to introduce Nightwing the Nolan Bat verse would have to be established in this new DC cinematic Universe. In order to achieve this all of the events of the Dark Knight trilogy would have already happened before any of the other superheroes started to save the world or even before they receive their powers. In order to show this in the Man of Steel before Clark becomes Superman there could be a scene that shows a TV that is covering the aftermath of what has happened in Gotham and announcing Batman as dead and a hero. This leads to something else I would do in all my movies which is give a reference to the events that happened in one movie in the next one. So in the Flash he could read a newspaper article that mentions Superman, and in Wonder Woman there could be a newscast that is covering the events that happened in Flash and this pattern would continue throughout all the movies. Now back to discussing Nightwing, at the end of The Dark Knight Rises JGL’s “Robin” is given the coordinates to the Batcave in Bruce’s will and the very last scene is him in the cave while the platform is rising above him. This is a perfect lead in to JGL taking over for Batman and creating his new superhero. We all know in the comics that Robin becomes Nightwing so why not in the movies. JGL can spend the next few years training in the cave and we see this at the beginning of the movie but when a new threat comes to Gotham he realizes he must step up and protect the city; he must become their new hero. In order to separate this movie a bit from the much grounded Nolan bat verse but yet keep it closely related I would use Killer Croc as the villain. Croc could exist because of the radiation from the Atomic bomb that blew at the end of the movie but would also be a more unrealistic villain then we would have ever seen in the Dark Knight Trilogy. Since a rebooted Batman would be set up to fail moving on with a new character from the same universe would be far less of a risk especially since it is building on Nolan’s universe which many comic book and movie fans love. Batman has also been done many times already so why don’t we give him a well deserved break and allow another hero to step into the spotlight for a while. DC has also been introducing Nightwing to the world as he appeared in Batman Arkham City and is also going to be in the new Injustice videogame so he will not be completely unknown to non comic book readers. Down the line maybe we bring back Batman perhaps Bruce went on to have a child named Damian Wayne and he ends up bringing Batman back but that can be down the road.
The last movie before Justice League would be a Man of Steel sequel. The villain in this movie would be Lex Luthor and he would have a plan to kill Superman and of course Superman foils his plans. At the end of the movie we find out that Lex wanted to fail and get caught in order to be imprisoned alongside other supervillians. The end credit scene for this movie would be a group of villains from all of the different DC storylines and you would see Lex and he would announce that it is the first meeting of the Legion of Doom. This group would then be the villains in the Justice League movie. I do not want DC to go with Darkseid because he needs to be built up to just like the Avengers are doing with Thanos so I will save Darkseid for Justice League 2. So what do you think of my Justice League plans please leave your comments below, let me know what you would do differently and what parts you liked. Thank You.