The discussion over James Gunn’s DCU intensified in recent years, especially with the debut of the franchises news projects like Creature Commandos and Superman 2025. The failure of the previous DC film franchise has made fans hypervigilant over the success of the rebooted franchise, which has grown even worse with the recent leaks surrounding the upcoming Batman film.
Batman: Brave and the Bold is the upcoming DCU film that will introduce the latest incarnation of the Dark Crusader in film. It will be a far cry from Zack Snyder and Matt Reeves’ Dark Knights; instead, the DCU will feature a Batman closer to his comic book characterization, fitting in with a more fantastical world.
However, recent controversy over the film’s director has fans worried that the film will fail. Christina Hodson, writer of Birds of Prey, The Flash, Fast X: Part 2, and Batgirl, is set to be the scriptwriter of Batman: Brave and the Bold. It is a name that fans hold in much trepidation due to the unfortunate reputation of a number of her past works. That said, her work on the 2022 Flash film has drawn much of the ire.
It is undeniable that The Flash and Birds of Prey were unsuccessful at the Box Office, but like Batgirl, much of the failures of those productions aren’t solely her responsibility. The Flash had undergone years of development hell before Hodson’s involvement, from reshoots, rewrites, and directors switching on and off. Additionally, the poor reputation of the DCEU only hurt the expectations audiences had when entering the film, not to mention the multitude of controversies surrounding Flash actor Ezra Miller at the time leading up to the film’s release.
While Birds of Prey had many understandable critiques, including its absurdly long title and the failed marketing strategy, much of the movie’s bad press came from misogynistic fans and other critics from right-wing online circles during a time when these groups targeted feminism in media heavily.
It would be in the fans’ best interest to wait and see, especially considering how the tides turned for The Flash film director Andy Muschietti. The month prior, fans were in an uproar about his involvement as director of Batman: Brave and the Bold, until his work on IT: Welcome To Derry changed people’s minds.
