Man of Steel Sequels

So Batman v Superman is coming out soon. I have been over the moon excited for this movie since it was first announced at comic-con in 2012(?). I have been following it closer than any other movie that has been announced recently and I have incredibly high expectations for this movie. There have been multiple trailers that have come out in the past few months. Most have been good… one was not so good. But the overall consensus is that people are tentatively excited about this movie. I think it worries a lot of people, but I haven’t heard anybody say they want this movie to fail or they know its going to be awful. I think people are overall pretty excited for Batman and Superman to finally share a screen for the first time in motion picture history.

So let’s create a hypothetical situation right now and say that Batman v Superman ends up being good. Let’s say it’s as big as its building up to be and it launches this new DCCU that we all want to happen. What happens then?

Well we’ve seen the slate. We know that Suicide Squad happens which looks freaking awesome. That of course is going to be followed by Wonder Woman, which I haven’t written too much on but there have been clips showing some of the movie and of course we’ve seen Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman in the Batman v Superman trailers, I think people are pretty excited for that movie as well.

On top of that its been announced that Ben Affleck is signed on for more Batman movies and he’s planning on directing them. Again, overly exciting.

The Justice League of course is going to be huge but the real thing I’m looking for in this news is, Where is my Man of Steel sequel?

Listen, I know not everyone was a huge fan of Man of Steel. Personally, I loved it. It probably has to be one of my favorite superhero films of the last decade and that’s putting in the running against movies like The Avengers and The Dark Knight. Maybe I’m a little bit biased because I love Superman, but I want to see more Superman movies and it doesn’t really sound like that’s their priority over at DC.

I don’t mean to sound like I’m not happy with the slate. Hell we’re even hearing rumors of the Green Lantern movie being a buddy cop movie in space with Hal Jordan and John Stewart. Its going to be awesome. I’m looking forward to a lot of the things I’m hearing from the DCCU and how its forming.

But at the end of the day, all of this will have been started from the movie that not everyone was a fan of, and that was Man of Steel. The story of Superman!

Now they mentioned a long time ago that there is a plan for a Man of Steel sequel, it just doesn’t have a release date. There were rumors a couple months ago that George Miller, the director of Mad Max: Fury Road might be helming that sequel but that turned out to be untrue for now. Outside of that, Man of Steel 2 really hasn’t been that big of a priority for DC and I have to wonder why.

Is Superman really that unprofitable? Is it that hard to make a story surrounding Superman without the help of Batman or Wonder Woman?

I really don’t think so, and while I had my issues with the trailer of Batman v Superman, I think that it actually give us clues of what the future of Superman could look like. And believe it or not, its mainly from the part that I think people didn’t like as much in the trailer. Doomsday.

Now there have been theories floating around that perhaps this isn’t Doomsday, perhaps its Bizarro or just a Zod monster or something, but lets say for arguments sake that it is Doomsday. I think that this actually helps the Superman lore and furthering story more. Here’s why.

I mentioned this theory of mine a little bit in my rant on the trailer but the origin story of Doomsday is that he was created then killed multiple times over again so his DNA could be reutilized and strengthened to create the ultimate killing machine.

While I know there has to be some kind of interpretation of the character for the movies and it’s probably going to be different from the comic book version, I think that this is a pretty shotty version of Doomsday… if this is his purest form.

I think that Lex Luthor creates this Doomsday to destroy Superman. As we can see, he uses the remains of Zod and morphs him into something totally different. But as we can see, he’s not totally finished. My theory is that Lex was creating Doomsday for another purpose and in order for that purpose to be completed, he needed Superman defeated, hopefully by Batman. And if man won’t kill God, the Devil will do it. He is forced to pull his experiment out of the oven before its ready. It’s and that’s what convinces Wonder Woman to reveal herself. With the trinity assembled, they have an epic fight with the monster. Its going to be huge, but in the end, Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman are obviously victorious.

But the important part is what happens to Doomsday after Batman v Superman.

Like I said in my trailer rant, it would be stupid if this was the last time we saw Doomsday and while people are skeptical of Zack Snyder and the plan of DC with this cinematic universe, I have to imagine that they are smarter than we give them credit for.

So I think that Lex is going to recover the remains of Doomsday at the end of this and that will play into the Man of Steel sequels. Because you know, eventually, they have to adapt the Death of Superman. It’s long overdue, it’s the Superman everyone knows and loves and wants to see on the big screen, you have to bring Doomsday back because that is his claim to fame.

Now do I think that that is what they should do for the next Man of Steel sequel. NO. I’ve been saying over and over, they need to bring in Brainiac, they need to bring in Metallo, something that is a credible threat against Superman but we should see at some point, whether it is at the end of Batman v Superman or hinted at in one of the standalone films that proceed it, that Doomsday is still alive, or being rebuilt.

The Justice League is going to be split into two parts. There have been shots of Batman v Superman that have alluded to the inclusion of Darkseid and the planet Apocalypse in what seems to be a dream sequence. Obviously, Darkseid is going to be the main villain in Justice League. And that’s okay. We don’t need to have Doomsday be the main villain, especially if we’re using the time in between Batman v Superman, to really develop him as the best villain he can be.

But Doomsday isn’t the only reason we need Superman sequels.

One of the biggest complaints I have heard about Man of Steel is that it didn’t really develop Clark Kent as a character and instead just had Superman punch stuff and roam around as a beareded wanderer.

And while I feel like Batman v Superman is going to delve more into Superman as a character and his development to become the Superman we know and love, the movie is not a true sequel and is being shared between the two title characters. We need a standalone Superman movie and as much as I love Zack Snyder, it should be directed by somebody who can give us some awesome Superman action but develop the character of Superman.

It should be as personal of a story as Superman Returns was, but more interesting and filled with the action that we have been introduced to in Man of Steel. If you go back and watch Superman Returns, you may realize that its not necessarily a bad film, its just a bad Superman and superhero film. I mean his biggest challenge is a giant island that he lifts into space. There’s no real action in that movie. But what it does have is a very personal story about Clark Kent. Now was it done incredibly well? No, but it could have been. With someone who really cares about the Superman lore, knows the character and is willing to really push Henry Cavill, I think the Superman sequels are something that needs to happen in order to make a really great cinematic universe.

Now a part of me is worried because there was recently an article about Batman v Superman and how Warner Brothers might be a little bit worried about its success due to less than amazing receptions of early screenings. The good thing is that it even if Batman v Superman flops, the DC cinematic universe is not dead. Suicide Squad and Wonder Woman are in production and are trains that cannot be stopped. This universe will happen, it’s just a matter of how. Rumors are that they will move around the release dates in order to promote a standalone Batman film and pushing back the Justice League, and honestly, I’m okay with that.

I’m okay with them focusing more on individual movies and developing these characters before throwing them into a team up movie. I know DC wants their Avengers style team up film, but as long as they’re developing characters, creating good stories, and doing this all with care, I think I’m going to be totally happy with the DC cinematic universe moving forward.

But even still, lukewarm responses to Batman v Superman doesn’t worry me quite yet. This movie does not need to be the best movie ever made to make money. The movie will be successful just on the fact that there’s been so much hype about it, Batman is in it, and it is setting up so much. The only thing that could go wrong is if the movie is just god awful and word of mouth destroys it.

And I’m not going to pretend like that’s not a possibility. It is.

What I know is that regardless of what I hear about this movie, I will need to go in and see it myself and I feel like that will be the case for a lot of people. Regardless of how the movie is, this is Batman and Superman fighting one another. It’s something people have wanted to see for quite a while, and even if it isn not the movie we want, I really doubt there is nothing good about this movie, the trailer have been too good so far.

But what do you think? Do you think Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is going to fail? Do you think they should do a Man of Steel Sequel? What ever happened to the Shazaam movie? Not totally related, its just puzzling… they brought on The Rock to play Black Adam and since nothing has been heard about this film. Comment and Discuss below!

You can also send me your thoughts via Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as requests for future reviews. If you follow me on Twitter you can also get updates on future movie news and reviews from this blog. 

I'll leave you with this. Here's the footage of the new Wonder Woman film. This looks great and I'm very excited for it. Enjoy!