Reports surrounding the drama of the DC Extended Universe continue to flood the Internet. After Ben Affleck stepped down as director of “The Batman,” it seemed as though the floodgates had opened and we were all inundated with negative stories surrounding the DCEU. The most notable story was that Ben Affleck secretly wanted to completely remove himself from the DCEU by leaving his role as Batman. These negative stories continue to pour out of popular comic book fan sites like comicbook.com, even coming to the point where dampers are being put on positive stories out of the realm of DC.
On Feb. 23, fans finally got confirmation that Matt Reeves would be replacing Ben Affleck as director of “The Batman.” However, early reports came out suggesting that there was animosity between Affleck and his replacement. Affleck quickly put these rumors to bed, sending out a tweet to Reeves with a picture of him as Batman and the words “Welcome to the Batcave.”
Reeves is an extremely accomplished director, helming big films such as “Cloverfield,” “Dawn of The Planet of The Apes,” and the highly anticipated “War of The Planet of The Apes.” Such a great addition to “The Batman” should have been met with excitement by fans, but it was instead mottled down with more gossip to prevent any kind of hope for the DCEU.
The next big piece of news, also on Feb. 23, was that a Nightwing film was going to be added to the slate of upcoming Warner Bros releases under the DC banner. Obviously, this is big news for one of the most beloved comic book characters of all time finally getting his due on the big screen. Though, once again, the next day a report surfaced that Nightwing’s introduction represents an opportunity for DC to replace him with Batman, getting Ben Affleck out of his contract. The notion that Nightwing could ever replace Batman is beyond ludicrous. DC lovers should be excited to see Batman and his protege all grown up, fighting side by side, not worrying about whether or not they will have Nightwing without Batman.
It seems like no matter what, DC fans can’t seem to escape from constant gossip surrounding the struggling film franchise. For some reason, any story about discontent or trouble brewing in the DCEU is a major story. I understand that it is important to report the negative stories if they are actual news. However, more often than not the stories posted are just gossip.
The story of Ben Affleck wanting to leave the role of Batman had nothing but anonymous sources claiming that he is unhappy in the role, and holds no more weight than the person claiming Affleck loves the role just a week later. The fact is that fans of the DCEU do have to listen to a lot of factual stories that don’t paint a good future for the DC film universe. That’s just the nature of the beast right now.
So, with all of that already having to be dealt with, it is incredibly insensitive to the people that support these films to just make up stories just because the drama of DC is a hot topic right now. If someone is going to cover DC’s films, they must make sure the stories at least have some kind of merit and aren’t just absolutely insane!