With Warner Bros. finally finding their way with the Patty Jenkins Wonder Woman movie and the James Wan Aquaman film, both big successes, does that mean a Justice League 2 could be in the near future? Echoing sentiments from Jenkins and WB execs, The Conjuring and DC producer Peter Safran says a second Justice League won’t be coming soon.
“I think that when you’re making really strong standalone movies, there’s really no need to bring them together,” Safran told THR, who is also producing the upcoming Shazam! “You want to give these characters room to breathe and live, and tell their stories.”
Safran continues by offering instead of a Justice League 2 featuring a team-up of characters, more movies focusing on each character within their own world will be released (such as The Trench spinoff).
“Wonder Woman has shown what a great standalone property that is,” Safran said. “And in Aquaman, we feel the same way. We think that there’s a great sequel and beyond to tell. We introduce seven kingdoms of Atlantis, right? James Wan knows the architecture, the armory, the military, the look, the feel, the general vibe of each of these kingdoms, and I’m sure that there will be an opportunity to explore them in some way later on.”
The chairman of Warner Bros. Pictures Group, Toby Emmerich, also recently confirmed the DCEU will be less worried about a connective cinematic universe.
“We all feel like we’ve turned a corner now. We’re playing by the DC playbook, which is very different than the Marvel playbook,” Emmerich said. “We are far less focused on a shared universe. We take it one movie at a time. Each movie is its own equation and own creative entity. If you had to say one thing about us, it’s that it always has to be about the directors.”
WB head honcho Kevin Tsujihara also recently offered more of the same.
“The universe isn’t as connected as we thought it was going to be five years ago,” Tsujihara said. “You’re seeing much more focus on individual experiences around individual characters. That’s not to say we won’t at some point come back to that notion of a more connected universe. But it feels like that’s the right strategy for us right now.”
Regarding what Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins had to say about a Justice League 2, she also said she doesn’t want it right now.
“You know, the Justice League movie, I find those movies to be extremely challenging. I think they’re fantastic when they’re well done,” Jenkins said. “But taking on all of those characters at the same time in the timeline, I sort of hope that we don’t do a Justice League movie for a little while because I think that each of those characters are really great, and I am super excited to see each of their movies, and then I want to see Aquaman 2, I want to see Flash. I don’t know. You never know. I would never say never. But I think everybody should have a moment to shine right now.”
