If you haven't heard, Fox has picked up a new show based on the Gotham City police department. The show will likely take place in a Gotham pre-Batman. This show joins a growing list of television properties of DC Comics characters on the small-screen. Last week, Constantine was announced as a developing project for NBC. You may remember John Constantine from the Keanu Reeves movie. Arrow is a wonderful show on the CW. While it doesn't hit the viewership levels of shows on the major networks, it is still widely popular. This year, they are introducing new characters to the show including Barry Allen, a.k.a. Flash. The hope is for a Flash spin-off series. That's currently four small-screen shows possible in the next year. I could probably talk about all of these shows in length in a blog of it's own, but this is movie talk, not television talk.
What does this growth of small-screen franchises mean for the big-screen franchises? Will we see the Green Arrow and Flash of Arrow in a Justice League movie? Will the Gotham City police show tie into the Batman of Man of Steel 2?
We're starting to see the crossover potential of the comic book movies as Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. debuted last week, taking key elements of Avengers and Iron Man 3. Will Marvel's crossover test be successful? Or will it ultimately muddy the waters of the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
I've already shared my thoughts that the Marvel Cinematic Universe waters may be a little muddy. Honestly, I'm not fully on board for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. The show is decent, but so far I haven't seen consistency to the S.H.I.E.L.D. that we've seen in the movies. It bothers me a little bit that the characters are supposed to be on the same level as Black Widow or Hawkeye, yet so far we haven't seen those characters on the same level as them (although the second episode improved a lot over the pilot). It makes it hard to see S.H.I.E.L.D. in the Avengers movie and believe the organization is the same. Either it's going to make the show fail or begin a collapse in the movies. I hope I'm wrong, but that's just my thoughts on a shared universe there.
This brings me to the DC Cinematic Universe and television. Will we see Stephen Amell playing Green Arrow in a Justice League movie? Will we see the Barry Allen from television as Flash in a Justice League movie? Is the back story from the Gotham City Police Department show going to lead into the next Batman movie? I HOPE NOT. These shows do, however, pave the way for these characters to gain a bigger following. This increases the chances for each character to have successful films and a Justice League movie to be more successful. Let's look at a possible timeline (not including all TV shows):
2012 - Arrow television premiere (Green Arrow - less popular character introduced)
2013 - Man of Steel released in theatres (Superman rebooted)
2014 - The Flash, after being introduced in Arrow, stars in his own show (introducing another character outside the big three)
2015 - Man of Steel 2 (Batman introduced to the DC Cinematic universe)
If we have a Justice League movie in 2016 or 2017, you don't have to waste time introducing a back story for Flash (because of the TV show), Green Lantern (because of the Ryan Reynolds movie...even as failed as that was), or Green Arrow (if he's included). This means that the only back story that you have to build is one for Wonder Woman. The other characters may have different back stories than their other incarnations in television or movies, but you don't have to re-hash that in a movie.
Television is a great way to establish a fan base for the characters outside of the comics. You don't have to spend a couple of years of development and marketing for a movie that may or may not succeed. If a television show is cancelled, it's not a big deal. If a movie does badly, you've lost millions of dollars and it could take years to re-establish that character. We may get the characters we love on the big screen much sooner than expected.
In theory, a shared universe between television and movies is a great idea. It will be interesting to see if Marvel can succeed with it. I hope that someday we have television shows that flow into the movies seamlessly. For now, let's just view the DC Universe properties (outside the movies) as all separate entities on Infinite Earth's.
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