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DC Rumour round-up: Everyone relax, there’s not problem with the Warner/DC Cinematic Universe PLUS it looks like the Shazam! movie has a cool character addition

October 1st, 2017 by Marc Comments

Another weekend of madness regarding the DC Cinematic Universe, it seems…

Once again it seems hyperbole had gotten in the way of what is actually being said/happening at DC/Warners.

Firstly is has been revealed that the title DC Cinematic Universe or DC Expanded Universe is not what the company calls it and in fact the actual title of the whole universe – you know, like Marvel has the MCU – will be revealed, according to DC’s chief creative officer Geoff Johns, ‘soon-ish’.

So stand by for that.

However, it was something else said by Johns that has the intent going into a tizzy.

In a new interview alongside Diane Nelson some things were said that seems to have thrown off the press for some weird reason.

Here’s what was said: “Our intention, certainly, moving forward is using the continuity to help make sure nothing is diverging in a way that doesn’t make sense, but there’s no insistence upon an overall story line or interconnectivity in that universe,” said Nelson.

“Some of the movies do connect the characters together, like Justice League. But, like with Aquaman, our goal is not to connect Aquaman to every movie,” continued Johns.

“Moving forward, you’ll see the DC movie universe being a universe, but one that comes from the heart of the filmmaker who’s creating them,” finished Nelson.

So, naturally, the majority of sites jumped on this as being their way of saying that the DC movies will have nothing to do with each other in the same way that Burton’s Batman had nothing to do with Donner’s Superman.

But that was never what we at FTN understood it to mean. We read it as being that Aquaman may have no references to Superman or Batman because the story doesn’t need it. Wonder Woman, for example, had a nod to Bruce Wayne because the photo in the movie appeared first in Batman V Superman, so it was a natural fit.

It seems that Johns, responding to a fan on Twitter has confirmed as much:

Oh, and as for earlier receptions of Justice League, Johns has confirmed that one hero is capturing the hearts of fans: “Flash is the collective favorite coming out of Justice League.”

As for all the rumours that seem to be appearing online daily about DC/Warner being lost at sea and in a state of disarray regarding the future of their comic book movies, Johns was quick to point out how it’s all to be taken with a pinch of salt and is a great source of frustration for all involved: “Some of the stuff is true, some of it isn’t true. When we talk about things or we’re making deals for people to develop scripts or whatever, sometimes, things leak; sometimes, things are misreported, and it’s frustrating. Because we do wanna go out there and talk about what our strategy is, and this stuff just muddies the water. There’s a lot of internal conversations going on about, How do we help kind of clean that up a bit?”

In related news, it seems that a new audition tape has appeared online for the upcoming Shazam! movie and may (but probably won’t) give us an idea of plot and characters.

The video (below) shows Orphan Black actor Brendan Heard auditioning for the role of Frank, a disabled foster kid with a sharp sense of humor.

In the clip we see Frank chatting to Billy, the young boy who becomes the superhero Shazam!, however comic fans will recognise ‘Frank’ as actually being Freddy Freeman, also known as Shazam Jr. In the comics Freddy is severely injured during a fight between Shazam and Captain Nazi, causing Billy to transfer some of his powers to the young boy, creating the second Shazam! hero.

Of course, there’s nothing to confirm that the footage reflects what the movie will actually be, for all we know the audition was actually for Billy, but the presence of what seems to be Freddy Freeman is pretty exciting stuff…

 

Finally: New Justice League character portrait posters are here and very cool:

Justice League Poster CR: DC

Justice League Poster CR: DC

Justice League Poster CR: DC

Justice League Poster CR: DC

Justice League Poster CR: DC

Sources: Vulture

Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….