When Mr. Hamada arrived at DC Films in 2018, the division was in urgent need of stability.
Two terrifyingly expensive movies, "
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" (2016) and "
Justice League" (2017), both directed by Zack Snyder, were deemed almost unwatchable by critics. Ben Affleck, who played Batman in the films,
wanted to move on, complicating sequel plans. At the same time, filmmakers were developing other DC movies that had nothing to do with the existing story lines — and, in fact, contradicted some of them.
Mr. Hamada and Mr. Emmerich had two options: Figure out how to make the various story lines and character incarnations coexist or start over.
The answer is the multiverse. Boiled down, it means that some characters (Wonder Woman as portrayed by Ms. Gadot, for instance) will continue their adventures on Earth 1, while new incarnations (Mr. Pattinson as "The Batman") will populate Earth 2.
"The Flash," a film set for release in theaters in 2022, will link the two universes and feature two Batmans, with Mr. Affleck returning as one and Michael Keaton returning as the other. Mr. Keaton played Batman in 1989 and 1992.
To complicate matters further, HBO Max gave Mr. Snyder more than $70 million to recut
his "Justice League" and expand it with new footage. Mr. Snyder and Warner Bros. had clashed over his original vision, which the studio deemed overly grim, resulting in reshoots handled by a different director, Joss Whedon. (
That didn't go well, either.) "Zack Snyder's Justice League," now four hours long, will arrive in segments on HBO Max in March.
At least for now, Mr. Snyder is not part of the new DC Films blueprint, with studio executives describing his HBO Max project as a storytelling cul-de-sac — a street that leads nowhere.
