Don't Recast, Just Time Laps (Superman & Batman Leaving The DCEU)

While press people and agents and reporters may have all different statuses on Henry Cavill's career as Superman for the DC Extended Universe, the common opinion is that he is done. Warner Bros doesn't need him because they have no intention on doing another Superman movie. And we might even see Ben Affleck quit as Batman with his movie in constant flux and his unfortunate return to rehab. So with no Superman or Batman to speak of, DC and WB should reboot. But if they don't, here's what I'm thinking.

Batman & Robin

So when we revisit Gotham following Shazam, Aquaman, and the Wonder Woman sequel, it's been like a year. And in that year Bruce Wayne/Batman has vanished along with Alfred. Nobody knows where they are or if they're coming back. But with no Batman around Gotham's crime rate is growing and a new crime boss called Blockbuster is taking over. While other crime bosses like Two-Face, Black Mask, and The Penguin pull their money together to hire the assassin Deathstroke to kill Blockbuster, Tim Drake has other plans. Teenaged detective Tim Drake solved the identity of Batman eight years ago by using Batman's first partner Robin. And with the old Batman gone, who better to take the mantle than Robin himself. Drake finds Richard Grayson in Bludhaven working as a cop who gets railed by his boss for operating off the books. Grayson returns to Gotham as Nightwing to investigate, only to learn he's been out of the game for a while and Blockbuster and Deathstroke are both tough cookies. Dick and Tim also recruit another ex-Bat-partner, Barbara Gordon. Babs used to be Batgirl until The Joker crippled her. Finding new use as their tech support, Babs helps Dick and Tim take back Gotham as the new Batman and Robin!

Doing this will mean WB doesn't have to make an unnecessary Nightwing film, it will establish a new teenaged hero to compete with Marvel's Spider-Man, it will establish Barbara/Oracle for a Birds of Prey movie, and it will allow WB to keep doing Batman projects without having to worry about recasting Bruce Wayne. And if Ben Affleck does return by the time the movie comes out, he can appear in a sequel with Jeremy Irons where Bruce and Alfred return from an international secret mission needing Dick and Tim's help to destroy Talia al Ghul's terrorist organization "Leviathan".

Supergirl

You know how Superman was brought back to life in "Justice League"? Well, that was only temporary. Superman goes back to being dead, but before passing on his death bed he gives some inspirational speech that prevents everyone from being sad and miserable after his death. This way we still have a world without Superman, but it doesn't have to be sad as shit. Kara crashes into Gotham's river in her spaceship where she's recovered by Batman (Dick). His research shows Kara should have landed the same day Superman's pod did, but the gravitational pull of another planet prolonged it. Technically, Kara is over forty years old, but is still physically sixteen. Meanwhile, her ship is examined by Star Labs in Metropolis, but an alien virus from the ship turns a janitor into The Parasite. Kara begins to learn about Superman from Lois Lane, but is pulled away to Themyscira by Wonder Woman. Her training there is interrupted by the arrival of Parasite, and Kara must suit up as Supergirl, disobey the orders of her mentors, and save Metropolis.

Plain and simple, the Supergirl origin Jeph Loeb wrote. You tie in our new Batman, you check in on Wonder Woman and Lois Lane, you present Superman as this martyr for the city's goodwill and Supergirl gets the huge responsibility of carrying on his legacy. And you get to continue the Superman franchise AND do your precious Supergirl movie. Now if WB really wants Micheal B. Jordan to be in a Super-movie, you have him play John Henry Irons in the sequel. Irons gets duped by some media agent to become the new Superman by building a superpowered armor for himself. Towards the end when the suit malfunctions and he fights Supergirl you can reveal the media agent was Lex Luthor in disguise. Irons leaves the Super mantle to Kara, but implies he might become Steel if she needs backup in the future.

Justice League Sequel

The Justice League was Bruce's project and Clark's dream, but with those two gone Wonder Woman is left to lead the team. When a man known as The First Born starts attacking man's world, Diana learns from her mother Hippolyta that this man is Diana's brother and Zeus's usurper. Diana will need more than just Aquaman, Flash, and Cyborg this time. She recruits her fellow Amazonian warrior and successor of Kat-El, Supergirl. She calls on the new Batman of Gotham to help command the team, Dick Grayson. And, while he may be young, Billy Batson has the strength of the Greek pantheon as Shazam. But The First Born does some recruiting of his own by gathering some of the toughest villains on Earth: Blockbuster, Parasite, King Shark, Solomon Grundy, Gorilla Grodd, and Black Mass. It's an absolute brawl as Wonder Woman leads her new pantheon of legends against a relic of a forgotten lineage.

I imagine most of this movie would be interactions. Like, Shazam and Supergirl are both teenagers in their own ways so how does that work? Aquaman might not respect Grayson as much as Bruce, but Cyborg and Flash get along better with Grayson because they're all around the same age. Wonder Woman, Supergirl, and Grayson may all know each other, but everyone else is pretty new to each other. This opens up the opportunity to have some actual character with your characters. And yeah, I kinda modeled the team after Greek characters. Flash as Hermes, Aquaman as Poseidon, Shazam as Zeus, so on and so forth.

So, that't a way to take it. If WB isn't going to reboot, I don't think they should confuse people by recasting. The best thing about the DC Universe is it's dependence on legacy and the mantles of characters carrying over to their sidekicks and friends. It gives the universe a history and builds up characters to become role models to aspire to, which is another staple of the DCU.

Thanks for reading.

And no more Joker movies.