Yep Warner Bros. plans to reboot the Superman franchise with a new take, just like Marvel did with "The Incredible Hulk" this summer. That's the big news coming from this Wall Street Journal article in which WB president Jeff Robinov talked about the upcoming plans for their movies based on DC characters.

While Robinov speaks about many things in the movie, among them Batman 3, and adopting Marvel's new approach to films, the biggest news is that they are indeed relaunching Superman. Saying that "'Superman Returns' didn't quite work as a film in the way that we wanted it to...had [it] worked in 2006, we would have had a movie for Christmas of this year or 2009, But now the plan is just to reintroduce Superman..."

This looks to confirm, at least somewhat, the news that Mark Millar was planning to pitch a new approach to Superman as Warner was looking to do so. Hopefully now that Warner has opened the door to a relaunch more about Millar's ideas, along with the identity of his secret director.

Meanwhile Warner has decided to release single films for each of their characters (currently films are being developed for Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Flash, & Wonder Woman) which will all lead into a Justice League film. Which means that the JLA film that was being worked on prior to and just after the writers strike is officially dead.

Along with all this fantastic news is one bit of news which really disappoints me, due to the huge success of The Dark Knight, Robinov wants all of his upcoming superhero films to focus on the darker side of the characters. Apparently he sees "exploring the evil side to characters as the key to unlocking some of Warner Bros.' DC properties" stating that "We're going to try to go dark to the extent that the characters allow it." And yes that last bit goes for their relaunch of the Superman franchise as well.

So what do you think of all this? Personally I really dug Superman Returns. Yes it had it's flaws, but overall I like that it was kind of a part 3 following the original Superman and Superman 2. I felt like looking at it from that approach the film worked really well.

But at the same time I'm interested in seeing a reboot and leaving all that behind. Let's get some new Superman stories out there and explore how much the character has changed since the late 70s when 'Superman' was released. And I'm ecstatic that DC is going the Marvel route and trying to make their characters more connected and developing them all before jumping into a Justice League film.

Labels: DC, News, Reboot, Superman, Warner Brothers