Peacemaker trailer kicks off weird DC movie and TV releases in 2022

When the philosopher William James first coined the term “multiverse” in 1895, he didn’t really mean “multiple universes”. He was trying to describe how confusing the universe we live in is. But the deeper DC and Marvel delve into the parallel universes of their respective projects, the more accurate this original definition seems.

Take DC’s latest upcoming series, Peacemaker, Premieres on HBO Max on January 13. The show’s latest trailer examines John Cena’s action, tone, and general enthusiasm for being a guy who really wants to be the guy.

There is a reference to Wonder Woman early on, when Peacemaker describes how she “scared” him across the room at a party. But while the exchange clarifies that Wonder Woman does indeed exist in this universe, the nature of the conversation makes it seem like Peacemaker is exaggerating, at best, the truth. Wonder Woman probably doesn’t know of a “Peacemaker”.

Peacemaker is just one of DC’s offerings this year, and many of them not only take place in different universes – rather than the past few years, where every DC cinematic story takes place in the Snyderverse / Extended Universe. DC – but in completely different styles. Peacemaker seems to resemble East and down more than even the Suicide Squad movies from Batman vs. Superman and Justice League. Due to pre-existing agreements, the CW’s “Arrowverse” side of DC’s storytelling will also expand into 2022, first with the January premiere of. Naomi, by Ava DuVernay. The filmmaker is also behind the adaptation of HBO Max DMZ, expected later this year. Oh, and HBO Max is getting a new Batman series from the creator of Batman: The Animated Series, which, as mentioned at FanDome 2021, won’t fit into any familiar continuity.

Then there are the films, which are coming back in force in 2022. In March, there are The batman, which started out as a straightforward part of the DCEU with Ben Affleck but now seems unrelated. And then there is the release in May of DC League of Super Pets, which gives Dwayne Johnson the chance to voice Krypto the Dog, and DC to tell stories in a whole different way. (And in the realm of direct video, the DC Animation pipeline continues to flow, with the Catwoman: Hunted arriving in February.)

Of course, there is always a “main” DCEU, the one where Johnson will play. Black adam and Affleck will apparently make his last appearance as Batman in the November blockbuster, adapted for Flashpoint, starring Michael Keaton, Flash. Jason Momoa will also be back at the end of the year in December. Aquaman and the Last Kingdom.

But maybe partly because of the planning and partly because of the unexpected, the state of the DCEU is much smoother than Marvel’s famous Cinematic Universe, which now encompasses both movies and TV series. Disney Plus. When Suicide Squad was released in 2016, and Justice League the following year, Warner Bros. imagined that they would release films with names very similar to each other within five years.

Gunn The suicide squad, from which Peacemaker was spawned, given the ‘standalone sequel’ mark, meaning that while so there was some character crossover, watching the first movie was essentially irrelevant to the action here. And while Joss Whedon and Zack Snyder are Justice League both share the same characters, the differences between them are night and day.

As turbulent as the DCEU has been with its reboot and crossovers, the experience seems to have taught leaders a valuable lesson: trust the mood and tone of a specific character rather than the intricacies of a larger universe. vast. Spider-Man: No Path Home and Hawk Eye are both filled with references to their common world, including a musical tribute to Captain America. While The suicide squad has references to its comedic origins, the MCU’s detail-driven world-building doesn’t seem like what DC is ultimately building. Which, in the case of 2022, seems to boil down to ‘everything’.

It’s a difference that could very well be for the best. In the 20th century, when the comics were primarily where shared superhero universes were built, audiences weren’t drawn to the “Big Two,” as they were called, as they were the same with different costumes. There were clear differences in the style and substance of DC and Marvel, and those differences seem to reappear.