But back to Batman et al:
Considering how fans react to Harley Quinn I wonder which way the next Batman will go concerning ratings.
Has anyone of y'all heard something about that yet? Are we expecting an R rating?
I do not expect a Batman animated series that has a R rating like the new Harley Quinn show. Batman is basically the boring straight man character in a world of wacky over the top characters. That style of dark humor would not work if Batman was the star.
I could work if ersatz Batman was the star.
When Hollywood has an accidental hit like Joker, they often take the wrong lesson. I do not want to see a darker Batman. It really bugged me in
Dawn of Justice how casual Batman was about killing people. He didn't go out of his way to kill people but he certainly didn't go out of his way to not kill people. Tim Burton's Batman killed a handful of bad guys too, but Batman didn't spend the bulk of Tim Burton's films criticizing Superman for killing people.
What I would like to see is a large number of low budget super hero/villain movies. Lower budget movies can take more risks. Lower budget movies force the directors and writers to focus more on the story. The biggest problem with high budget movies is that there are so many investors and interested parties that everyone fronting up a buck wants to have some input on the final product.
Too many cooks spoil the broth.
What I expect to see is a general grittier tone in future DC (and Marvel!) movies that mildly annoys people. They are probably going to greenlight a movie or two focusing on the origin of other villains and they will do okay. They will make a profit but they won't make an astounding profit. Then this trend will be ridden into the ground and the status quo will be resumed.
I wouldn't mind seeing more animated shows like Harley Quinn, but I don't expect to. It has a fairly high production budget. I don't expect it to make enough money to attract imitators or even get a third season. It's a different style and genre but I really liked
Blade the Series on the Sci-Fi channel. It was well-received by fans and critics, but it cost too much to make. It lost money, so it never got renewed.