After the Skydance Shake-Up, Man of Tomorrow Could Decide James Gunn's DC Future

Skydance has reportedly decided to move on from Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy as the heads of Warner Bros. film, and the question hanging over DC is what that means for James Gunn. The way we saw it, Lanterns is reportedly doing big numbers, but Man of Tomorrow is the film Gunn's regime may have to win with. Before getting to that, we had some news of our own.

Rachel the Crusher Returns for the Tournament

The legend known as the Crusher is coming back. I was thrilled when she said yes. We're probably not going to shoot this until somewhere between April and June next year, and that timing mattered to her.

Rachel said she felt "a little bit of FOMO" once Dan and Clark agreed, and that she had warned me "my next six months are going to be really difficult for me for a lot of reasons." When she heard the timeline, she reconsidered. "I am not in trivia shape. I will not be in trivia shape," she said, but added that it would remind her of a time when "you guys and this show and the fans changed my life for the better, infinitely for the better." To me it's going to feel like the Friends reunion, and I can't wait to see her entrances again.

Lanterns Is Reportedly Averaging Nearly 19 Million Viewers Worldwide

Winston read the numbers, via Dark Horizons citing Nielsen data reported by Variety. The seventh episode of Lanterns reportedly reached 7 million viewers in the US in its first three days, combining HBO's cable channel and HBO Max streams. The DC Universe series is averaging above 12 million viewers per episode in the US and nearly 19 million worldwide, with those averages expected to rise.

For comparison, the report pointed to It: Welcome to Derry, which pulled 6.5 million US viewers in three days for its most watched episode and around its finale reported a 19.7 million worldwide average, later updated to 27 million. HBO's biggest recent series include The Last of Us season 2 at 37 million and The Penguin at 20 million, mostly measured around their finales. Lanterns also reportedly added 1.5 million new viewers to its premiere in the past week.

Kevin Smith and Winston on Why Lanterns Is Working

Kevin said he's really enjoying the show and didn't think he would at the beginning. He said he wants DC to do well because he wants the industry to do well, calling it "a win for James Gunn and his team," and said he hears Aaron Pierre has a big part in Man of Tomorrow. What excites him is the old Marvel feeling of wondering how characters will interact, like whether John Stewart will share scenes with Lex Luthor or Superman. The ratings don't surprise him.

Winston, who has been loving the show, argued that hits need recognizable enough IP, saying Thunderbolts was "esoteric enough" that people didn't clamor for it. He'd argue Supergirl is more of a B-tier character, while Green Lantern clearly had the name, backed by a strongly written story.

Winston's Blackest Night Theory for the DCU

Asked whether Hal Jordan is dead, Winston said he still doesn't think so, pointing to a Gunn tweet and a Spanish title referencing a clone. If Hal is dead, he thinks the hologram version keeps Kyle Chandler around.

His bigger idea is that the saga's big bad could be Blackest Night. He reads the title Lanterns, the planetary genocide nods toward Atrocitus and the Red Lanterns, and Carol Ferris as signs we'll see other corps. In that story, a villain he wanted to say is named Nekron, though he could be getting it wrong, raises the dead as Black Lanterns. He suggested a revived Hal, or Krem returning to haunt Supergirl. He tied it to Gunn's gods and monsters theme. Kevin said Winston sold him on it, as a left field alternative to Darkseid.

Skydance Reportedly Brings In Greenstein and Goldberg

Paramount is expected to remove De Luca and Abdy, who after a challenging 2024 delivered hits last year, while this year brought The Bride, Supergirl and Digger, which reportedly went way over budget. According to Deadline, Skydance will likely be run by Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg. Puck said Ellison will likely ask Gunn and Peter Safran to stay, at least initially. Gunn shared an Ellison hype video on Threads, and one fan replied: "Did Ellison hold you hostage for you to post this?"

I worked for Dana Goldberg. As an intern at Village Roadshow, she asked us about Catwoman, I honestly told her it didn't look interesting, and she recommended me to Joel Silver's company for being honest. Winston said this is why he's been anti any merger, because somebody gets laid off. He believes Warner Bros. will live under the Skydance umbrella, the way Disney keeps 20th Century.

Why Man of Tomorrow Is Everything

To me, Clayface has breathing room because of its low budget, but Man of Tomorrow is everything. Kevin suggested a Batman tease in Clayface could make it a lot of money. If I'm Gunn, I'm reshooting to get Batman in, the way Black Adam would have lost more without Henry Cavill.

Winston said Man of Tomorrow would be enough of a sample size, and anything before it would be a little too early to pull the rip cord. On the opposite scenario, the idea raised was that it could end this regime, or that the studio might take more control and make Matt Reeves' Batman the DCU Batman.

Walton Goggins Gets Backing for Cobra Commander

With Bradley Cooper set to play Duke in G.I. Joe, Kevin asked who should play Cobra Commander. Walton Goggins drew support, with the caveat that he seems to be the choice for everything now.

Who would you cast as Cobra Commander?

Eddie Murphy Gets the Nod to Replace Chris Tucker in Rush Hour

The games kept going with a question about which movie duo would be the most fun for one insane weekend: Carter and Lee from Rush Hour, Riggs and Murtaugh from Lethal Weapon, Mike and Marcus from Bad Boys, or Vincent and Jules from Pulp Fiction. Vincent and Jules were a hard pass, with the reasoning that one might accidentally shoot you in the back seat. One pick was Carter and Lee, narrowly ahead of Mike and Marcus. The case for Bad Boys was that you'd end up at a Miami yacht party, while Chris Tucker probably wouldn't protect you. The counterpoint was that Mike and Marcus are getting older now.

That led into a Rush Hour swap. Kevin asked Winston which actor, at their peak, could replace Chris Tucker as Carter and make the movie completely different but still work: Eddie Murphy, Kevin Hart, Martin Lawrence or Jamie Foxx. The argument on the show was that Kevin Hart has had good box office days and Jamie Foxx has an Oscar, but no one was as big a movie star and powerhouse as Eddie Murphy was from around 1982 until 1990.

Winston said it's a close tie between Eddie and Martin, but both bring drastically different energy than Chris Tucker. For half a second he considered Will Smith, because his fast talking is closer to Chris's, though that also hits very differently. The point was then made that Tucker has manic energy in those movies and Eddie Murphy has that exact manic energy, and Winston agreed, thinking of The Nutty Professor. Richard Pryor came up as the only other answer, with Brewster's Millions and Superman mentioned, and the idea that he would have crushed it with Jackie Chan.

Winston Would Endure Dragon Ball Evolution for $10 Million

Kevin's next question for Winston: to win $10 million, which would he rather watch on repeat every day for a year, the live action Dragon Ball Evolution, The Last Airbender or Death Note? Kevin noted that an AI search apparently lists those as Winston's three least favorite properties. The rules were that it would always be playing, in an earphone and on every screen, though Kevin agreed to give him his wedding night off and a couple of hours.

Winston chose Dragon Ball Evolution. "I'm gonna be furious for a full year, but I'll deal with Dragon Ball Evolution over the other two," he said. He called all three far away from what they are, said Death Note is "really really bad" and that The Last Airbender doesn't make any sense. Dragon Ball Evolution doesn't either, he admitted, but he'd deal with it if he had to.

Rocky, Ripley and Maverick Make Their Case for a Green Lantern Ring

Since Lanterns had come up earlier, Kevin asked which movie character who has never been a superhero would make the best Green Lantern, starting from scratch: Rocky Balboa, John McClane, Ellen Ripley, Sarah Connor, Pete "Maverick" Mitchell or Indiana Jones. Winston said it was either Maverick or Rocky, and leaned Rocky, because it isn't just about conquering fear but about will. "I think he's probably got the strongest will out of all of them," Winston said, pointing to the way Rocky keeps getting back up.

Kevin went with Ripley because she's already dealt with aliens and would know how to handle interspecies relations. My pick was either Maverick or McClane. I like when lanterns have a little bit of an edge. Rocky is one of my favorite characters of all time, but he doesn't have much of an edge, and Ripley is a really good person too. Maverick and McClane break the rules, and I think Lanterns need to break the rules a little bit. McClane will jump off things too, but Maverick kind of lives for the high energy stuff, so I'd probably go Maverick.

Digger Didn't Pull Off What One Battle After Another Did

A question asked what decision making was going on at Warner Bros. when it gave big budgets to The Bride and Digger. The view on the show was that the studio tried to do with Digger what it did successfully with One Battle After Another: lose a little money but win it back in awards status. That backfired this time. Even though One Battle After Another cost too much, casual audiences still went to see it in theaters, and it was accessible. Digger is not accessible to casual audiences.

Winston recalled his out of the theater reaction: the acting, production, cinematography, set design and costumes are well done, and if you're into farce and how avant garde Alejandro González Iñárritu always is, it's your movie. But he thinks it's so esoteric that it's going to lose a lot of people. Another point made was that it's not the movie the trailer sells you. On a Tom Cruise nomination, with the film around 56% with critics, the feeling was that he probably won't get nominated, which is a shame because he did a fantastic job, alongside an argument that every category should expand to eight to ten nominees. The counterpoint was that the power of Tom Cruise in Hollywood politicking shouldn't be disregarded, so it's possible.

A viewer said Digger had a what am I watching moment 45 minutes in but got better in the second half. That got strong agreement on the show, along with the view that Iñárritu is a great director but comedy is not his strength. It tries a Wes Anderson thing that doesn't land and plays more weird than funny. Cruise was described as almost like old man Ric Flair at points, in a completely different tone from Tropic Thunder, which is a full comedy.

A Lanterns Season 2 Costume Rack Raises Hopes

Asked for predictions on the Lanterns finale, one guess on the show was that we'd see at least one other lantern corps, probably the Sinestro Corps and a yellow ring, and there was enthusiasm for the idea of an Avengers level Blackest Night. Asked about a Midnight Boys interview, Winston said he had only seen clips so far, but called the writing on the show stellar in his opinion.

One viewer said that on a tour of the WB Archives they saw a rack of costumes with a sign saying Lanterns saved for season 2, and the guide looked like they weren't supposed to see it. The response was "I wouldn't be surprised," since the show is doing very well right now. From production knowledge, studios hold things kind of indefinitely until they're told something is done, and even then they still might hold stuff, so there's a chance.

On the idea of Matthew Lillard playing an older Barry Allen, one question raised was why everybody needs to be older. The theory offered was that the DCU is modeling itself closest to the animated universe of Batman: The Animated Series, Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, where John Stewart was the lantern and Wally West was the Flash, plus separation from the Ezra Miller era. The view was that, potentially, if that's truly the plan, Lillard would finalize the nail in the coffin of that earlier universe, with "I don't hate that plan" and a sense he'd be a pretty good older Barry Allen.

Which character would you trust with a Green Lantern ring?