HBO And Max Boss Casey Bloys Attempts To Dunk On Marvel TV Programming In Order To Highlight DC, But Makes No Sense
John F. Trent
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HBO and Max CEO Casey Bloys attempted to dunk on Marvel Studios’ TV programs while highlighting DC’s own fare of superhero content. Unfortunately, for Bloys he did not make any sense.
Chairman and CEO of HBO and Max Content Casey Bloys via Variety YouTube
As reported by Deadline, Bloys showcased upcoming HBO and Max content during a presentation at the company’s New York headquarters where he specifically touted the upcoming Penguin show that spins out of the Matt Reeves directed The Batman and sees Colin Farrell rerise his role.
During the Q&A portion of the presentation, Bloys attempted to distinguish how DC will do TV differently than Marvel, “I think the key, even within DC, is trying to tell different stories in different styles, to not try to do the same show over and over and over again.”
Contrasting Penguin and Peacemaker, he explained, “I would say Peacemaker is a very different show tonally than The Penguin. So, there’s not a uniformity to the storytelling and I think that helps.”
John Cena as Peacemaker in Peacemaker (2022), HBO
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From there, he made a nonsensical criticism of Marvel, “Unfortunately, Marvel, as good as their shows are, there’s probably been a lot of them.”
He added, “That’s one of the advantages we have at Warner Bros. is it’s not just one set of stories. There’s a lot of stories you can go to.”
Colin Farrell as Oswald Cobblepot in The Penguin (2024), HBO Max
Sure, Marvel has made a bunch of shows for Disney+ such as WandaVision, Hawkeye, Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Moon Knight, Loki, What If…?, and Secret Invasion.
And not all of the shows have had the same tone or even premise. Nevertheless, nearly all of them have been terrible due to poor story structure, awful characterization, and just plain bad stories not to mention the heavy-handed messages that the shows try to push that has earned them the MSheU moniker.
So the idea that having different shows tonally is somehow a differentiator is ridiculous.
Emilia Clarke as G’iah in Marvel Studios’ SECRET INVASION, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Gareth Gatrell. © 2023 MARVEL.
Ironically, this idea of tone was something James Gunn touched on while discussing the state of superhero film and TV in an interview with Michael Rosenbaum.
He said, “And they’ve gotten too generic. There’s this sort of middle of the road type of genre, tone that so many superhero movies as opposed to having very different genres. I like very serious superhero movies. I like very comedic superhero movies. I like ones that are really just a murder mystery, but it’s with superheroes.”
Gunn added, “I like to see these different types of stories as opposed to seeing the same story told over and over again. I don’t know how many times I…”
(L-R): Karen Gillan, James Gunn, and Chris Pratt on the set of Marvel Studios’ GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3. Photo by Jessica Miglio. © 2023 MARVEL.
Back to Bloys, if he was somehow talking about how their shows are not all interconnected, that too is quite perplexing given Penguin is spinning out of The Batman and will clearly be connected to that film and any future endeavors of that they might pursue that would be connected to it.
Peacemaker is also clearly connected to the DCEU given the entire show is a spin-off of The Suicide Squad, which features characters such as Harley Quinn, Rick Flag Jr., and Amanda Waller from the original DCEU Suicide Squad. Not to mention Jason Momoa’s Aquaman and Ezra Miller’s Flash show up at the end of Peacemaker. So clearly their shows have connected storytelling as well.
It’s not like Gotham and Arrow where the shows are not connected at all. If that was the case Bloys’ comments might have made sense.
Colin Farrell as Oswald Cobblepot in The Penguin (2024), HBO Max
What do you make of Bloys’ comments?
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