Well, here’s a weird rumor to mull over. As you know, Warner Bros. are going full throttle on their DC Comics movies, plotting out a string of them until 2020, with last year’s "Man Of Steel" kicking off this new cinematic universe, with "Batman v. Superman: Dawn Of Justice" coming next in 2016. The conventional wisdom maintains that, unlike their Marvel counterparts, WB’s take on superheroes ever since Christopher Nolan‘s Batman trilogy has been very grounded and very serious. But does that mean the studio is enforcing a random, arbitrary rule about the presence of humor in their films?
According to HitFix, the answer is yes. The site reveals they’ve heard chatter that there is a "no jokes" policy at WB when it comes to the DC movies, which makes zero sense. Given that they’ve already established the tone via "Man Of Steel" (which had its share of humor), we can’t imagine that screenwriter Chris Terrio is banging out a hilarious "Justice League" script only to be told to excise the knock knock jokes. Coming into the franchise, we’d presume the talent involved already knows that the upcoming DC Comics flicks are operating at a certain dramatic level.
So is WB giving notes to writers working on scripts? Totally, because that’s how it works in Hollywood, and one assumes many of those notes aim to ensure that the tone of the movies stay consistent. That said, any good studio should be adaptable, and we can’t imagine "Aquaman" or even "The Flash" without more laughs than a gritty, grizzled Ben Affleck-version of Batman is likely to intone. Different character require different approaches, and we’re sure WB is well aware of that and will adjust accordingly.
So perhaps WB wants their serious DC Comics movie to stay tonally consistent and more serious than something like "Guardians Of The Galaxy." Shocker?