This time, The 42cast, is proud to welcome prolific animation writer Brynne Chandler on to the show. Brynne talks to us about her decades of experience, focusing on many ground-breaking series from the 80’s and 90’s including He-Man, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Batman: The Animated Series, and Gargoyles. She talks with us about her experiences working in the industry and her thoughts on some of the series and specific episodes that she worked on. Along the way we discuss such varied topics as where morals in TV series came from, the unintended consequences of being overly protective of young people, whether women like action and explosions, and what the DCEU didn’t understand about Batman and Superman.
As this is an interview episode there is no five-minute controversy.
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Superman month concludes this week, but we couldn’t leave without talking about the last iteration of The Man of Steel. In this episode we look at the entirety of the DCEU – from a franchise of franchises overseen by Zack Snyder to a disjointed dying gasp of poorly performing films and ones pulled before they could see the light of day – we go over the ins and outs of the series. We talk about the merits of the films and what we feel lead to its downfall. Along the way we also discuss our favorite and least favorite movies of them all. 
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom was the last title to come out of the DCEU. Featuring Jason Momoa as Aquaman the movie was meant to focus on the sibling relationship between Aquaman and his brother Orm, played by Patrick Wilson. In this episode the cast discusses this film. They examine the plot and characters and discuss what they think worked and didn’t. They talk about the controversies surrounding members of the cast as well as any other factors that may have contributed to it performing less at the box office than its predecessor. They also get into a discussion about the new DCEU and Momoa’s likely placement there as Lobo. 
Blue Beetle was one of the last of the DCEU releases. Originally intended as a straight to Max streaming movie, Warner Bros-Discovery was apparently impressed by what they saw and decided to release the movie to theaters. Sporting a modest $75K budget, the movie managed to look better than many, more expensive blockbusters. It also boasted a mostly latino cast, bringing representation to a community not often associated with superhero films. In this episode we discuss Blue Beetle. We talk about it’s plot, cast, and characters. We also get into the themes of the movie, use of real history to tell a story, representation in media, and the comic history of the Blue Beetle. 
The Flash film was announced back in 2014. Originally slated to release early in 2018 many were impressed at DC’s confidence in announcing so many films so far in the future. Over the the intervening decade, The Flash production would be placed on hold multiple times as the script faced an almost infinite amount of rewrites, directors came and went, and various reshoots occurred. Eventually, the film finally saw the light of day in June of 2023. In this episode we take a deep dive on the Flash film. We discuss the plot, the adaptation of Flashpoint, and how it uses the established DCEU mythology and the Batman ’89 legacy. We also talk about the controversies around Ezra Miller and how that was juxtaposed against hype for Michael Keaton. We also get into how all this stacked against the upcoming DCU and why we think this movie flopped as greatly as it did. 
Shazam was a surprise release from DC in 2019. The movie saw an effort to move away from the dark and gritty storytelling that had characterized DC movies since the late 80’s and move it back towards a more amusing bent. The movie was not as expensive as the more recent DC films so even it’s somewhat modest performance at the box office earmarked it as a success. In this movie we discuss its sequel, Shazam: Fury of the Gods. In this episode we talk about the characters and performances in the movie. We also discuss the plot and the placement of cameos in the film. We also debate whether the announcement of Gunn’s DCU tanked the ticket sales for the film and whether we think this film will be the last with the Shazam family. 
The hierarchy of power in the DC Universe has changed again! The comic world was shocked last October when it was announced that James Gunn and Peter Safran would help a new DC Studios division of Warner Bros. In the past few months, Gunn has been forthcoming with quite a few details about his plans for the franchise, including a discussion of what legacy projects that predate his time will continue and what his own plans are for new films, TV shows, and cartoons within his interconnected universe. In this episode we take a look at these announcements. We discuss what this means for DC media in general and how we feel about it. Then we discuss which of the various projects we are most excited for. 
Everything gets a bit dark this week as The 42cast looks into the latest film to come from the DC Universe, Black Adam. We discuss this as Dwayne Johnson’s passion peace that he’s been trying to get made since 2014. We talk about the plot and themes and discuss whether they make any sense in the context of what we’ve seen from DC before. We also get into the casting choices and what we think about the portrayal of various characters that have never been seen in live action before. We also opine on the inclusion of elements like Amanda Waller and Superman and how those both effect the narrative. We also discuss the Shazam connection and we talk about what a Black Adam franchise could have looked like. 
Justice League was released to theaters in 2017. However, the result left many audience goers unhappy. As the culmination of plotlines that Zack Snyder had started in Man of Steel and Justice League it seemed to fall short. The more humorous tone that the studio wanted was at odds tonally with what had gone before leaving many fans of Snyder’s work unhappy. Since that time there have been calls to release Snyder’s original cut of the movie. With HBO Max looking for new content they paid Snyder to complete his cut, which they released as a 4-hour long film. In this episode we look into the Snyder cut. We discuss its differences with the theatrical version as well as how it fits in as the third movie in Snyder’s vision. We also ask if WB should return to Snyder’s vision based on this cut and whether the Ayer cut of Suicide Squad should be released. 
Wonder Woman was a smash success at the box office. DC wanting to capitalize on the success of the film quickly greenlit a sequel that was soon named Wonder Woman 1984. The movie was due for release in June of 2020, but the Covid-19 pandemic pushed that release date back. Instead, Warner Media decided to make this the flagship of it’s new policy of releasing films straight to the HBO Max streaming service and theaters at the same time.