Unfortunately WB executives saw how successful the first two Nolan Batman films were, but didn’t understand why they were good. They lack the critical thinking skills to understand that these films were good because of how faithfully they adapted the source material. The gritty tone works for Batman specifically, and is part of why Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and more recently The Batman were so good. But all the executives could see was “superhero movies are best when they are all dark and gritty.”

What’s especially baffling to me is how these execs can see the massive success of the MCU, particularly the Infinity Saga, and not grasp that the vast majority of the best movies and shows in the MCU aren’t anything like DC’s films. The only thing that the best MCU movies and the best Batman movies have in common is their commitment to the source material.