The potential for expansion

If there’s one thing that both Warner Brothers and Marvel Studios have been criticized about, it’s the way they have gone about expanding their respective comic book movie universes. In Warner Brothers’ case, they’ve been criticized for rushing their universe to catch up with Marvel; in Marvel’s case, they’ve been criticized for isolating some of their movies – e.g., Captain America: The Winter Soldier took place in a universe in which so many other heroes could have helped with the situation, but they didn’t.

With that in mind, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Captain America: Civil War will have to go about their universe-expanding activities in different ways. Batman v Superman will have to try not to cram too much expansion material in. Civil War will have to both refer to previous movies in the MCU and provide a jump-off into several other movies, e.g., Spider-Man, Black Panther, and the Avengers: Infinity War movies.

Essentially, each movie should link to its wider respective universe, but it needs to happen in the most efficient way possible, given each franchise’s current stage.

And what about the potential for laughs?