Ever since its inception the DC Extended Universe has seemingly been in some sort of turmoil. Most of the criticisms are valid while some come across as nit-picky or whiny. MAN OF STEEL debuted to average reviews and a solid, but not spectacular, box office. Fans were divided on Superman’s decision to kill General Zod, but overall it was a decent opening film for the DCEU. The next film in the series set into motion a series of unfortunate events that almost left this universe destroyed.
Desperate to catch up to Marvel Studios, DC Entertainment dove headfirst into the “shared universe” formula without any real plan. They saw how well the Marvel Cinematic Universe was doing with the over $1.5 billion success THE AVENGERS was worldwide, and decided they wanted that immediately. This decision didn’t have a lot of logic as DC didn’t have a solid foundation of solo superheroes movies to build upon. When it was announced that BATMAN V. SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE was taking elements from the “Dark Knight Returns” comic book story arc it became even more clear that a coherent plan was nowhere to be found. While Frank Miller’s graphic novel is an all-timer, it really didn’t make sense to introduce it so early in this universe and ultimately came off looking like pure fan service.
Fast-forward a year and we finally have a hit on our hands with WONDER WOMAN. This movie, while fairly formulaic, breathed new life into the DEU. Director Patty Jenkins and star Gal Gadot brought something that was desperately needed. WONDER WOMAN was hope personified and she is truly the best thing Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment have going for them right now. The movie was very much its own story, not weighed down by plots and forced cameos from previous films. In order to build upon this success it sounds like Warner Bros. may be dialing back the shared universe plan and focusing on solo films. This is not terribly surprising as even some Marvel Studios films have suffered a bit from world building.
Recently, Vulture.com spoke to DC CCO Geoff Johns and other Warner Bros. executives about the current state of the DCEU. They definitely made it sound like the shared universe is no longer a priority and even hinted how they could be abandoning it all together. To bail on this completely would definitely be a mistake and these types of comments don’t exactly show confidence in the upcoming JUSTICE LEAGUE ensemble movie. Fans reacted as you would expect to this news and it resulted it Johns hopping on to Twitter to set the record straight.
It 100% is. pic.twitter.com/CIxSh59x1r— Geoff Johns (@geoffjohns) October 1, 2017
So the shared universe is still in play, but it is very clear that there is no real set plan for the next few years.
Over the past few months, just about every DC character under the sun has been announced or rumored to part of the upcoming slate of movies. Including BATGIRL, SHAZAM!, BLACK ADAM, LOBO, NIGHTWING, and a few others. These are in addition to a GOTHAM CITY SIRENS movie, a young JOKER origin story and a HARLEY QUINN & JOKER movie. It truly feels like the higher-ups are simply tossing out every idea possible and seeing which ones get the fans most excited. The lack of a design is definitely concerning but at his point it is best for fans to take each movie one at a time and hope for the best.
The best course of action for DC going forward should be simply to make the best movie possible for each story. They should not give up on team-up events because we know those can be incredibly fun but forcing characters together when they haven’t been properly established has not worked out too well.
Written by Tim Miller, DC Films Correspondent
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