2023 could have been one of the best years for the DCEU. Instead, I watched twelve months of a four-part entombment that got worse with each stop
Ten years ago, Man of Steel wasn’t just a new Superman movie opening in theaters. Warner Bros. and comic house DC wanted to create their own film universe modeled on the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in which well-known superheroes such as Wonder Woman and Batman meet. A decade later, one thing is certain: the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) has failed and no longer has a future.
At the beginning of the year, director James Gunn and producer Peter Safran presented their plans for an extensive DC reboot. Ten films and series have already been confirmed, including a new Superman adventure. The absurdity: At the time, a considerable number of DC films from the current era had not even been released. I then spent a year watching the franchise die
The DCEU is dying – and in its last year, it’s knocking out more films than ever before
The history of the DCEU is extremely chaotic. Where everything went smoothly for Marvel – at least at first glance – DC’s attempts to get going turned out to be a single stumble. The second film, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, was supposed to accomplish what Marvel had achieved with the Avengers after five films and many years of preparatory work. Countless projects have been announced and then canceled again
(Shazam! Fury of the Gods)
In essence, the DCEU has reinvented itself with every movie, culminating in one movie, Justice League, existing in two completely different versions and other DC series like Joker and The Batman being launched in parallel. These had nothing to do with the core franchise and, despite a major reboot, continue to live on happily and without any connection to a Cinematic Universe.
The DCEU comprises 14 films, if we exclude the Snyder cut of Justice League, which Warner doesn’t count as part of the canon anyway. Four of these 14 films were only released this year. That’s almost a third of the entire franchise. In one year. A spectacular finale? Not a chance. The quartet Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Flash, Blue Beetle and Aquaman: Lost Kingdom is a tragedy.
None of the films were released as originally planned. Shazam 2 slipped back and forth during the pandemic, Aquaman 2 had to endure several rounds of reshoots and Blue Beetle switched from streaming to theaters. And then there’s The Flash, which has spent more time in production hell than any other DC project to hit the big screen in recent years.
All that’s left of the DCEU’s rapturous chaotic energy is a bunch of despondent movies
Despite or perhaps because of this mess, I have grown very fond of the DCEU. Not least because it countered the increasingly uniform MCU films with lots of rough edges. Sometimes a disaster, sometimes a miracle. Suicide Squad and The Suicide Squad perfectly encapsulate this chaotic energy. For a blockbuster franchise, the DCEU was refreshingly unpredictable.
(The Flash)
The last year was all the more disappointing. Shazam! Fury of the Gods had forgotten everything that made its predecessor so special. Gone was the Christmas family story that made the movie stand out from the monotony of superhero cinema. The sequel has become the interchangeable bombast that the first part cleverly avoided.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods followed on seamlessly from the Black Adam defeat of 2022 and featured a similarly haphazard post-credit scene. Will Henry Cavill return as Superman? Definitely not! But what about Zachary Levi as Shazam? Hmm, yeah, maybe, maybe not. The coffin of the DCEU was officially sealed in January and yet every project came around the corner with baseless promises.
The most frustrating experience in this regard was The Flash. A DC adventure that wanted to be a look back, a preview and a stocktake all at the same time. Four Batman, three Superman and many more cameos: Nostalgia cinema of the worst kind, although multiverse stories offer so many narrative and cinematic possibilities, as this year’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse impressively proved.
Even the multiverse couldn’t give the broken DCEU a dignified exit
If there’s one movie that can somehow elegantly resolve the transition from one universe to the next, it’s The Flash with its Flashpoint story – at least that was the naive thought in my head for a long time. Until I came out of the cinema at the end and realized that the only really exciting moment was the return of George Clooney. A cliffhanger that will never have an epilogue.
(Blue Beetle)
Shazam discovers a realm of gods, Flash the multiverse. With Blue Beetle, a completely new superhero has been introduced, and we’ll be seeing a lot more of him in the future, won’t we? After all, according to Gunn, Blue Beetle is the first superhero in the new DC universe, which doesn’t actually start in cinemas until Superman: Legacy in 2025, although it actually kicks off in 2024 with Creature Commandos on TV.
Can you see the problem? There is no clear cut. The remaining DCEU films have been heaved onto the big screen more lovelessly than any franchise in a long time. One flop followed the next. Even Aquaman: Lost Kingdom, which continues the most successful DC film to date, will not be able to top the figures. Lead actor Jason Momoa pulled out before the movie was released.
“It’s not looking good,” the Aquaman star told Entertainment Tonight when asked about another return. The four DC films currently have a combined box office takings of 530 million US dollars in 2023 – and that’s on a budget of 430 million US dollars (excluding marketing costs). To be profitable, however, a blockbuster must generate two to three times its costs. There is no profit to be found here in any box office calculation
The once recalcitrant DCEU encounters only indifference at the big blockbuster funeral
The finale wasn’t just a financial disaster: DC had four of the biggest films of the year and it’s hard to see a pop cultural footprint for any of the titles. A complete line-up of blockbusters that was forgotten before it could even unfold. Do you remember when films like the rough-and-tumble Batman v Superman wouldn’t disappear from the discourse?
(Aquaman: Lost Kingdom)
Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu and West Side Story star Rachel Zegler couldn’t keep Shazam! Fury of the Gods from irrelevance, while Blue Beetle disappeared from theaters faster than its transfer there was discussed. Michael Keaton’s Batman comeback in The Flash failed at the point where Batgirl ended up in the poison closet, although he was even the main Batman of the DCEU in the meantime.
That leaves the thoroughly enjoyable Aquaman madness, which sets itself apart from the rest of the franchise with wacky underwater action. As the last DCEU film, however, it seems lost in the blockbuster ocean. No other Cinematic Universe has struggled so much with its (non-existent) master plan. Now it all ends, without a hint of a touching farewell gesture. Actually coherent, but also disappointing.
At the beginning of the year, the end of the DCEU seemed like a loss. However, after the disjointed, listless final round, I’m surprisingly indifferent to the ending. Sure, I went straight to the first Aquaman screening, but it no longer had anything to do with the DCEU body that once fascinated me. One last trip to the movies to find closure, but there was no clue at all.
