The Rise and Fall of the DCEU

With the DCEU era coming to an end with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, we are taking a look back at the now abandoned universe to discuss what went right and where it went terribly wrong. It's an interesting case study for future world builders, so lets get into it!

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[DahGabriel-gkcr]

I think if most of the DC animated movies were live action instead it would have been a success.

[YoungYahtz]

Man…there’s so much I’ve been wanting to say about the DCEU for the past 10 years. It’s been hard being a DC fan for the past decade. It finally ending feels like a weight has been lifted

[EarthNatalie]

Zak Snyder's Justice League was also supposed to give us another Green Lantern, John Stewart Green Lantern.

[RichardChave-xlyw]

The DCEU's downfall was that it published a reading list of trade paperbacks they expected you to read before seeing the movies in order to understand them properly. People just don't do this, if anything a movie may inspire someone to read the book it's based on. No one is going to pay a couple of hundred bucks on graphic novels before going to see a movie they may not even enjoy.

[smashbro]

I would argue 2018 and 2019 was the height of the superhero film industry, since half of the Marvel and DC films that came out around that time made over a billion (Black Panther, Infinity War, Aquaman, Captain Marvel, Endgame, Far From Home, Joker).

And while the other half didn’t make a billion, they still did very well at the box office. (Deadpool 2, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Teen Titans Go to the Movies, Venom, Shazam, Into the Spider-Verse). The only exception being Dark Phoenix, which isn’t surprising.

[bmagnetic]

I appreciate your commentary, because you did touch on the TRUE problem with the DCEU, which was WB executives. You could make a whole video of the behind the scenes shenanigans of the WB execs forced upon their creatives; forcing Snyder to pivot from a proper Man of Steel sequel to make BvS in the first place, completely changing Suicide Squad behind David Ayer’s back & much more. Executive incompetence, ESPECIALLY at WB, goes back decades! The DCEU COULD have been great if the executives left the creatives alone.

[Jamiesonfrox]

That was a fantastic recap, but I have to say I went through so many emotions during that video went through the excitement of man of steel to the bummed out of justice league to the anger of what happened afterwards and then back to the apathy made me sad

[dohc]

Imo, the latest Superman and Lois iteration is one of the most successful things to come from DC. Each show feels like a movie in itself. Interesting dialog, characters, and action.

[LittleMan]

At least we knew were the MCU was headed. They weren’t doing the story too much too fast, as they were slowly introducing us to characters, the multiverse and even the big bad (until Majors was found guilty). We do know Marvel Studios going to release everything they announced (Bob Iger made them push out Phase 4 too fast), and that Kang was (idk about now) supposed to comeback from his quantum energy core as The Beyonder while we got acquainted with new heroes, the multiverse and it’s collapse.

[Chewzy_CEO]

The flash being in suicide squad wasn’t a issue with consistency because injustice league the flash says I haven’t really done this before. I’ve only pushed people and ran away so he had encountered criminals and deterred and detained them. He just hadn’t battled or had to actively fight

[ClaytonPZ]

Justice League was originally three movies. And your going over the plans Snyder wrote before Warner Brothers asked him to rewrite the story after Batman v Superman was critically received. In Part two they travel to New Genesis and fight Darkseid with Part 3 being the Final War on Earth against Darkseid and his forces.

[knightdriven]

It's crazy how in the film industry, making 300m off a film isn't considered that much

[Drifter]

The studio killed it plain and simple. Though there was no longevity to Snyder’s plan (though can be fixed by Flash changing the timeline) at least it was a plan. Should’ve focused on solo films for their core characters then they get together as a team.

[JFroggy]

Can't wait for the new DCU. DCEU started off on the wrong foot. When they decided to do BVS. Should have done MOS 2. Slowly build the universe instead trying to catch up to MCU with two movies.

[palexanderrice]

DCU has a real opportunity here. They could be the next marvel. Where marvel went wrong is the same thing dceu did like you said. After they crushed for a decade, they wanted to speed run everything. Now flop after flop, DC has a tremendous chance of bringing back superheroes.

[animegamer]

I like how he mentions Snyders' loss, but not Miller's B.S. in relation to effecting the franchise I mean.

[ZedGarbiel]

I think it's better for DC superhero characters to be animated than live-action adaptation

[earlgreysweatpants]

The downward spiral of the DCEU is due to WB mismanagement since post-MOS

[darmetriasroberson]

When did they start calling a film that grossed over $800 million on $200 million budget a failure? That's crazy! BvS, the directors cut, was very good, and MoS is my favorite superhero movie. Suicide Squad, the Joss Whedon Justice League, and WW sequel were absolute stinkers!

[SuperAz]

How could you do a Nightwing movie if you already killed off Dick Grayson