The Justice League — Image Source: PC Mag

In April of this year, the merger of Discovery and Warnermedia was finalized, adding another twist to the saga of the DC extended universe (DCEU). Between cancelled movies, director's cuts, and plenty of personnel changes, the story of the DCEU has had almost as much drama behind the camera as in front. Here is a review of how we got to this point today.

9 years ago, the DCEU officially kicked off with the release of Man of Steel by Time Warner. It was met with mixed reviews from critics but overall, it was a success among fans. Some of the criticism boiled down not liking the darker tone (especially Superman breaking the no-kill rule) and that they didn't appreciate Zach Snyder's style. At this point, the MCU was 5 years old and had already erased The Dark Knight as the standard bearer for what people should expect from a superhero movie. This, combined with the fact that Superman is a character that people have a very strong image of, which runs contrary to The Dark Knight treatment that it got (Christopher Nolan was fairly involved) and it's easy to see why the film wasn't universally loved. However, the studio hesitantly continued ahead with the (somewhat) same plan.

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There were two problems that Time Warner was facing. One, they wanted an expansive universe but had no one setting out the overarching plan, unless you count Jon Berg, who did more micromanaging than overseeing. Snyder did had a multi-picture vision, but it didn’t extend beyond his saga. Two, with no planner, they had no plan. They knew what they wanted, but they didn't know how to get there. This led to a 3-year wait (and lots of hype) until we got Batman vs. Superman (BvS). Now, just because Time Warner had stayed the course so far with Snyder, it doesn't mean they took a hands-off approach.

Unfortunately, BvS fell victim to a few factors coming together. There was a lot of anticipation and hype around this movie which already set it up in a bit of a no-win situation where there was almost no way they could meet fans’ expectations. Also, as mentioned earlier, the MCU had become the blueprint for anything superhero related which, for better or worse, Snyder's films did not follow. This meant many of the same criticisms in tone and style remained. He also had a very ambitious story that was cut down for time and due to studio interference. This was ultimately the biggest downfall because it turned a well-connected and compelling storyline (the director’s cut) into a disjointed story where it doesn't feel the characters’ motivations made sense.

From here, The DCEU continued to spiral downwards. They brought in Geoff Johns to oversee the the project, but he couldn't build a vision from the ground up. The studio was getting scared their DCEU was on the verge of collapse and decided to go all in on changing the tone to resemble the Marvel movies. Suicide Squad was released to an absolute thrashing by critics which director David Ayer has blamed on studio interference. A pattern that skipped Wonder Woman which was met with incredibly positive critical and fan receptions. Wonder Woman's success, however, was on the backdrop of a particularly chaotic and now infamous production. Justice League.

At the time, it was no secret that there was friction between Snyder and the studio, but it didn't come out until later just how much tension there was. Tragedy struck with Snyder losing his daughter and this was presented as the reason for him stepping away while it was a huge contributing factor, it was more like the last straw. Time Warner then brought in Joss Whedon to finish off the film and they were left with an unmitigated disaster that nearly killed the DCEU.

In response to this, Geoff Johns and Jon Berg were replaced by Jim Lee and Walter Hamada in 2018. This was around the same time that AT&T acquired Time Warner and renamed it Warner Media. The films following this buyout seemed to be some of the most well-received in the DCEU to date. There was a shift from a well-connected universe to one with more of a loose connection (or none at all). The movies felt wildly different from each other between Aquaman, Shazam, and The Joker. This also came as the Marvel Universe was starting to be criticized for feeling like too much of the same. There was hope for some version of the DCEU, some direction, and then…

COVID. Release dates were shuffled and pushed back. Summer blockbusters had simultaneous at-home releases. Movies like Wonder Woman 1984 and The Suicide Squad (a reboot sot sorts) were seen less positively on the backdrop of pandemic-induced lower-than-expected ticket sales. Then, on the heels of one of the largest successful fan movements to date, we got the Snyder cut of Justice League. It was successful in getting some headlines about HBO Max and had a very positive reception. Unfortunately, it also showed what could have been and led to even more confusion in direction. This was compounded by the latest offering being completely disconnected from the DCEU (The Batman). This article also doesn’t even have time to get into the various TV series which have their own universes.

Now here we are today, with Warner Media merged with Discovery, and there are rumours of more turmoil in creative overseers. Discovery has wasted no time in putting their mark on DC film projects, with an already shot Batgirl being cancelled and many more projects being put on hold not to mention some inherited problems such as Ezra Millers’ recent behaviour with The Flash movie to be released soon. With Walter Hamada rumoured to be on the way out and Discovery already looking at people to lead the DCEU, it will mark the third company and the 4th set of creative minds to try to a successful path forward in less than 10 years.

With studio interference, constantly changing ownership and leadership, and a little bad luck; it has been hard for DC projects to find their footing. We will just have to see what new drama the DCEU will hold for us. Hopefully, it stays on the screen.

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