What Does The Future Of The DCEU Look Like?

The Future Looks Bright

By Culture SlatePublished 2 years ago • 5 min read

DC has traditionally been split into two distinct streams for its storytelling in the live-action world. On the one hand, we have the movies known as the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). The films released under the DCEU banner were Man Of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice, Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman, Justice League (plus the Zack Snyder release), Aquaman, Shazam!, Birds Of Prey, Wonder Woman 1984, and The Suicide Squad. On the other hand, we have TV shows known as the Arrowverse. This comprised Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Legends Of Tomorrow, Black Lightning, Batwoman, and Superman & Lois. These two streams have, on the whole, been living quite happily in blissful isolation from each other.

While there may be some use of characters in both realms, the actors and stories have no relation to each other whatsoever. In the movies, Kal-El/Clark Kent/Superman is portrayed by Henry Cavill, with Tyler Lee Hoechlin taking on those duties in Supergirl, Superman & Lois, and related crossover events in the TV realm. Marvel has done great work in making the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) integrate tightly between both movies and TV shows, covering live-action and animation. However, it looks like DC is now taking a leaf out of the Marvel playbook and will start tying both movies and TV shows together.

Our first glimpse of this came when Ezra Miller took on duties as Barry Allen/The Flash in the DC movies, with Grant Gustin covering the role in the Arrowverse. There was a brief cameo appearance from Ezra Miller in the Arrowverse/The Flash crossover event Crisis On Infinite Earths with him appearing alongside Grant Gustin, but at the time, that was the only hint we’ve had of any sort of connection between the movies and TV shows.

With the release of James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad movie, it was announced that Gunn would also be producing a spin-off TV show, Peacemaker, based on the character from The Suicide Squad. Peacemaker has been received very well by fans, and in the finale, we linked back into the movie world with cameo appearances from Justice League. Unfortunately, they weren’t there to save the day; they turned up too late to get involved. Wonder Woman and Superman were kept in silhouette, but we did get a witty exchange between Ezra Miller’s The Flash and Jason Momoa’s Aquaman.

This expansion of the DCEU with supplementary TV shows should allow the DC stories to branch out more and explore new related characters. Hopefully, become a bit more cohesive overall in tying them all together. Peacemaker was a great way to launch this and provided a show that not only stood on its own two feet in isolation but also linked back into the world of the movie that it had spun off from.

In 2022 we already have Black Adam, The Flash, Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom, and Batgirl movies to look forward to. 2023 also has Shazam! Fury Of The Gods and Blue Beatle lined up. As season one of Peacemaker ended, it was announced that it had been renewing for a season. James Gunn has also announced that he has signed on for an, as yet, untitled, The Suicide Squad spin-off that will not be as comedic as Peacemaker was. On top of this, several other TV shows in development will be tied into the DCEU.

No stranger to DC TV shows, there is an untitled John Constantine series in the works. Fans were less than impressed when the Constantine TV series was canceled, and his appearance in Legends Of Tomorrow was welcome but didn’t really do him justice. This new series will feature a young John Constantine so there will be a change of actor. Justice League Dark has been a long time coming, with scripts being in flux since 2014. However, it is finally going ahead and will also tie in with the John Constantine show.

Madame X has entered development centered around Madame Xanadu and again will have links with Justice League Dark, The John Constantine, Justice League Dark, and Madame X shows will have all have J.J Abrams on board as executive producer. Finally, we have an untitled Val-Zod series which will have Michael B. Jordan as producer with a chance that he will also star in it. This one will be a limited run show and, at the moment, does not appear to be linked to Justice League Dark.

Many projects have been shelved for one reason or another that would make an article on its own. Never say never, though, and some of these might see new life at some point in the future.

As an aside, fans of Batman might like to note his involvement in the DCEU will be coming in the form of The Flash and the Batgirl movies rather than him having any specific titles lined up that are solely about him, for now at least. Additionally, it has been confirmed that Robert Pattinson’s The Batman movie and subsequent sequels will not be part of the DCEU but will form a new Batverse in which DC will continue telling the Batman story. Hopefully, this will expand into the TV realm too.

The calendar schedule might not be as long as Marvel’s, but it’s great to see that DC is still looking to continue things and expand as well with projects in both the movie and TV realm. It’s been a long time coming, but it looks like DC might be finally moving into an era of integrated and cohesive storytelling within the DCEU! The future is looking very bring indeed!

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