The superhero genre has been dominating the film industry for years now, with a number of studios crafting their own shared universe. This was inspired by the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which saw the inception of other franchises like the DC Extended Universe. Man of Steel writer David Goyer recently explained why the DCEU struggled, and I’ve thought this for years.
The DCEU’s early years were full of peaks and valleys. While some movies failed to perform critically, projects like Wonder Woman showed what the shared universe was capable of. Then there’s the Snyder Cut of it all. David Goyer was there as it was being created, writing both Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. While appearing on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, he explained what I always thought was DC’s issue: they tried to do too much too fast. As Goyer put it,
I know the pressure we were getting from Warner Bros., which was, ‘We need our MCU! We need our MCU!’ And I was one of the people that was just saying ‘Woah, let’s not run before we walk. Hold on, they were very methodical in the way they built it. We can’t just jump into all of these things.’ The other thing that was difficult at the time was there was this revolving door of executives at Warner Bros. and DC. I felt like every 18 months someone new would come in, and someone new would come in, and someone new would come in. We were just getting whiplash. Every new person was like, ‘We’re going to go bigger!’
Points were made. The DC Extended Universe basically tried to dive head first into a shared universe, introducing a ton of heroes and announcing major projects in quick succession. While Warner Bros. seemingly wanted to be able to compete with the fully formed MCU, those crossovers took years in the making. Add in the change of leadership, and it sounds like a chaotic time to try and simultaneously develop and produce DC blockbusters. And I’ve always thought this is why audiences also failed to get as emotionally invested in DC franchise. We didn’t have to earn the formation of the Justice League, as it happened surprisingly quickly.
The DCEU began with Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, and the studio quickly moved forward with crossover heavy movies like Batman v Superman and Justice League. This was a bold move compared to the MCU, which released solo films for years before putting the Avengers together in 2012. Later in the same conversation with host Josh Horowitz, David Goyer spoke about what he observed, saying:
I remember at one point the person running Warner Bros. at the time had this release that pitched the next 20 movies over the next 10 years. None of which was written yet! It was crazy how much architecture was being built on air […] This is not how you build a house.
Considering that David Goyer was there for these conversations firsthand, his perspective is likely a sound one. Moviegoers have been following the DCEUs twists and turns for years, most recently James Gunn and Peter Safran being named co-CEOs and crafting a new franchise altogether. It should be fascinating to see how it plays out, as the first chapter Gods and Monsters has already been announced.
With the new DC Universe being born with James Gunn’s Superman: Legacy, it seems like the studio has a chance to do a do-over. The first slate of movie projects is super varied, and there are still questions about the fate of established heroes like Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman. Only time will tell, but the pressure is on the studio to deliver. Although I am cautiously optimistic, especially with Gunn at the head of the change.
The next DC movie hitting theaters is Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom on December 20th. In the meantime, check out the 2023 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience.