By Never doubt DC’s ability to shoot itself in the foot. With those other guys in a definite lull period now and their two most recent movies being fun and successful, the house that Superman built is ready to get back to their bread and butter of making boneheaded decisions. We Got This Covered reports that instead of scrapping the bad parts, DC will be splitting the DC Extended Universe into two different continuities. Let me repeat that because your computer screen may have filtered out some of the stupidity. DC will be asking fans to follow TWO separate universes of superhero movies at the same time.
More established films like Wonder Woman and The Suicide Squad will be a part of the old universe, while any new projects slated, as well as the light-hearted Shazam, make up the new one. That means Robert Batmanson will be a part of the new continuity while Batfleck presumably dies offscreen in the old one. Even worse, besides the obvious and many problems that two universes creates, that probably means Billy Batson and Aquaman won’t be interacting anytime soon, missing out on a buddy cop film for the ages. And don’t get me started about Joker.
Now, this probably actually means that the older, serious, and outright bad stuff will be quietly put out to pasture after all the subsequent movies like Bird’s of Prey release, allowing DC to focus more on the films that worked. Even better, this provides DC with great material to roast themselves about their previous missteps. On the other hand, this is absolutely bonkers to the bonk degree. One of the MCU’s greatest achievements, and there are many, was simplifying the absolute mindfuck that is comic continuity, streamlining it into easily digestible 100 minute chunks.
Confusion is the brother to frustration, and two DCEUs could easily start putting moviegoers off because they either don’t want to see “that universe’s” movies or they get so bewildered they don’t care at all. Hopefully a greater emphasis on individual creators will push all this universe nonsense to secondary status. I follow these things for this job, so I’m looking to see how jacked up these timelines can get, and I suggest you do too. Embrace the chaos while you can because eventually DC’s mom is going to get home and ruin all the fun.
Warner Bros. Rebooting The Entire DCEU Into Two Separate Universes [We Got This Covered]