It seems like every week in the film industry there is a new announcement of another sequel or entry into a long-spanned film or television franchise. Apart from the numerous fans rejoicing at the sight of another spectacle to witness involving their favorite characters, a common sentiment I seem to see underneath every post is a confused individual asking “Why?”
While most sequels are not destined to spark the beginning of a lengthy continuum, it feels like every major studio wants to cash in on the financial and cultural successes gained by the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The MCU is Disney’s “perfect child,” amassing over $29.55 billion at the global box office and becoming the highest-grossing cinematic universe as of July 2023.
There are numerous cinematic universes in the entertainment industry, and each successful attempt (the MCU and “Harry Potter” franchises) has continuously edged out its failed competitors (Universal’s Dark Universe, for example).
But apart from the financial gain the studios receive from every connected entry within these universes, I cannot see a reason for the continued reliance on having a connected universe.
I will be honest, I am a huge DC Comics fan. When I was younger, I remember playing Lego Batman: The Video Game so frequently on my PlayStation Portable that I had to make its sequel my first purchase on the PlayStation Vita. In middle school, I had lengthy debates trying to inform my peers that Aquaman was more than just a “guy who talks to fish.”
Even now, my love for DC has not gone away. Most of my favorite shows involve catalogs of DC characters, and I even binge-watched the entirety of the DC Animated Movie Universe (DCAMU) earlier this year.
So when it comes to failed cinematic universes, I am well aware of it. However, once I heard that Warner Bros. was doing a soft reset for its connected universe with the release of “Superman Legacy,” I felt indifferent about it.
Don’t get me wrong, I love seeing my favorite superheroes interacting with one another on screen. This year, DC’s “Titans” had an entire episode dedicated to characters from another television series, “Doom Patrol,” interacting with the original show’s characters. It was an exciting moment for me as a fan of both series, and the show did not feel like it was going out of its way to include the crossover. But, that’s what I am concerned about with cinematic universes.
Take some of the latest films within the MCU, for example. While some like “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” and “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” have fared well among critics, others like “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantamania” did not. This is because films like “Quantamania” served no purpose other than to introduce the next “big bad” into the MCU.
Films like “Quantamania” and the current state of franchises like “Star Wars” have only shown the downsides of connected universes. Instead of being concerned with telling relatively detached stories of comic characters —like “Wakanda Forever” and “Shang-Chi” effortlessly achieved — major studios have become more involved in gaining audience engagement through cameos and prioritizing quantity over quality.
My favorite franchise, DC, is not without fault either. Despite Warner Bros.’s attempt to spark its own universe, the failed DC Extended Universe suffered from another issue that plagued connected universes. It did not fully commit to its fundamental concept.
I feel like Warner Bros. gave up on fully connecting the DCEU slate of films after Zack Snyder’s release of his DCEU trilogy failed to ignite with critics and polarized fans. Although that is most evident now, films like “Aquaman” and “Birds of Prey” share different levels of engagement with Snyder’s films. It felt disingenuous to call it a universe when each film felt disengaged from the next, despite its thematic branding.
I do not fault fans for becoming confused with the DCEU, and I am still a little unsure of where each entry falls in the grand structure of it. I would have enjoyed the franchise much more if Warner Bros. scrapped the idea of a connected universe, instead creating relatively detached films from one another like the DCAMU seemed to do at times.
Before the cancellation of “Batgirl” and its release occurred, it felt like the DCEU was starting to go down that route. Films based on Zatanna and The Wonder Twins were stated to be in development, with no statement on how connected to the DCEU each film was going to be. However, this happened too late for it to have any chance of even beginning.
With James Gunn and Peter Safran at the helm of DC’s rebooted universe (the DCU), I am very hopeful for the future of one of my favorite franchises. Gunn has created some of my favorite superhero and “Scooby-Doo” films, and Safran has been involved with producing some guilty pleasure films of mine like “The Belko Experiment.”
It seems like Gunn and Safran are both planning on righting what the DCEU has gotten wrong by fully committing to a shared universe with DC. Time will tell whether the DCU will fall into the same pitfalls as other shared universes, but I am relatively hopeful that it is in good hands.
Trey Barrett is a graduate student studying film at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Want to talk more about it? Let Trey know by emailing him at tb222023@ohio.edu.
