Description
The DC Extended Universe (DCEU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of superhero films and television series produced by DC Studios and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is based on characters that appear in American comic books published by DC Comics. The DCEU also includes comic books, short films, novels, and video games. Like the original DC Universe in comic books, the DCEU was established by crossing over common plot elements, settings, cast, and characters.
Warner Bros. had plans to bring various DC Comics superheroes together in films since 2002, when Wolfgang Petersen was set to direct a crossover of the Superman and Batman film franchises. After a planned Justice League film was put on hold in 2008 and initial universe plans were scrapped due to the critical and commercial disappointment of the 2011 film Green Lantern, Warner Bros. established this shared universe in 2013.
The DCEU began with the film Man of Steel (2013), a reboot of the Superman film series, followed by Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), which served as a reboot of the Batman film series. These films were followed by more than a dozen films, and was expanded to include television series for the streaming service HBO Max in 2022, beginning with Peacemaker. Following the restructuring of DC Studios and the appointment of James Gunn and Peter Safran in 2022, the franchise was largely rebooted with the release of The Flash on June 16, 2023, leading into the DC Universe films and television series planned by Gunn and Safran, though the original DCEU will conclude with the release of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom on December 20, 2023.
The DCEU is the ninth-highest-grossing film franchise of all time, having grossed over $6.5 billion at the global box office. Its highest-grossing film, Aquaman, earned over $1.15 billion worldwide and became the highest-grossing DC Comics-based film to date. Reception to the franchise has generally been mixed among critics and fans.
