DC's Scarlet Witch, Loki and Falcon all making their way to Disney+. After initially attempting to emulate the shared universe format of the MCU, and not achieving the desired results, DC movies have branched and forged a movie series format all of their own.
Both franchises now appear to be fully committed to the multiverse route. After hinting and teasing the existence of other universes, Marvel have DCEU Flash movie has been in the works for some time, subject to constant upheaval, but a 2022 release was finally announced towards the end of last year.
DC signaled exactly where they hope The Flash can take their movie franchise when it was announced that Michael Keaton would be reprising his role as Batman from the Tim Burton movies of the late 1980s and early 1990s. This nothing short of seismic announcement clearly demonstrates how DC intend to remold their movie universe over the coming years, and it's similar to how Days of Future Past fundamentally altered the X-Men franchise... but instead of bringing together different comic book movie worlds, The Flash is going to smash the DCEU apart.
X-Men Continuity Was Fractured, Days Of Future Past Tried To Fix It
Fox's X-Men franchise may predate both the MCU and the DCEU, but that doesn't mean its timeline was any simpler. Spearheading the modern superhero movie with X-Men: First Class in 2011 was the result. A well-loved Hugh Jackman cameo places Matthew Vaughn's X-effort in the same continuity as the existing trilogy but, to all intents and purposes, First Class is a reboot with a younger cast and a new attitude.
While First Class was praised as a fresh and exciting take on the X-Men movie franchise, the overall continuity was left a little worse for wear. Between the main series, Jackman's spin-offs and a Cold War prequel, the once-linear X-Men franchise had now become anything but. The story behind Charles Xavier losing his ability to walk was in constant flux, Mystique was an entirely different character and there were multiple versions of characters such as Emma Frost and Moira MacTaggert.
Days of Future Past offered a potential solution. Marrying together the old and new casts in a time-twisting tale, the 2014 movie attempted to establish a clearer timeline for X-Men cinematic canon, but more importantly, sought to mop up any existing disparity. When Wolverine returns to 2023 in Days of Future Past's final moments, he's confused to find more changes to the timeline than anticipated, with Jean Grey and Cyclops walking around like The Last Stand never happened. The message is (more or less) clear - a line has been drawn under all previous X-Men continuity, and future movies will be telling their own story going forward. Every past X-Men installment took place within the same physical plane, but the timeline is reset and the future (or, indeed, the past) is unwritten, maintaining the singularity of the X-Men movie franchise. Whether this was the correct move remains a matter of debate, but Days of Future Past succeeded in merging the diverse tracks created by over a decade's worth of films into a single forward-moving mutant train.
DCEU Canon Works, But It Can't Continue
Compared to the X-Men franchise, the continuity of the DCEU looks positively watertight. Naturally, there are inconsistencies; abandoning Zack Snyder's plan after Darkseid and dropping the Knightmare arc, the in-world canon works just fine as it is.
Unfortunately, that situation won't be viable for much longer. Henry Cavill's future as Superman is unclear, with recent reports indicating that the actor could return in a minor capacity, but that Warner Bros. remain hesitant on a The Suicide Squad. Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Shazam will continue to enjoy their own solo adventures and Black Adam's arrival is drawing closer, but in of developing the DCEU as a linear "A-to-B" continuity, the momentum has stalled.
Shattering DCEU Continuity Lets The Franchise Move Forward
This leaves the DC movie franchise in a curious position. Fans are excited for the likes of Ezra Miller's Flash popping up in The CW's Arrowverse, it appeared that "standalone" would be the modus operandi for DC movies moving forward. This is where The Flash comes in, with Barry not only mes the timeline (again), but promising something far more exciting for the DCEU as a whole.
By bringing Keaton's Batman back into the fold, The Flash could shatter established DCEU continuity, creating a multiverse that doesn't just encom recent DC fare (Joker, The Batman), but that also reaches into decades past. The opportunities such a bold multiverse setup presents are almost endless; any iteration of any DC character could combine with another, offering a unique spin on superhero storytelling that feels entirely separate to what the MCU has offered thus far.
As well as bringing separate movie franchises together via the multiverse, The Flash could also give the heroes of the DCEU license to operate within their own continuities, depending on how badly Barry cracks space and time. Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Shazam could be given license to break free from existing DCEU continuity and move forward in their own separate series of films, unrestricted by past creative decisions and the necessity of recasting actors. A hypothetical scenario - Warner Bros. could cast an brand new Superman for a series of big screen solo ventures, and eventually unite him with Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman, bringing Pattinson's Batman over from The Batman's universe for good measure. All the benefits of interconnected, crossover storytelling, but without the restrictions of shared continuity.
And this is why The Flash is exactly opposite to X-Men: Days of Future Past. Faced with the cumulative problems of adhering to a concrete timeline, Fox used Wolverine's time travelling to bring together the diverging threads of the X-Men movie world, consolidating the future into a single path forward. The DCEU now finds itself with similar continuity concerns, but rather than bringing threads together, are seemingly using The Flash to break them apart. The multiverse will still allow for future crossover, but where Days of Future Past was all about reigning in a wild X-Men timeline, The Flash is setting DC's entire movie roster free from the shared universe leash.
