Following the failure of Justice League, it’s been obvious that Warner Bros. is trying to sweep the past of the DCEU under the rug, with recent movies like Aquaman and Shazam! referencing other heroes but not featuring any proper crossovers. In the near future, though, things will start to break away from established canon completely, with The Batman said to take place in its own universe.
And this could just be the start of some major reshaping of the shared franchise going forward. We Got This Covered has been told that WB is working on rebooting the entire DCEU. Essentially, there will be two separate universes from now on. First, we’ll have the franchises that have already begun and therefore are part of the DCEU. So that’d be Wonder Woman, Suicide Squad, Birds of Prey etc. From what we understand, though, there won’t be much connectivity anymore between sequels in these franchises and the early DCEU films.
Any new properties, meanwhile, without ties to what’s come before, will take place in an all-new continuity. It sounds like this approach will be kicked off with The Batman, with our source also telling us that the Supergirl movie will be set in this same world. As previously reported, that film will sow the seeds for a new Superman to arrive later down the line by rebooting the Kryptonian mythology.
We’ve also been informed that the two universes could be merged together one day, but this isn’t something the studio is actively looking to do at the moment. If we had to guess, it sounds like WB is still leaving the door open for a Flashpoint-type event at some point, after the Ezra Miller-led Flash film seems to have grounded to a halt. At present, though, the aim appears to be to get as far away from the bad press of the DCEU‘s early years as possible.
As for this October’s Joker, that’ll be yet another separate entity, not related to either of the new cinematic universes. If it all sounds a little confusing, that’s because it is, but if one thing’s for certain, it’s that it’ll be fascinating to see how this all works out.