Michael Keaton’s impending return as Bruce Wayne in The Flash will see the DCEU embrace the multiverse as their next major storytelling device, one that will go a long way to explaining why the continuity of the franchise has been so muddled in recent years.
The Snyder Cut of Justice League might end up telling a story that no longer fits into the studio’s plans for the future and involves several cast members we’ll likely never see again, but the introduction of alternate realities and branching timelines means that it will still technically be considered official canon. Meanwhile, The Batman may not be connected to the wider DCEU in any meaningful way, but as part of the multiverse, it still occupies the same narrative space as the likes of Aquaman and Shazam!.
Next up on the slate though is Wonder Woman 1984, which is still tentatively scheduled to arrive in October, and the movie is set to explain a major continuity issue that has bugged fans for years. In Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, it was established that Diana Prince had gone into hiding after World War I, and hadn’t been spotted in close to a century.
Justice League only created more confusion when Wonder Woman said she’d always come to the aid of humanity when called, despite the previous movie in the franchise claiming the exact opposite. And the upcoming sequel makes it clear that she most definitely wasn’t in exile for 100 years, with Wonder Woman 1984 seeing her operate very much in the public eye.
In what sounds like a pretty lame explanation, the sequel will explain away these continuity issues by saying that Diana only walked away from humanity in a metaphorical sense, and has still jumped into action to save the world when required, she’s just done it all on her own by refusing to form an emotional connection with anyone or anything.
Presumably, the mysterious reappearance of Steve Trevor will still throw a spanner in the works, but at least Wonder Woman 1984 is making an effort to explain why none of the movies so far could seem to agree on what she’d been up to since the end of World War I.
