Supporters of Henry Cavill’s Superman and Zack Snyder’s take on the cinematic world of DC were hit with a one-two punch of disappointment during a notable lack of presence from either figure over the weekend’s San Diego Comic-Con, with fans evidently still feeling salty about it.
The so-called DC Extended Universe is the de facto official name of DC’s cinematic universe, even though it started as a joking moniker created by Entertainment Weekly journalist Keith Staskiewicz in a 2015 preview article for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. The term has since been adopted by fans and journalists alike to describe DC’s movie franchise, with many retroactively deeming 2013’s Man of Steel, directed by Snyder, as the first entry in the DCEU.
The DCEU is considered ongoing to this day, despite the fact that the Snyderverse is officially done, according to Jim Lee, DC’s chief creative officer. That was one of the disappointments DCEU fans endured during SDCC over the weekend, with the second being Cavill not showing up to the convention to talk Superman, as had been rumored.
It was clear on social media that many DCEU fans were calling for the return of the actor who kicked off the entire franchise as the big blue boy scout who regularly faced trolley problems in Man of Steel.
“Wong probably has more screentime [than] Dceu superman,” one Twitter user wrote, referencing the Marvel Cinematic Universe side character who just can’t stop doing small cameos in movies outside the Doctor Strange films, Benedict Wong’s Wong.
“New Superman movie pls 🤞 #DCEU” another fan wrote.
Another Twitter user pointed out how Cavill should be given another chance at playing a kinder, gentler version of Clark Kent, since most of his outings as the character have been overly morose and dark under the auspices of Snyder.
And of course, who can forget those notorious faceless cameos the Kryptonian has made in recent DCEU efforts, such as 2019’s Shazam! and the HBO Max series Peacemaker, with one fan calling them, “the most superman thing dceu superman has done yet.”
One commentator’s collage of actors who’ve been embroiled in some kind of public falling out with Warner Bros., mishap, backlash, crime, or faux pas was absolutely staggering and can only be described as “CURSED.”
People also disparaged DC’s slate of relatively-few announcements as absolutely insignificant-looking compared to Marvel’s mutli-phase announcement of their timeline of movies and TV shows set to come down the pipeline in the next three years.
However, it wasn’t all bad news for DCEU fans, as many praised the trailer for Black Adam that dropped over the weekend as continuing in the spirit of the comic book movie franchise in the best possible way.
Maybe Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is here to defibrillate the DCEU with his promise that “The DC universe will never be the same.”
Johnson’s turn as Black Adam, a film more than a decade in the making, will finally be hitting cinemas October 21, 2022. After that, Shazam! Fury of the Gods will make its colorful return to the movies on December 21, 2022.