By the early 2010s, the MCU was an obvious success, even before The Avengers landed studios were hungry for their own lucrative cinematic universes. Warner Bros. was in a much better position than most, figuring that the iconic roster of DC superheroes could match or exceed what Marvel Studios was doing.
Well, it didn’t work out like that. The executives became notorious for making boneheaded decisions that turned the studio into a laughing stock. All that has meant that 10 years on from Man of Steel, the studio has had to call James Gunn in to wipe the slate clean.
Now fans are listing the absolute worst choices WB made with the DCEU, and there’s much to choose from. Top of the list is the decision to speedrun the MCU’s Phase One. This painstakingly established each member of the Avengers, with the team finally coming together after four years and five movies. Did Warner Bros. try to jump too quickly to the big team-up?
We can only agree:
Was it simply greed?
And was it really wise to center the DCEU story on an ongoing futuristic apocalypse with a closed ending?
This simple choice is right up there for us:
And let’s just keep the execs off the set:
Has Warner Bros. learned any lessons from this? Well, right now Gunn’s new DCU has a bunch of fun projects on the cards, and looks like a major shift away from the tattered remnants of the DCEU.
As always, the proof will be in the pudding. Sure, there’s a master plan now, but we suspect that if one or two movies even slightly underperform, the top brass will once again rip up the schedule, and chaos will reign once more.
