With ‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’ stuck in the direst of straits, you’ll never guess which DC figurehead is getting the blame

The discrepancy between the volume of noise generated by the outgoing DCEU’s supporters and the number of them who actually show up to buy tickets at the theater is a vast chasm, but one that hasn’t stopped James Gunn from being placed in the crosshairs yet again.

If the internet was your only source of information, then you’d wonder why the co-CEO of DC Studios is deliberately flying in the face of popular opinion by dismembering the SnyderVerse and its associated mythology in favor of a relaunch being spearheaded by a reboot he’s writing, directing, and producing.

However, when you consider that the franchise hasn’t cracked $400 million at the global box office in five years and has delivered two of the comic book genre’s biggest-ever bombs this year alone, then it makes a great deal more sense. And yet, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom exiling Ben Affleck’s Batman – who himself had replaced Michael Keaton’s Dark Knight – has led to yet another outpouring of indignation.

There are cries of hypocrisy when Gunn was happy to keep Affleck and Gal Gadot in The Flash despite their connections to the universe established by Zack Snyder a decade ago, but let’s not forget he was the one instrumental in recruiting George Clooney for a final stinger that established a timeline where Batman existed well outside of the SnyderVerse.

At this rate, if Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom isn’t an unmitigated disaster then there’s genuinely going to be widespread surprise, but the chances are beginning to look increasingly ominous that the DCEU is going to go out with a whimper rather than a bang.