Back when Warner Bros. and Discovery came together and worked on HBO Max and especially most of what Warner Bros. was creating, fans of many of Warner Brothers’ properties were not happy with the removal of upcoming projects. As Warner Bros. Discovery dove deeper into these projects, one of those was the entirety of the DC movie universe, otherwise known as the DCEU. Not only did they cancel projects but eventually put their foot down and said they would reboot the entire DCEU.

This immediately upset many fans of the movies and DC content in general. This means 2023 is the last year of any current DCEU movies with the releases of “Shazam: Fury Of The Gods,” “The Flash,” “Blue Beetle” and “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.” In 2024, the DCEU will officially be reset. Now, why would Warner Bros. want to abandon a decades worth of hard work? Were they truly unhappy with the direction of these movies? 

Well, a handful of factors come into play with the reset. One of the first things the DCEU had problems with was competition. With no surprise, Marvel Studios was their competitor. With the quality and quantity of Marvel Studios’ movies, the DCEU felt smaller and just something to entertain people with in between each of Marvel Studios’ big release. So for a while instead of trying to be their own movies they followed in Marvel Studios’ footsteps. With one example being “Batman vs. Superman” releasing close to the release of “Captain America: Civil War,” with both having the idea of two icons of the studio fighting one another. 

One of the other factors is the timeline. These both ended up confusing lots of people, mainly being the general audiences who are there simply to enjoy the show. One of these was the inconsistency in chronological order with movies being prequels, to far in the future and much more especially with the upcoming movie; “The Flash” with characters bouncing through timelines. The DCEU also doesn’t put much explaining for these events which ends up making the movies hard to sit through without understanding everything correctly.

Now by far the most crucial part of this reset is the main cast of heroes; “The Justice League” cast. “The Justice League” cast consists of Henry Cavill as Superman, Ben Affleck as Batman, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Jason Momoa as Aquaman, Ezra Miller as The Flash, and Ray Fisher as Cyborg. This was the cast of “The Justice League” back in 2017. Now in 2023, Henry Cavill made his last appearance in “Black Adam” in the post credits scene after that he was fired from playing as Superman. Many people were quickly upset with this choice, this is due to many fans claiming him as one of the best Superman actors of all time. 

Ben Affleck will be making his last appearance in the upcoming movie: “The Flash.” Gal Gadot has also been claimed as a good actor as Wonder Woman. Although after her last appearance in the recent “Shazam: Fury Of The Gods.” That will be her last time in the current DCEU as well. Currently, Ray Fisher has been fired from the DCEU after his last appearance in the “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” movie. Jason Momoa will be fulfilling his last time as Aquaman in his upcoming sequel to the 2018 “Aquaman” film. 

The final actor is Ezra Miller as The Flash. Currently, his last appearance in the DCEU is for his spinoff film: “The Flash.” But what concerns many fans is his reputation outside of acting. Ezra Miller outside of his acting career has committed a few crimes, one of his most recent ones being the kidnapping of a young girl. To many people this seems as an outrage as to why they would fire many of the other members of “The Justice League” but not a criminal. Warner Bros. has given Ezra Miller several chances while he has played The Flash. The DCEU’s response is their confidence in the upcoming “The Flash.” 

Now with many audiences and fans feeling mixed about the reboot of this series of movies, people will have to wait and see what 2024 brings to the table in terms of entertainment and quality. Will these 2023 movies end the DCEU well? And will the next DCEU improve from their first attempt?