The DCEU is now a far more expansive franchise than the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As has historically been the case with DC and Marvel comics, the two company's respective big-screen shared universes have often been used as a point of contrast for one another, frequently in debates over which of the two has been been the stronger one. With the more divisive reception the DCEU was subject to in its early beginnings, it's long faced an uphill battle against the widespread perception that the MCU is a gold standard it will never manage to equal, and with a considerable head-start and 23 movies under its belt, the notion of the DCEU ever catching up was never even considered.

However, a number of developments in the past few months have seen the DCEU not only rewrite the cinematic universe playbook, but unequivocally manage to generate a level of excitement for its future on par with that of the MCU's. In the course of just a few months, DC TV blew open the multiverse, the Justice League Snyder Cut was announced, and the potential casting of Michael Keaton in The Flash movie has the potential to establish the multiverse on the big screen in a major way.

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In the barest terms, it has now become clear that, with one ambitious Arrowverse TV and movie crossover in the can, rumors of similar big-screen plans in the works, and an overall retooled strategy, the DCEU has opened itself up to encompass virtually every DC movie and TV adaptation. Considering just how much that both expands what it can include in its canon along with the unshackled creative freedom this now affords the various creative teams involved, the implications of the DCEU as a Multiverse are absolutely immense. At the same time, it has done what was once seemingly impossible and made the DCEU into a bigger franchise than the MCU.

The MCU Is A Huge Success Story

The Avengers assemble in the final battle of Endgame

A point that must be stressed is that the MCU is as much of a colossal success as Hollywood has ever seen. Kicking off with 2008's Iron Man and culminating its opening act with The Avengers in 2012, the MCU would absolutely change the landscape of not only superhero movies but the entire film industry. Moreover, all of that was accomplished in just its initial take-off.

Fast-forward to 2020, and the MCU has made formerly C or D level characters like the Guardians of the Galaxy into household names, while 2019's Avengers: Endgame now stands as the current all-time box office champ. The MCU certainly hasn't been without its stumbles along the way, ranging from Iron Man 3's less-than-warmly received portrayal of The Mandarin to Black Widow arguably missing its ideal release window by as much as half a decade (even without the COVID-19 complications.) Nevertheless, the fact that MCU has been a history-making mega-hit is absolutely undeniable.

The DCEU Has Expanded What Can Be Canon

Ezra Miller as Barry Allen Flash and Michael Keaton as Batman

While the MCU has put out one home run after another, the DCEU was subject to a far more polarizing reception in its beginnings save for 2017's Wonder Woman. At the same time, those fortunes are visibly reversing, with the buzz of the Snyder Cut, Wonder Woman 1984, The Suicide Squad, and more breathing new life into the franchise as a whole.

While the foundation had been laid for DC to open into a Multiverse through the CW's Crisis On Infinite Earths crossover (with Ezra Miller's unexpected Barry Allen cameo, in particular, blindsiding the world), the news of Michael Keaton's possible return as Batman in The Flash would set off a nuclear explosion on social media, while unleashing a torrent of rumors and theorizing that's still continuing apace. More to the point, the DCEU has now done something that many of its skeptics thought it never could.

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DC's Multiverse Makes Everything "Canon"

Ezra Miller's Flash in the Arrowverse and Justice League with Michael Keaton as Batman

With DC's film and television properties being transitioned into a Multiverse, the DCEU now has a far more expansive canon than that of the MCU. Not only that, but it has also completely divorced itself from the concept of reboots, with DC's entire big and small screen library now co-existing alongside everything else - and ergo, allowing everything the option of either standing alone or crossing over at the desire of the various filmmaking teams involved. Ten years ago, ideas like the Keanu Reeves Constantine movie theoretically crossing paths with the 1980's Swamp Thing films would have been out to lunch. Today? It's all DC, and therefore, all fair game. Maybe that exact combination won't happen... but it could.

The MCU itself certainly isn't sitting on the bench when it comes to the Multiverse concept, as seen with Phase Four's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and its connection to the upcoming Disney+ WandaVision series. However, Marvel's pre-MCU canon is also much less extensive than that of DC, which literally has decades worth of movie and television adaptations that can now be drawn upon. Everything from Brandon Routh embodying the Christopher Reeve Superman to Linda Carter's Wonder Woman and the Adam West Batman series can now be referenced, revived, plugged into different continuities, or allowed to simply exist on its own. On top of that, DC's Multiverse also brings with it the benefit of freeing every version from the burden of trying to be the definitive say on the characters involved, while opening the possibilities of comic book stories that couldn't work in a strictly linear franchise to be utilized in parallel continuities (an adaptation of Batman Beyond as an offshoot of Keaton's prospective return as Batman immediately springs to mind).

With the upcoming DC FanDome set to provide a comprehensive look behind the curtain at the future of DC's television and movie franchises, literally everything about both the methodology and the perception of the DCEU has changed. The simultaneous side effect to have arisen out of that is that the fan theories, speculation, online chatter, and anticipation for what the franchise has coming up shows how much DC's expanding Multiverse has captured the collective attention of the internet before its plans have even been fully rolled out. The DCEU may have once struggled with middling reviews, internal disagreements, and alternate cuts when it first began. Midway into 2020, with how much its Multiverse has reshaped its capability for crossovers and storytelling freedom, the sky is now the limit for the DCEU.

NEXT: The DCEU Multiverse Explained: Which Movies & Shows Are Canon 

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