An imagined DCEU plan with comparable projects and phases to the MCU highlights the fact that Zack Snyder and Warner Bros.' release schedule was a mistake. Created by a fan on Reddit, this proposed schedule features a series of DC films or streaming series, with each one having a real Marvel counterpart. Whether it's four Justice League films like Avengers or The Suicide Squad mirroring The Guardians of the Galaxy movies, this imagined release schedule for the DCEU is a DC fan's dream (however unattainable it might be).
The DCEU began with Zack Snyder's Man of Steel back in 2013. In comparison, the MCU had already completed its first phase, beginning with Iron Man and ending with their first major team-up in 2012 with The Avengers. As such, Warner Bros. was feeling the pressure to get their own cinematic superhero universe off the ground. Initially placing Snyder as the DCEU's leading creative vision, what followed was the problematic Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in 2016, cramming a ton of set-up for 2017's Justice League following David Ayer's Suicide Squad and Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman. Essentially, Warner Bros. felt that having their main team-up film released first with the bulk of their solo hero films taking place afterward would allow them to "catch up" to the MCU. As many are keenly aware, this proved to be a major mistake after studio interference and problematic reshoots led to the theatrical cut of Justice League being a critical failure, something Warner Bros. is still recovering from nearly 5 years later.
Interestingly enough, an entertaining graphic made by Redditor u/JoeWehnert imagines a DCEU released in a more natural order akin to the MCU. Broken into four phases, each DC film equates to a Marvel film. For example, the first phase features two Batman films (Iron Man and Iron Man 2), while Superman gets a trilogy as well by filling in the Captain America franchise. There are also some fun subtitles for the various sequels, such as Justice League: Babel and Shazam! No Way Hope. The graphic also serves as a reminder of how the actual DCEU film order was rife with complications, and that - when compared to the seemingly more structured release schedule of the MCU - this was inevitably going to lead to more issues for the franchise down the line.
Some of the most interesting imagined projects are the Green Arrow films mirroring the Ant-Man films with Green Arrow and the Black Canary acting as the counterpart for Ant-Man and the Wasp. The HBO Max series Nightwing & The Red Hood taking the place of Falcon & The Winter Soldier on Disney+ also sounds like it would have promise as well. Unfortunately, it seems as though it will be quite a while before Warner Bros. can even hope to get to this Marvel level (if ever).
All in all, it's fun to imagine a world where a DCEU release schedule even remotely looks like this graphic. Unfortunately, the current reality is such that the most anticipated DC films have been pushed back from 2022 to 2023, and Warner Bros.' best DC film franchise is standalone (The Batman). Rushing the SnyderVerse vision was a huge mistake that did the exact opposite of what the intentions were, made worse when the vision was largely abandoned altogether. In any case, it's interesting to imagine what a DCEU that more closely resembled the MCU's release strategy would have looked like, even if the reality is far different.
