Warner Bros. Discovery is planning to reboot the DCEU, and their new plans are an insult to the success of the Arrowverse. The DCEU has always kept itself separate from the Arrowverse, so in that regard, it makes sense that it wouldn’t be factored into the future plans of the DCEU in any way. However, Warner Bros. continuing to ignore it when they’re trying to restructure the DCEU is both ignorant and incredibly limiting of their options.
Following the cancellation of the Batgirl movie, Warner Bros. Discovery has announced new plans for their programming that are a radical shift from what they had been previously doing. One part of those plans is to focus primarily on making movies meant to go straight to theaters and eschewing streaming, as streaming isn’t seen as being as profitable by the company (via Deadline). This, combined with reports of HBO Max cutting scripted shows, suggests that the DCEU will only be doing big, theatrical movies going forward, Peacemaker notwithstanding.
It’s clear that Warner Bros. Discovery thinks that the DCEU can only work by focusing on the theaters, but that mindset completely ignores the success of the Arrowverse. For over ten years, the Arrowverse has won people over with its take on the DC Universe and has provided an outlet for all kinds of stories that the movies wouldn’t have time to tell. If anything, the Arrowverse proves that scripted content can work for DC, so Warner Bros. Discovery ignoring that to focus solely on movies does nothing but limit the scope of what they’re capable of.
DC’s Future Needs Another Arrowverse (For Fans’ Sakes)
The wide variety of stories in the CW's Arrowverse is the biggest reason why DC shouldn’t abandon the TV model. Movies can only cover so much ground in two or three hours of runtime, so anything that happens in a DC movie is bound to be a big story that can be covered in that time and nothing else. A full-length TV show, however, can either tell a smaller story that can provide some variety from the movies or spend time developing a larger story than what the movies would be willing to deal with. Either option gives fans something to look forward to beyond the movies, which makes it all the worse that Warner Bros. Discovery doesn’t appear to have any interest in that.
What makes it even worse is how the MCU has recently provided even more support for the merits of scripted superhero TV shows. Recent MCU shows like Loki, Moon Knight, and Disney+'s Ms. Marvel have all received praise from audiences and critics alike, so that’s even more evidence that people will watch scripted superhero shows. The restructuring of the DCEU explicitly takes inspiration from the MCU (via The Hollywood Reporter), so if TV shows are working for the MCU, then there’s no reason to think that they won’t work for the DCEU.
While the shows of the Arrowverse, and even the individual seasons, often varied in quality, the Arrowverse, as a whole, has been a clear success that allowed for unique stories to be told within the DC Universe. Because of that, Warner Bros. Discovery’s plans to have the DCEU be focused squarely on theatrical projects is not only ignorant of the Arrowverse franchise's success, but also vastly limits the scope and quantity of stories they’re able to tell. The DCEU needs to find ways to expand itself, and as such, doing things that limit what it can do is far from the way to go.
