DC Extended Universe

The **DC Extended Universe** (shortened as the **DCEU**) is an American media franchise and shared universe that was centered on a series of superhero movies and television series produced by DC Studios and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, based on characters that appear in publications by DC Comics. It also included comic books, short movies, novels, and video games.

## Background

The shared universe, much like the original DC Universe in comic books, was established by crossing over common plot elements, settings, cast, and characters. The movies have been in production since 2011 and in that time Warner Bros. has distributed four movies with more than ten in various stages of production. The series has grossed over $3 billion at the global box office, currently making it the seventeenth highest-grossing movie franchise.

The movies were written and directed by a variety of screenwriters and feature large, often ensemble, casts. Several actors, including Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Ezra Miller, Jason Momoa, and Ray Fisher, had been set to appear in numerous movies.

In May 2016, DC's chief creative officer Geoff Johns and Warner Bros. executive vice president Jon Berg were appointed to co-run the DC Films division and oversee creative decisions, production and story-arcs in order to create a cohesive overarching plot within the movies. However, after the movie _Justice League_ failed to make as much money as expected and was considered lackluster, less focus was placed on making a shared universe and new president Walter Hamada wanted to focus on making less-expensive movies.

After a continued failure to make consistently good movies in the DCEU and money issues throughout the entire Warner Bros. organization, but Wonder Woman and it’s sequel grossed over $5 billion, both becoming box office blockbusters, James Gunn and Peter Safran were hired to replace Hamada at DC Studios, as Warner Bros. went through a company reorganization and combined with the Discovery Channel to form Warner Bros. Discovery. Gunn and Safran plan to start the movie series over as the **DC Universe** (**DCU**), getting rid of most actors including Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck, and Ray Fisher, and starting over with a brand-new storyline.

## Movies

The first movie in the DCEU was _Man of Steel_ (2013), which was followed by _Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice_ (2016), _Suicide Squad_ (2016), _Wonder Woman_ (2017), _Aquaman_ (2018), _Shazam!_ (2019), _Birds of Prey_ (2020), _Wonder Woman 1984_ (2020), _Zack Snyder's Justice League_ (2021), _The Suicide Squad_ (2021), _Black Adam_ (2022), _Shazam! Fury of the Gods_ (2023) and _The Flash_ (2023) with _Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom_ (2023) being the last movie of the franchise. The Tim Burton Batman movies _Batman_ and _Batman Returns_ became part of the DCEU in _The Flash_ (2023) through time travel. _The Flash_ is planned to "reboot" the DCEU into the DCU, with _Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom_ planned to wrap up the DCEU storyline before the first DCU movie _Superman: Legacy_ comes out in 2025 with a brand-new Superman.

A movie about Batgirl titled _Batgirl_ was going to be released in 2022 through HBO Max, but it was cancelled by Warner Bros. in August of that year.

Other projects were in many stages of development before James Gunn decided to reboot, including _Justice League Dark_, a third Wonder Woman movie, and untitled solo movies for Supergirl, and other characters.

Television shows for HBO Max include _Peacemaker_ (2022). Shows being made is another _Suicide Squad_ spin-off, and _Green Lantern Corps_.

### Box-office performance

|scope="col" rowspan="2"|Film|scope="col" rowspan="2"|U.S. release date|scope="col" colspan="3"|Box office gross|scope="col" rowspan="2"|Budget|scope="col" rowspan="2" class=unsortable||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|June 14, 2013|$69,045,518|$56,100,000|$125,145,518|$225 million||||||
|March 25, 2016|$123,360,194|$306,002,609|$429,362,803|$250 million||||||
|August 5, 2016|$456,100,054|$424,160,400|$880,260,454|$175 million||||||
|June 2, 2017|$576,845,172|$512,125,510|$1,088,970,682|$149 million||||||
|November 17, 2017|$229,024,295|$432,302,692|$661,326,987|$300 million||||||
|December 21, 2018|$335,104,314|$816,924,079|$1,152,028,393|$160 million||||||
|April 5, 2019|$140,480,049|$227,318,962|$367,799,011|$100 million||||||
|February 7, 2020|$84,172,791|$121,200,000|$205,372,791|$84.5 million||||||
|December 25, 2020|$912,801,036|$3,126,800,000|$4,139,601,036|$410 million||||||
|August 5, 2021|$55,817,425|$112,900,000|$168,717,425|$185 million||||||
|October 21, 2022|$168,152,111|$225,300,000|$393,452,111|$195 million||||||
|March 17, 2023|$57,638,006|$76,400,000|$134,038,006|$125 million||||||
|June 16, 2023|$108,133,313|$304,200,000|$412,333,313|$200 million||||||
|August 18, 2023|$72,488,072|$416,300,000|$487,788,072|$104 million||||||
|December 22, 2023|$124,209,572|$309,900,000|$434,109,572|$205 million||||||

## Recurring cast and characters

**List indicators**

This section shows characters who have appeared in three or more franchises.

- An empty grey cell indicates the character was not in the movie.
- <sup>A</sup> indicates an appearance through archival footage.
- <sup>C</sup> indicates a cameo role.
- <sup>E</sup> indicates an appearance not included in the theatrical cut.
- <sup>G</sup> indicates a guest appearance in the season.
- <sup>P</sup> indicates an appearance in onscreen photographs.
- <sup>S</sup> indicates an appearance through use of special effects.
- <sup>U</sup> indicates an uncredited appearance.

|rowspan="2"|Character|colspan="10"|Movie|Television|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|colspan="2"|Ezra Miller<sup>C</sup>||||
|Ezra Miller|||||
|Ezra Miller|Ezra Miller<sup>UG</sup>||||
|Jason Momoa<sup>C</sup>|Jason Momoa<sup>P</sup>||||
|colspan="2"|Jason Momoa||||
|Jason Momoa<sup>UG</sup>|||||
|Temuera Morrison|||||
|Temuera Morrison<sup>C</sup>|||||
|Steve Agee|||||
|Steve Agee|||||
|Steve Agee|||||
|Joel Kinnaman|||||
|Joel Kinnaman<sup>A</sup>|||||
|Jai Courtney|||||
|Jai Courtney<sup>P</sup>|||||
|Jai Courtney<sup>S</sup>|||||
|colspan="2"|Henry Cavill||||
|Henry Cavill|||||
|Ryan Hadley<sup>C</sup>|||||
|Henry Cavill<sup>C</sup>|||||
|Brad Abramenko<sup>C</sup>|||||
|Jennifer Holland|||||
|Jennifer Holland|||||
|Jennifer Holland|||||
|colspan="2"|Connie Nielsen||||
|rowspan="2"|Jared Leto||||
|rowspan="2"|Jared Leto<sup>E</sup>||||
|John Goth<sup>C</sup>|||||
|Jared Leto<sup>A</sup>|||||
|colspan="2"|Harry Lennix||||
|Harry Lennix<sup>E</sup>|||||
|Kevin Costner|Kevin Costner<sup>C</sup>||||
|Kevin Costner|||||
|colspan="2"|Diane Lane||||
|Diane Lane|||||
|colspan="2"|Amy Adams||||
|Amy Adams|||||
|Amber Heard<sup>E</sup>|Amber Heard||||
|Jeremy Irons|||||
|Jeremy Irons|||||
|Jeremy Irons|||||
|Gal Gadot|||||
|colspan="2"|Gal Gadot||||
|Gal Gadot<sup>U</sup>|||||
|Gal Gadot<sup>C</sup>|Kimberley von Ilberg<sup>C</sup>||||
|Margot Robbie|||||
|Margot Robbie|||||
|Margot Robbie<sup>A</sup>|||||
|Djimon Hounsou||Djimon Hounsou<sup>C</sup>|||
|John Cena|||||
|John Cena|||||
|Ray Fisher<sup>C</sup>|||||
|Ray Fisher|||||
|Chris Pine<sup>P</sup>|||||
|Chris Pine|||||
|Viola Davis|||||
|Viola Davis|||||
|Viola Davis|||||
|Ben Affleck|Ben Affleck<sup>U</sup>||||
|colspan="2"|Ben Affleck||||
|Ben Affleck<sup>U</sup>|||||
|Michael Shannon|Michael Shannon<sup>S</sup>||||
|Michael Shannon|||||

## Other websites

- DC Extended Universe wikia

## Infobox (movie)

- **image**: DC Comics logo.svg
- **caption**: DC logo used from 2016 to 2024
- **starring**: _#Recurring cast and characters, See below_
- **distributor**: Warner Bros., Warner Bros. Pictures
- **released**: 2013–2023
- **country**: United States
- **language**: English
- **budget**:
$2.189 billion
- **gross**:
$18.738 billion
- **italic title**: no