Although Warner Bros. didn’t come up with the DCEU tag, they are now cleaning up the name and just calling it the DC Universe going forward.
The DCEU is no more as the reign of DC Studios begins with James Gunn and Peter Safran overseeing the Warner Bros. Discovery franchise. The PR statements were pretty loud when announcing the newly formed DC Studios, which unsurprisingly seems to mirror the now long-standing Marvel Studios at Disney and its two CEOs. However, something that has also been rebranded in a more subtle way is the franchise itself, which will drop a letter to just be the DCU or DC Universe, going forward.
While there were statements released by Gunn and Safran, as well as David Zaslav, the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, something that went under the radar in all of this was the numerous mentions of the DC Extended Universe’s new name, giving the “Extended” name to something more streamlined and direct… and almost as Marvel-esque as the new “ten-year Marvel-inspired plan” that appears to be the beginning of this massive change within Warner Bros. DC output. Discovery.
None of this really came out of the blue, of course, as it’s been clear for several months that the DC Universe is about to change. While this has included changes in command and focus, it’s also seemingly driven by Dwayne Johnson and his DC debut as Black Adam. Along with “changing the hierarchy” of the franchise, it appears that: Black Adam has literally arrived to reboot the entire DC story.
Why is Warner Bros. Discovery the DCEU in the DCU?
While it looked like the DC Extended Universe name was cemented into the franchise, the actual name had nothing to do with Warner Bros. The first time the studio’s DC output was given the DCEU acronym was when Entertainment Weekly’s Keith Staskiewicz referenced Batman vs Superman as the “DC Extended Universe” thanks to the numerous appearances of DC heroes other than the titular duo. At the time, Staskiewicz commented on the appearance of the likes of Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman and Jason Momoa’s Aquaman, who both went on to get their own films, saying the films weren’t just about Batman and Superman, but simply a “stopover to the upcoming Justice League double-fister, not to mention a slew of other attractions on the DC Extended Universe roadmap.
At the time that article was written, there was still a solid Zack Snyder-created roadmap for the DC heroes, and very quickly social media jumped on the catchy #DCEU hashtag, and the rest, as they say, became history. . Now Warner Bros. Discovery tasked with trying to scrap that particular internet tag and let movie fans use #DCU instead. While it may seem like a simple change, if the appointment of Gunn and Safran can bring some sort of focus and stability to the franchise, that’s all any DC fan could ask for, regardless of what name it may be by. .