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While Marvel’s Cinematic Universe is still going steady in its 16th year, the recent dip in quality (admittedly alleviated by the release of Deadpool & Wolverine) suggests that the largest cinematic universe is suffering under the weight of its own success. Building on the franchise’s overwhelming success with the Infinity Saga, Disney adopted an aggressive expansion strategy, producing a relentless stream of content that ended up diluting the quality of the MCU releases, killing the original magic of the entire franchise.

The post-Infinity Saga of the MCU has seen a mix of success and perceived flops, with releases such as Eternals, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, and Secret Invasion failing to impress the MCU fanbase the same way previous releases did. Just over a year ago, Disney publicly announced that it was shifting its strategy and prioritizing quality over quantity once again. At the same time, former MCU director James Gunn, who set out to start his own cinematic universe under Warner Bros, revealed his plans to steer DCU clear of MCU’s biggest pitfalls.  

It’s no secret that Disney’s extensive expansion of the MCU pushed the boundaries of audience engagement and content saturation—right off the cliff. To avoid this issue, James Gunn has revealed that DC Studios plans to avoid the over-saturation seen in the superhero genre by spacing out the release of its films and shows. Additionally, the new DCU will take a completely different approach to the interconnectivity between the movies and avoid strictly dedicated releases that culminate in a single cinematic crossover event.

When the new DCU was announced, Gunn confirmed that the new cinematic universe would include more than ten cinematic and television projects included in the Gods and Monsters chapter, which began with Creature Commandos and the 2025 live-action movie Superman. So, the interconnectivity between DCU releases starts off as early as these two projects. The former introduces Amanda Waller and Rick Flag Sr., while the latter introduces the Engineer, Guy Gardner, and Hawkgirl.

While this sounds like the MCU’s recipe on steroids, Gunn confirmed to a fan on Threads that the DCU won’t follow the MCU’s model of releasing up to three movies a year and that its slate won’t be announced like Marvel’s. According to Gunn, nothing at DCU is greenlit before the script is complete — which means that it went through as many rewrites as necessary to ensure quality. There will be no announcements, no casting for any potential projects, and perhaps most importantly, no delays.

This will avoid the issue Marvel is currently having with Blade, a movie that was announced in 2019 and has been delayed and rewritten multiple times, risking the erosion of audience interest. Not to mention that too many cooks can end up spoiling the broth, given the number of writers and directors the project has shed. A different approach by Gunn means that the DCU can start, change, delay, and even cancel entire projects without ever alerting the audiences or having a project’s troubled development turn into its biggest talking point.

As for crossover events, it’s far from the fact that the DCU won’t have any. The first chapter, Gods and Monsters, will cover a wide variety of famous superheroes and characters from DC comics. This also includes some lesser-known characters. Additionally, the DCU will extend to television and animation from day one. However, the key here is the longer timespan between releases; it will grant fans enough time to absorb the material instead of overwhelming and fatiguing fans with tons of low-quality content.

Given the struggles Warner Bros. had with establishing its own cinematic universe, James Gunn’s approach seems much more grounded. Warner Bros is a reactionary company that’s sometimes completely devoid of vision and creativity, and it rushed to establish its now-dead DCEU to compete with Disney and Marvel. As seen, it failed miserably, but a good thing about reactionary entertainment companies is that they learn from their mistakes — or at least it seems like they do.

The new DCU, under James Gunn and Peter Safran’s guidance, seems to be built on a much more solid foundation compared to Marvel’s, and the approach DC Studio is taking with its releases would allow them to keep things simple and easy for diehard fans and casual audiences to digest. It is far from the fact that the new universe isn’t facing any challenges, but even those can be addressed. We don’t really need a new Superman film detailing his origins, and the Multiverse, while important in DC Comics, doesn’t need to be rushed.

The simplest solution is often the most elegant one, and this applies to Gunn’s approach to a new cinematic universe. Keeping things simple and manageable will allow audiences to once again engage with their favorite superheroes on the silver screen, and avoiding the pitfalls of the MCU (such as churning out low-quality content for profit) has the potential to set up the emerging cinematic universe as the next big thing in superhero cinema. If nothing else, having a little competition will finally make Disney and Marvel think before they deliver something similar to Secret Invasion or She-Hulk.  

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