The box office numbers on Justice League are in, and the outcome isn’t good. Not only did DCEU’s crown jewel fail to nail the $100 million mark in its opening weekend, its final numbers saw it losing between $50 and $100 million for Warner Bros. But just because Justice League is off to a bumpy start doesn’t mean it’s the end of the DCEU.
It’s going to be a rocky road, however, with Ben Affleck hanging up his cape as Batman and Henry Cavill might be playing Superman one last time. DCEU’s continued existence is assured thanks to the upcoming releases like Aquaman, Wonder Woman 2, and probably Shazam. But at the moment, a Justice League sequel seems unlikely.
Justice League 2
The Justice League needs to take on the DCEU version of the Secret Society of Super Villains. This team of super villains offers a great difference between the DCEU and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. DC has better villains all around, and Marvel has not been as successful in producing their villains. Instead of setting the League against another cosmic villain, a team vs. team dynamic, full of side missions for each of the heroes, would bring out a remarkable story akin to vintage Justice League comics.
Maybe the original plan was to introduce Darkseid when Justice League was still being conceived as a two-part movie, but that plan has been since abandoned, and at the moment, Justice League 2 doesn’t even have a release date yet.
On the other hand, Darkseid is the most powerful villain in the entire DC Universe, so it would be an opportunity wasted if they didn’t incorporate him in any future sequels. Perhaps in a Superman solo film or likewise.
Even though Justice League failed to meet expectations, that doesn’t mean the DCEU won’t be rolling out solo movies of our favorite super heroes in the coming future.
Flashpoint
Speaking of which, the Flashpoint movie still doesn’t have a director or release date. But with DC Films co-chair Geoff Johns still expressing enthusiasm over the project, there is still some hope.
Flashpoint is the story of how Barry Allen while trying to prove his father’s innocence for the murder of his mother (which he didn’t commit), goes back in time to prevent it from happening. When he returns to the present, he finds reality has changed in unexpected ways. Among these is the war between Themyscira and Atlantis, Superman is held captive by the government, and Bruce Wayne was killed by a mugger as a child, so Thomas Wayne, his father is Batman.
Basically, Flashpoint is a Justice League movie in all but name. It’s absolutely a Flash story, but with plenty of room for the Justice League characters to play a significant role.
The earliest we can hope to see it is 2020, after Wonder Woman 2 and Aquaman. The Flashpoint reality is dystopian, and our heroes don’t act the way we expect them to, so we’d be right back to the kind of DCEU somber movies that Justice League worked so hard to change.
Throne of Atlantis
Aquaman has already finished filming, so his future in the DCEU is, for the moment, as secure as Wonder Woman’s. If Aquaman is as successful as Wonder Woman was, sequels are sure to follow. The Word is that Warner Bros. is confident in the work James Wan has done on Aquaman’s solo movie, so that’s a good sign.
In Aquaman, we get to meet Arthur’s half-brother, Orm, played by Patrick Wilson. Aquaman will spend most of its time on Arthur coming to terms with his heritage which he appeared to struggle with in Justice League.
Throne of Atlantis is an excellent tale, and one of the definitive Aquaman stories. In the story, forces Orm conspires to wage war between Atlantis and the surface world, so Arthur enlists the help of the Justice League to fight them off.
Just like how Flashpoint is a Flash story that happens to feature other DC superheroes, Throne of Atlantis is also an Aquaman story, which also features other Justice League characters as well. It would make sense. Throne of Atlantis is basically Aquaman 2, but one that can remind fans that the DCEU is still going strong by utilizing other heroes without using the Justice League name.
In any case, the entire Justice League members are iconic enough that watching any previous DCEU films shouldn’t be an obstacle if their members start showing up elsewhere. Having a shared universe doesn’t mean these movies have to as heavily serialized as the MCU, and the superhero genre is infinitely better established than it was a decade ago. The Justice League and the DCEU will endure for now.
