Why DC’s Kingdom Come is The Franchise Event That Can Bring DCU and SnyderVerse Together

To say that DC had a transformative year in 2022 would be an understatement. DC’s parent company, Warner Bros. went through a merger with Discovery that resulted in a complete creative shift for the DC franchise. “DC Comics” was shortened to “DC”; the entire movie universe slate was either changed or outright canceled; and an entirely new venture, DC Studios, was launched, with James Gunn and Peter Safran put in charge of building out the new DC film universe. 

DC has a chance for a big franchise win in 2023 if it can turn its film slate (The Flash, Blue Beetle, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom) into a string of even moderate successes (respectively) – even if they aren’t part of some larger franchise universe story. The real key will be Gunn and Safran presenting a franchise gameplan that revitalizes and excites the DC fanbase – but even then, if they succeed, there will still inevitably be a portion of the fanbase upset with how the new DC Studios era of the franchise comes at the expense of formally ending Zack Snyder’s version of the DC (Extended) Universe. 

DC Studios needs to inspire a new (wider) audience of DC fans to invest in the franchise – but it also needs to retain and entertain those fans who enjoyed the SnyderVerse. There’s one DC story that many fans agree could bridge the divide in the fandom: Mark Waid and Alex Ross’s “Kingdom Come.”

What Is DC’s Kingdom Come? 

Released in 1996 as a four-issue miniseries, Kingdom Come took a dark look at a possible future timeline of the DC Universe. As metahuman powers evolved with successive generations sired by the Justice League (and others), villains stopped being the most dangerous threat to the world: instead, it was the heroes themselves. Seeming weak and outdated, Superman retired from duty (and the world), and most of the original Justice League members followed suit, becoming elder statesmen/rulers of their corners of the world and/or galaxy (Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Aquaman), or evolved into edgier and more frightening versions of themselves (Flash, Hawkman, Batman). 

More: James Gunn Teases DC’s Kingdom Come

The conflict of Kingdom Come when the young generation of heroes causes a mass destruction incident in the American heartland during an out-of-control battle with a villain. The sudden death, mayhem, and mistrust of heroes brings Superman out of retirement and has him re-establish the Justice League. Unfortunately for Superman, the younger generation of heroes isn’t about to just heel and respect their elders and must be taken down; Bruce Wayne (not trusting any metahumans anymore) partners with Lex Luthor to form a faction fighting to keep humanity’s interests and safety in check; while one all-powerful DC character becomes the pivotal pawn that can either save the world or bring about doomsday. The Spectre takes one human preacher named Norman under his ghostly wing and forces the man of god to bear witness to all the events surrounding Superman’s return, and make the final decision on what the fate of the world should be. 

Why Kingdom Come Can Bring DCU & SnyderVerse Fans Together

The defining details of Kingdom Come’s story and premise are that it is set in a future era (and alternate timeline) of the DC Universe. The series re-introduced us to major DC heroes and villains in their early elder years. From a live-action casting standpoint, Kingdom Come has always been viewed as a major opportunity for DC and Warner Bros. to pull off some pretty epic stunt casting of major characters – for what is essentially a one-off or limited role separate from the casting choices and storylines of the main interconnected DC Universe franchise. 

For years DC fans have enjoyed fan-casting their favorite aging actors as Kingdom Come versions of the DC heroes – but in this day and time, it’s a set of roles that can easily be handed to DC’s Snyderverse stars, for an epic comeback appearance in the franchise! 

The SnyderVerse stars – Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot, Ben Affleck, Ezra Miller, Ray Fisher, Jason Momoa, and others – appearing in the DC Kingdom Come movie (too much star power for an HBO Max series) would be more than just stunt casting – it would be meta casting in the best way! Kingdom Come’s story sees a lot of the older DC heroes ruminating on where the world went so wrong and where and how they fell out of step with it, and each other. It’s easy to see how Cavill, Affleck, Gadot, and co. could take that material and definitely work with it, giving themselves a nice epilogue performance that – on its own – could cement the kind of epic and enduring DC Universe legacy that they deserve. 

Kingdom Come is also clearly a story whose tone and nature are closer to Snyder’s take on DC – to the point that he wouldn’t even be a crazy choice to direct it. Without or without Snyder, Kingdom Come would be the kind of story that would easily appease SnyderVerse fans.

As a possible disastrous future of the DCU, the story of Kingdom Come would also be a nice way to set up stakes for the main DCU franchise to always have as a reference point for how things can go wrong. Snyder’s films already introduced that concept (trying to avoid a dire future timeline) so Gunn and Safran could give a nice nod to that idea, without having to compromise the new (read: brighter, more hopeful) vision for the new DCU they want to build. 

Best of all, as a standalone Elseworlds continuity, Kingdom Come is a DCU project that could happen sooner before later. It requires no long build-up of solo films, and no real other content requirements to set it in motion. Frankly, DC Studios may very well need an epic event film that will make a mainstream mass audience invest in and believe in the franchise’s new beginnings. Kingdom Come could be that event film, and the best chance to bring every kind of DC fan back to the table, and put them into one united fandom space. 

NEXT: How Kingdom Come Can Inspire DC Studios’ Future

DC Studios is expected to start making announcements about its new DC Universe slate sometime this month.