Warner Bros. Discovery’s announcement that the DC Films brand is being relaunched as “DC Studios” came with quiet-but-firm secondary re-branding announcement: The DCEU (DC Extended Unvierse) will be officially referred to as the “DCU” or “DC Universe” going forward in the era of DC Studios. The Suicide Squad director James Gunn and his producer partner Peter Safran are acting as co-heads of DC Studios and will be the shepherds of the DCU, much like Kevin Feige oversees the larger franchise plans, production timelines, and larger creative goals of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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The first PR launch for DC Studios is pretty clear in his its use of language when it comes to referring to the franchise – clearly with pointed purpose. Here are some of the statements given by Gunn, Safran, and top Warner Bros. Discovery and/or DC Films executives:
“We could not be more excited to have James Gunn and Peter Safran join the team and assume the leadership of the DC Universe,” Warner Bros. Pictures heads Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy said in a statement.
“DC has among the most entertaining, powerful, and iconic characters in the world and I am thrilled to have the singular and complementary talents of James and Peter joining our world-class team and overseeing the creative direction of the storied DC Universe,” David Zaslav added in a statement.
In fact, the exclusive report from THR that announced the move began with the conspicuous line: “The hierarchy of power in the DC universe really is changing.”
What Is The DCEU?
The “DC Extended Universe” was a brand name that was never really official within the halls of Warner Bros. Pictures, but seemed glued to the franchise through most of mid-to-late-2010s. It began with a journalist (EW’s Keith Staskiewicz) jokingly (mockingly?) poking at Batman v Superman in it’s first-look cover story feature. Staskiewicz was commenting on how many Justice League characters the film “Batman v Superman” was packing into its story, and referred to the “DC Extended Universe” in jest, complete with a winking trademark symbol over it:
Not content to consolidate only two eggs in this basket, they’ve also thrown in appearances by Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) and Aquaman (Jason Momoa) for good measure. After all, this isn’t just a single movie, it’s a waystation to the upcoming Justice League double-fister, not to mention a whole slew of other attractions on the DC Extended Universe™ road map. And building a franchise into a potential behemoth is no easy work.”It’s a marathon. No, it’s a marathon within a marathon,” says Snyder. “Do you know that race from Death Valley to the top of Mount Whitney? It’s, like, 100 miles and it’s from the lowest point in the continental United States to the highest. It’s crazy. Anyway, it’s like that.”
Well, that joke became a hard fixture of the DC Films brand – despite repeated attempts by executives, talent, directors, and everyone in between to clarify the origin of the term, and refute its relevance. The rise of Film Twitter and similar social media platforms didn’t help, as “#DCEU” became the most clear-cutting and unique brand hashtag for fans to seek out and rally behind. For that matter, it’s hard to know if this new PR push will be enough to really retire the #DCEU and install “#DCU” in its place…
