Will Marvel and DC Movies Ever Cross Over? (And Should They?)

Marvel and DC have announced they are going to start crossing over again, which is huge news for comic book fans. Fans love to see the heroes of their favorite universes together, getting answers to nerdy questions like who would win a fight or how well so and so would work together. However, this announcement says a lot more than it seems; Marvel and DC crossing over is more than just Marvel and DC crossing over, it’s Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery letting Marvel and DC work together. That’s a much bigger deal because it may open the doors for another crossover down the road — one between the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the DCU.

Marvel and DC crossing over on the big screen is something that many fans would definitely want. It’s always been a question of if Disney and WBD could actually figure out a way to profit to their heart’s content. This question’s answer had always seemed like it would be “no,” but the fact that they had to come to some agreement to do comic crossovers shows that they may be more willing to work together than anyone ever thought they’d be. Will the MCU and DCU ever have their crossover? Should they ever?

An MCU/DCU Crossover Is too Tantalizing to Pass Up

Right now is an interesting time in the relationship between Marvel and DC’s cinematic output. The MCU is at the weakest it’s ever been. Marvel Studios has finally had a bomb with The Marvels. After some early successes on Disney+, Marvel’s TV output went from must-see to heavily critiqued. Spider-Man: No Way Home and Deadpool & Wolverine were mega-successes, but most of the other MCU movies post-Avengers: Endgame have been disappointing. The loss of James Gunn to DC was a blow, but things do feel like they’re in an upswing, even if it’s only come from the announcements of the return of the Russo brothers and Robert Downey Jr. for Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret War. The MCU is on shaky ground for the first time in a long time, its success judged by each successive movie and the future Avengers films.

Meanwhile, the DCU has been riding a wave of hype and results. Gunn proved adroit with DC in The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker, so his announcement as co-head of DC Studios along with Peter Safran made a lot of fans happy. The first project from Gunn and Safran’s DCU — Creature Commandos — was a success with critics and audiences alike, building the hype and faith in this new cinematic DC venture. Superman (2025) is highly anticipated, in the way that MCU movies used to be. The DCU is young, but things already look very, very good for the upstarts.

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Right now, there’s no way that the MCU and DCU should cross over. There’s barely a DCU at all even, and the MCU needs to concentrate on regaining its stature. However, that doesn’t mean that they should never cross over. The DCU is growing quickly and everything so far looks really good. The MCU has the X-Men on the horizon, and is currently bringing in new blood like the Thunderbolts and Fantastic Four. A Superman/Fantastic Four crossover movie? If both are good, everyone would love to see that. The Thunderbolts against Viola Davis’s Amanda Waller? That sounds like a great time. However, both studios really need to put all of their energy into themselves before they ever think of crossing over.

One thing that we haven’t talked about yet is if Disney and WBD would allow it. A comic crossover and a movie crossover are two very different things. Comics might make millions of dollars — either split down the middle or the one who publishes it gets the bigger piece of the pie (which is why they almost always each publish the same number so no one gets more money) — and that’s barely noticed at Disney or WBD. Movies are way more money and a MCU/DCU crossover is potentially a multi-billion-dollar-grossing proposition if it can stick the landing. That’s a lot more money and you best believe that both sides will be doing whatever they can to make sure they get most of that. How would it even work? Which studio would supply the special effects, sound, soundstages, and so on? Who pays for what? The truth of the matter is that there’s a good chance that it will never happen because neither studio is going to budge financially.

The MCU and DCU Should Crossover at Their Strongest

The question of whether the MCU and DCU will cross over is almost certainly no because of the sheer financial logistics of the whole situation. That’s a shame, because a crossover of this nature could be the thing that saves superhero movies at some point down the line. Marvel Studios has wrung a lot of the hype out of superheroes with their formulaic diminishing returns. For every great project, there are several mediocre ones. If the DCU can’t hit correctly and make people excited again, the only thing that could save superhero cinema may be a mega-crossover between the two.

A crossover needs to happen one day, and that’s really all there is to it. There’s too much potential there, too much money to make, and what could be a great movie or series of movies. The insanity of the MCU and the DCU crossing over would break the Internet and would make a lot of people ecstatic. The excitement would be like the old days all over again. Plus, there’s a good chance James Gunn could return to the MCU if such a project happened and everyone should be excited by that. The MCU and the DCU would make great bedfellows, and could change cinema forever with a crossover.

Would you like to see a live-action crossover with the franchises? Let us know in the comments below!