A major criticism about the DCEU is that it all felt like too much, too fast. Marvel built their films up with some solo projects, an “Iron Man” sequel, which eventually led to “The Avengers,” creating a cohesive narrative that resulted in big box office bucks. DC and Warner Bros. never really got that together, which David S. Goyer also places the blame on always having to deal with new executives.
He elaborated on some of the behind-the-scenes drama, “The other thing that was really difficult at the time was there was this revolving door of executives at Warner Bros. and DC. Every 18 months, someone new would come in. We were just getting whiplash. Every new person was like, ‘We’re going to go bigger!” Hollywood learning the wrong lessons from movies isn’t anything new, but it resulted in DC movies flaming out before they even really had a chance. He concluded, “I remember at one point the person running Warner Bros. at the time had this release that pitched the next 20 movies over the next 10 years. But none of them had been written yet! It was crazy how much architecture was being built on air… This is not how you build a house.”
“Man of Steel” already had a shaky reception when it came out. Setting up a few more solo films and a sequel could’ve given audiences more confidence that Warner Bros. actually wanted to invest in these characters rather than simply cash the money. Hopefully, James Gunn and Peter Safran learn a lesson from the DCEU’s failings.
