Summary
The DC Universe‘s confirmed cast allows the upcoming shared universe to repeat a trick that the Marvel Cinematic Universe took many years to complete. After a decade of the DCEU — starting with 2013’s Man of Steel and ending with 2023’s Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom — the shared movie universe will soon make way for James Gunn’s new DC Universe. Director of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise at Marvel Studios, Gunn leaves the MCU for the DCU, but he will be taking the knowledge he acquired working at Marvel with him, which will help the upcoming DC movies and series in important ways.
The MCU became successful due to the Marvel formula. While not all released and upcoming MCU movies have the same genre, type of story, and more, most MCU offerings work in a certain way. The Marvel formula relates to the way MCU projects handle their CGI, story, action, and, most importantly, their characters. Gunn will already be following Marvel’s footsteps by making his DC Universe closer to the comics than the DCEU ever was. Adding to that, the DCU has already been revealed to be repeating an MCU trick that should mean great things for some key DC characters and the new DCU, and DC is doing it faster than Marvel.
DCU’s DCEU Show Cast Additions Repeats MCU’s Daredevil Changes
The DCU now repeats Marvel’s Daredevil plan. Charlie Cox first played Matt Murdock when Netflix’s Daredevil series debuted in 2015. While the show made multiple references to the wider MCU, including mentions of The Avengers‘ Battle of New York, Daredevil and the rest of the Defenders were left in their own bubble. After the shows that made up Netflix’s The Defenders Saga were canceled, it seemed like that would be the end of the line for Cox and the others in the MCU. Thankfully, six years after Daredevil premiered, 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home brought Cox back as Matt Murdock, with the character being Peter Parker’s lawyer in the movie.
Related: All 28 DC Universe Characters Confirmed In Canon By James Gunn
Daredevil has since returned to the MCU in a big way. The character appeared in costume in 2022’s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law on Disney+, and Cox will lead Daredevil: Born Again, with the upcoming MCU series set to reunite the actor with Kingpin star Vincent D’Onofrio and The Punisher lead Jon Bernthal. With the announcement that multiple actors from Peacemaker — including John Cena’s Peacemaker, Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller, Freddie Stroma’s Vigilante, and more — will be returning as their DCEU characters in the new DC Universe, Gunn’s plan repeats what worked for Marvel with Daredevil — adding fan-favorite characters from a past franchise into a new one.
The MCU Proves The DCU Is Right To Keep DCEU Characters
Marvel fans spent years asking for the MCU to bring back Daredevil and other characters from Netflix’s The Defenders Saga. Now, Marvel is seeing the success of having done so, with Feige claiming that Cox’s Daredevil will be one of the faces of the MCU’s street-level heroes going forward. Based on that, the DC Universe already starting by utilizing characters from Peacemaker and other DCEU projects, such as Xolo Mariduena’s Blue Beetle, makes for an easier transition than if the universe had to wait years to then try and detach those characters from the DCEU. By taking a page out of the MCU‘s playbook, the new DCU can start strongly.
The DCU’s first project is set to debut in 2024. Read More