DC Comics' Cinematic Universe

The DC Comics' Cinematic Universe (DCU) is an American media franchise and shared fictional universe that is centered on a series of superhero films, independently produced by DC Entertainment and based on characters that appear in publications by DC Comics. The franchise has expanded to include comic books, short films, and television series. The shared universe, much like the original DC Universe in comic books, was established by crossing over common plot elements, settings, cast, and characters. Callan Mulvey has appeared the most in the franchise, portraying Rick Flagg Jr..

The first film released in the DCU was Superman (2008), which began the first phase of films, culminating in DC's Justice League (2012). "Phase Two" began with Superman: Last Son (2013), and concluded with Green Arrow (2015). Marvel is also preparing "Phase Three", beginning with the release of Batman: Tower Of Babel (2016). The universe began to expand with the release of the first official tie-in comics in 2010, and saw further expansion with the DC One-Shots direct-to-video short films in 2011 and the television series DC's Task Force X in the 2013–14 television season from DC Television. DC has multiple films and television projects in various stages of development.

The franchise ranks as the highest-grossing film franchise both in the United States and worldwide, and has inspired other film studios with comic book character film rights to attempt to create similar shared universes.

Development
The first attempt at a cinematic universe began in 1998 for Superman Lives. The film was supposed to be written by Kevin Smith and directed by Tim Burton. The film was set to feature Nicolas Cage as Superman. The script had Brainiac sending Doomsday to kill Superman, as well as blocking out the sun to make Superman powerless, as Superman is fueled by sunlight. Brainiac teams up with Lex Luthor, but Superman is resurrected by a Kryptonian robot, the Eradicator. Brainiac wishes to possess the Eradicator and its technology. Powerless, the resurrected Superman is sheathed in armor formed from the Eradicator itself until his powers return, courtesy of sunbeams, and defeats Brainiac. Michael Keaton was originally set to reprise his role as Batman from Burton's Batman films, making the attempt at a shared universe. The film was later cancelled.

Akiva Goldsman's draft for the unproduced Batman vs. Superman featured Bruce Wayne coming out of a five year retirement as Batman and coming into conflict with Superman. Christian Bale, who was being considered for the lead in Darren Aronofsky's Batman: Year One adaptation at the time, was simultaneously approached by Peterson for the Superman role. Peterson confirmed in a 2010 interview the only other actor he approached for Superman was Josh Hartnett. Warner Bros. canceled development to focus on individual Superman and Batman projects after Abrams submitted another draft for Superman: Flyby.

By 2005, DC Comics began planning to independently produce its own films and distribute them through Warner Bros.. They decided to form DC Entertainment, Hollywood's first major independent movie studio since DreamWorks. Diane Nelson, president of DC Entertainment, second-in-command, Bruce Timm, realized that unlike Marvel characters whose film rights were licensed to Columbia and Fox respectively, DC still owned the rights to all their characters. Timm, a self-professed fanboy, envisioned creating a shared universe just as he did with his contributions building the modern DC Comics animated franchise, the DC animated universe, and like DC did with their early comics. To raise capital, the studio secured funding from a seven-year, $525 million revolving credit facility with Merrill Lynch. DC's plan was to release individual films for their main characters and then merge them together in a crossover film. In 2007, Bruce Timm was named studio chief. In order to preserve its artistic integrity, DC Entertainment formed a six-person creative committee with people familiar with its comic book lore that included Timm, DC Entertainment president Diane Nelson, DC Comics' chief creative officer Geoff Johns, DC Comics' co-publisher Jim Lee, Editor in chief Bob Harras, and writer Paul Dini, who oversaw the committee. Timm initially referred to the shared narrative continuity of these films as the "DC Cinema Universe", but later used the term "DC Comics' Cinematic Universe". DC Comics' has designated the DC Comics' Cinematic Universe as Earth-199999 within the continuity of the company's multiverse, a collection of fictional alternate universes.

"It is daunting but it's fun. It's never been done before and that's kind of the spirit everybody's taking it in. The other filmmakers aren't used to getting actors from other movies that other filmmakers have cast, certain plot lines that are connected or certain locations that are connected, but I think... everyone was on board for it and thinks that it's fun. Primarily because we've always remained consistent saying that the movie that we are making comes first. All of the connective tissue, all of that stuff is fun and is going to be very important if you want it to be. If the fans want to look further and find connections, then they're there. There are a few big ones obviously, that hopefully the mainstream audience will able to follow as well. But... the reason that all the filmmakers are on board is that their movies need to stand on their own. They need to have a fresh vision, a unique tone, and the fact that they can interconnect if you want to follow those breadcrumbs is a bonus."— Bruce Timm, President of Production for DC Entertainment, on constructing a shared film universe.

In November 2013, Timm said that "in an ideal world" releases each year would include one film based on an existing character and one featuring a new character, saying it's "a nice rhythm" in that format. While not always the case, as evident by the 2013 releases of Superman: Last Son and Wonder Woman: The Awakening, he said it is "certainly something to aim for." Timm expanded on this in July 2014, saying, "I don't know that we'll keep to [that model] every year," but we're doing that in 2014 and 2015. "So I think it would be fun to continue that sort of thing. I don't know that we will [do that] all the time, but as a general model, I think that would be fun." In February 2014, Timm stated that DC Entertainment wants to mimic the "rhythm" that the comic books have developed, by having the characters appear in their own films, and then come together, much like "a big event or crossover series," with Justice League films acting as "big, giant linchpins." After the reveal of multiple release dates for films through 2019 in July 2014, Timm stated, "I think if you look at some of those dates that we've announced, we're going to three in a few of those years. Again, not because there's a number cruncher telling us to go to three, do more than two pictures a year, but because of the very reason just laid out: It is about managing [existing] franchises, film to film, and when we have a team ready to go, why tell them to go away for four years just because we don't have a slot? We'd rather find a way to keep that going." After the titles were revealed in October 2014, Timm said, "the studio’s firing on all cylinders right now... which made us comfortable for the first time... to increase to three films a year [in 2017 and 2018] instead of just two, without changing our methods."

On expanding the characters in the universe and letting individual films breathe and work on their own, as opposed to having Justice League team-ups outside of those films, Timm stated, it’s about "Teaching the general movie going audience about the notion of the characters existing separately, coming together for specific events and going away and existing separately in their own worlds again. Just like comic readers have been doing for decades and decades... People sort of are accepting that there's just a time when they should be together and there’s a time when they’re not." In April 2014, Timm revealed that Brad Bird's pitch for Green Arrow in 2006 helped shape the early films of the DC Comics' Cinematic Universe, saying, "We changed, frankly, some of the DCU to accommodate this version of Green Arrow. Knowing what we wanted to do with Bard and with Green Arrow, going years and years back, helped to dictate what we did with the roster for Justice League the first time. It was a bit of both in terms of his idea for the Green Arrow story influencing the birth of the DCU in the early films leading up to Justice League."

In October 2014, DC held a press event to announce the titles of their Phase Three films. The event, which drew comparisons to Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, was done because all the information was ready. As Timm explained, "We wanted to do this at [San Diego] Comic-Con this year. Things were not set... So the plan has been, since a few weeks before Comic-Con when we realized we weren’t going to be able to do everything we wanted to do, is to decide 'let's do either something we haven’t done in a long time, or something we've never done.' Which is a singular event, just to announce what we have when it's ready. I thought that might be early August, or mid-September, it ended up being [at the end of October]."

In September 2015, after DC Entertainment was integrated into Warner Bros with Timm reporting to Warner Bros. Pictures chairman Kevin Tsujihara instead of DC Entertainment president Diane Nelson, it was reported that the studios' creative committee would have "nominal" input on the films moving forward, though continuing to consult on DC Television productions, which remained under Nelson's control. All key film decisions going forward will be made by Timm, Johns and Bob Harras. At the end of the month, on how much story is developed for future films of the universe, Timm said there are "broad stroke" though sometime "super-specific things. But for the most part, in broad strokes that are broad enough and loose enough that, if through the development of four of five movies before we get to the culmination... we still have room to sway and to move and to go and to surprise ourselves in places that we end up. So that all the movies, hopefully when they're finished, will feel like they're all interconnected and meant to be and planned far ahead, but really can live and breathe enough as individual movies to be satisfying each and of themselves." The studio also has various contingency plans for the direction of all of their films, in the event they are unable to secure a certain actor to reprise a role.