DC’s Ruthless New Movie Cancellation Proves WB Can Save The DCEU

The news that the Wonder Twins movie has been canceled is actually a good move by Warner Bros. Discovery and shows that the future of the DCEU is heading in the right direction. Wonder Twins would have been an HBO Max movie directed by Black Adam co-screenwriter Adam Sztykiel, and the project had gotten as far as the casting stage with filming intended to start in the summer. While it’s never nice for those involved when a movie is canceled so close to production, this news does signal that Warner Bros. and DC are wasting no time in trying to save the DCEU.

Even before Wonder Twins was canceled, the DCEU was in a weird fluctuating position in terms of its future and priorities. Following the failure of Justice League, Warner Bros. switched focus from establishing a shared DC universe to individual stories with little to no connectivity. The DCEU movies have enjoyed critical acclaim, and they’ve endured critical mauling, and although financially successful for the most part, they haven’t been able to match the MCU’s box office. The upcoming movie The Flash will serve as a soft reboot for the DCEU, with significant changes anticipated for the future universe. Wonder Twins would have been a part of that new universe before it was canceled.

Notwithstanding its cancelation, there was no reason for the Wonder Twins movie to exist at this point in the DCEU. The foundations of the DCEU as a movie universe are the trinity of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, and beyond that, the Justice League. These core characters and movie franchises need to be the priority if DC and Warner Bros. Discovery want a solid DCEU that can compete with the MCU in the future. The Wonder Twins movie would have been far more welcome if the DCEU were at the same stage as the MCU is now, with a solidified universe and completed character arcs for its core heroes. Marvel has taken advantage of the audience’s investment in, and familiarity with, its shared universe, and can now explore their weirder and lesser-known characters. The DCEU has never established a solid enough foundation to justify branching out into largely unknown heroes when core members of the Justice League still haven’t gotten their own movie — Green Lantern hasn’t even been introduced in the DCEU yet, for instance.

The future of the DCEU needs a single actual vision from a creative mastermind that sets out where DC movies want to go, even if that vision is “let’s not do one vision.” With general audiences soon becoming used to the idea of multiverses with Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, and three Batmans being in the DCEU, there is room to tell all sorts of superhero stories, interconnected or not. However, Wonder Twins was an extremely niche project for Warner Bros. and DC to invest in while its main superheroes are largely in a state of flux or still being re-established as is the case with The Batman. DC has the most famous superheroes of all time with Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, so to leave them in limbo or in a separate universe while spending time and money on a Wonder Twins movie wasn’t a good business decision. Fortunately, it’s one that the studio rightly corrected.

The success of James Gunn’s Peacemaker has shown that lesser-known DC characters can work, and originality shouldn’t be undervalued in the age of sequels and reboots. That time can come for the DCEU, but first, it needs to bring big fan-pleasing events to the screen, rather than smaller projects that there isn’t even a nostalgic factor for. Once the DCEU’s biggest characters are in a healthy position, the smaller niche DC heroes can share the spotlight. Until then, the future of the DCEU relies on Warner Bros. making significant course corrections, and the Wonder Twins movie being canceled is a good decision in the long run.