Supergirl actor Sasha Calle has finally spoken out about her experience on The Flash, revealing the mess behind the scenes that resulted in one of the worst (and ugliest!) blockbusters of the last few years. y6720

Despite Ezra Miller making the headlines for all the wrong reasons in the lead-up to The Flash, one of the more heartwarming stories surrounded the casting of Calle as Supergirl. In a viral video that did the rounds years back, Calle breaks down and weeps when director Andy Muschietti informs her that she landed the coveted part. Well, those tears of joy turned into sobs of frustration by the end of the experience, as The Flash raced into a cul-de-sac of mediocrity and terrible VFX.

It wasn’t all bad news for Calle, though, as she received praise for her performance as Supergirl, often being cited as one of the highlights of the film. Considering how DC’s multiverse makes about as much sense as a hat on a dog, fans held onto the possibility that she could return as the Girl of Steel in a future project. Unfortunately, all plans were thwarted when it was announced that Milly Alcock would play the hero in 2026’s Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. Calle’s time as the character is, presumably, over – unless DC Studios performs yet another dramatic U-turn.

Calle revealed to The Hollywood Reporter how she signed a multi-picture deal and there were significant discussions about the character’s future in the franchise. She also confirmed a long-standing rumor that the ending of the film was changed. The theatrical version shows Miller’s Barry Allen bumping into George Clooney’s Bruce Wayne and losing a tooth; however, the original ending featured Calle’s Supergirl and Michael Keaton’s Bruce interacting with Barry outside of the courthouse.

Calle didn’t hold back about her disappointment. She discussed how upsetting the whole situation was since she felt a special attachment to the character and loved portraying her on screen. Calle hinted at feeling disrespected, saying:

“I also want to work with people who value me and respect me and are really excited to work with me. That’s what I wish for myself, and that’s what I wish for anybody in this business, but that was a rough experience.”

In addition to The Flash, Calle opened up about the tumultuous situation surrounding the Batgirl movie that saw Leslie Grace play the character only to see the film scrapped in post-production so Warner Bros. Discovery could secure a tax write-off. Calle explained how she and Grace formed a close friendship through their respective experiences; however, she thinks that Grace got the shorter end of the stick here. It’s a fair point because at least fans got to see Calle’s Supergirl in a movie, but no one saw how Grace fared as Batgirl.

Expectedly, fans had their say on Calle’s interview, with the actor receiving mostly an outpour of as many believe Warner Bros. did her dirty in the end. Others stressed once again how she was the best part of The Flash and deserved to continue in the role. Another welcomed the fact that “the truth is dripping out” about what happened behind the scenes on The Flash.

One thing’s for certain, though: There is enough drama surrounding DC films to fill a book. Even two, maybe.

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After presiding over an illustrious career of over four decades, Nicolas Cage, Academy Award winner, Golden Globe recipient, and all-around legendary actor, could’ve opted to retire and content himself with the thought that he had his moment in the spotlight — and a brilliant time of it too — but the Coppola scion has been vocally championing young actors in Hollywood, and speaking out against the dangers of AI technology.

It appears that even bringing the industry to a halt due to last year’s SAG-AFTAR strike wasn’t enough of an incentive for Hollywood moguls to back off from AI technology and leave well enough alone. It may not quite be the picture of an Asimovian dystopia where humanity has lost its grip on a sense of identity and deals with the challenges of an AI population that’s fast overtaking their own, but even now, after only a few years, it’s a damn sight worse than it initially was. Using AI deepfakes to de-age actors is one thing, but scanning their faces and voices to replicate in any way you please? Even HAL 9000 would be in awe.

Not everyone is taking this as stoically as Hollywood was counting on, fortunately. Nicolas Cage, who himself has been a victim of terrible AI implementation in a film thanks to his nightmarish cameo in The Flash, recently spoke out against this new trend in the industry while giving a speech (per Deadline) at the 25th Newport Beach Film Festival.

“There is a new technology in town. It’s a technology that I didn’t have to contend with for 42 years until recently,” he said, “But these 10 young actors, this generation, most certainly will be, and they are calling it EBDR. This technology wants to take your instrument. We are the instruments as film actors. We are not hiding behind guitars and drums. The studios want this so that they can change your face after you’ve already shot it — they can change your face, they can change your voice, they can change your line deliveries, they can change your body language, they can change your performance”

EBDR, standing for employment-based digital replica, uses the performer’s participation for specific projects. Actors who sign EBDR agreements also get paid on the days they don’t work on the film, but it’s not the same for the so-called greenhorns who don’t have the same leverage to pull. Cage further elaborated on EBDR and his experience with it in The Flash.

“I’m asking you, if you’re approached by a studio to sign a contract, permitting them to use EBDR on your performance, I want you to consider what I am calling MVMFMBMI: my voice, my face, my body, my imagination — my performance, in response. Protect your instrument.”

The advancement of AI is happening much more rapidly than anyone had expected. A few years ago, artificial intelligence was a tool that more often than not got in the way of video and photo editors rather than enhancing their creative workflows. Now, some AI-generated content is practically indistinguishable from the real thing, leading many to ponder grim thoughts of robots taking over humanity and leaving us utterly antiquated. In truth, they’re not far off the mark, because the advent of general-purpose AI has made it quite effortless to replace the labor force with prompts for these deep-learning amalgam of different algorithms to take care of the work for you. They may not be as creative yet, or as error-free, or as reliable as a competent worker, but it’s eerie just how far they’ve come in a matter of years.

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Fan service is extra effective for those who are beholden to nostalgia, but what’s often overlooked is the power it has to create brand new fans into the decade-spanning cape-media fold. Fans who, say, may not be old enough to be familiar with 1989’s Batman and 1992’s Batman Returns, but are old enough to The Flash, which hit theaters just last year.

Now, whether or not ing The Flash is a positive thing depends on the person, but in the case of the child who ran into Michael Keaton at an airport recently, it’s not just a positive — it’s a crucial core memory that he will hold onto forever, and one that will no doubt lead him to Keaton’s Caped Crusader flicks of yore.

Speaking recently on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Keaton recounted the aforementioned tale, and the details are exemplary of why Keaton is one of the greatest-ever Batmans. A young boy was goofing around at an airport without a care in the world, as young boys do, but the moment he spotted Keaton, he froze, staring at Keaton with all the awestricken mojo of a kid who’s looking at Batman. Keaton, not one to miss an opportunity like this, smiles knowingly, nods slowly, puts a finger to his mouth so as to say, “Don’t let the Joker know,” and continues on his way.

Keaton previously suggested in a recent interview that, for him, playing Batman again represented having a good time on set and a better time at the bank, but we’d be willing to go out on a limb and say he lives for moments like these in equal measure. No kid, after all, is going to get stars in their eyes before running off yelling “Mom! Dad! I saw ATF Agent Ray Nicolette from Jackie Brown,” but most every child will do so before running off yelling “Mom! Dad! I saw Batman!”

The extra-quirky children, meanwhile, will say something like “Mom! Dad! I saw Beetlejuice,” and that’s something we can all relate to very soon when Beetlejuice Beetlejuice — complete with Keaton’s reprisal of the idiosyncratic titular role — hits theaters on Sept. 6 in the United States.

Jesse L. Martin is a gem on screen and stage. His work in theater and television has made him a beloved and familiar face to domestic audiences, but his personal life has remained largely a mystery.

Martin’s break-out role came from the most unexpected of places: a diner where he worked with Rent mastermind Jonathan Larson before either of them ever broke into the musical theater business. Larson cast his co-worker as Tom Collins in 1996, the sweet philosophy professor whose relationship with non-binary musician Angel broke barriers at the time.

After the musical’s runaway success, Martin reprised the role in the film adaptation from 2006. By then, the actor had crossed over into the world of television in one of the most famous shows of all time, Law & Order, where he played Detective Ed Green for nine years. Since 2023, Martin has been busy giving life to a prestigious behavioral psychology professor called Alec Mercer in the NBC show The Irrational.

Is Jesse L. Martin married? 1r2812

Jesse L. Martin is not married, but little is known, in general, about his personal life. He was linked in the aughts with model Vanessa Riding, but every time the subject has come up Martin has implied he is single.

Talking to Page Six in 2011, the performer said that, following his Law & Order stint, his life then was “out looking for a lady,” adding, “Failing that, I’m willing to settle for a dog.” In an interview with Female from the 2000s, Martin confessed that one of the only things that he could not relate to in the life of his Rent character was his epic romance. “The only thing that eludes me is I haven’t found love in the way that he has.”

Is Jesse L. Martin gay? 1x1x2w

The legacy of Tom and Angel, as well as the mystery surrounding Martin’s love life has led many to speculate about his sexuality. The actor has previously briefly mentioned his attraction to women, but this particular topic can change and evolve over time.

Nothing the actor has said in the past indicates he might be gay, but since his private life is y’know, private, there’s really no way of knowing unless he decides to share.

Christopher Reeve‘s children — Will, Matthew, and Alexandra — have revealed that they have never watched The Flash, nor were they consulted about the controversial Superman CGI cameo that brought their dad back to life on screen.

The three Reeve offspring spoke to Variety, while promoting the Sundance documentary, Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story, about their dad’s ascent to fame and grave paralyzing accident. Beyond the siblings’ disinterest in the headline-fueling DC vehicle, Will also championed another one of Reeve’s movies as his most prideful project.

“Not that he wasn’t proud of Superman… but if he were here he wouldn’t choose Superman, he’d choose The Remains of the Day [the 1993 drama film where Reeve played an American congressman in postwar Britain]. I don’t think about the Superman films as much as I do about the swings he took beyond this larger-than-life role.”

What had Christopher Reeve said about playing Superman again? 2f484

Will’s words reflect previous statements made by his father when discussing a possible return to the iconic caped superhero. In 2023’s The Flash, Reeve’s strange computer-engineered likeness appears ominously looking down on Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen during a time-traveling, multiverse-hopping sequence crammed with other similarly bizarre fan-baiting appearances. However, back in 1982, the man behind what is arguably the most famous iteration of Superman, made his feelings clear on what it would take for him to return to the role.

“If someone said, “For 10 million dollars, you’ll love it,” I’d say no. I’ve never done a project for money; that is for money alone,” he told Playgirl. Reeve said the only way he’d put on the cape and spandex again would be if the studios came up “with a really great idea.”

He continued by stating the dangers of picking roles for monetary reasons, without any meaning to back them up. “I think when you start working for money you turn a corner. It’s a violation, really, of your integrity,” Reeve addressed, adding “One of the few things you have to hang onto is your integrity about your work, and I think work defines a great deal of who you are.”

Doesn’t sound to us like he’d appreciate his non-speaking, throwaway, digitally produced last outing as the character that defined his life for better and for worse. However, he did find reasons to come back to Superman and adjacent productions years after this interview.

The Superman cameos Christopher Reeve was happy to accept 6cd2

Five years after the Playgirl interview, Reeve suited up one last time for Superman IV: The Quest for Peace in exchange for creative control over the story and director. It was he who pitched the film’s nuclear weapons plot, as per an interview with the Los Angeles Times.

“I’m personally fairly left. I believe a nuclear arms treaty is possible. I’m alarmed at our President [Reagan]’s behavior at Reykjavik. When Cannon [Films] approached me about playing Superman again, I thought it would be a good idea to get the character involved in trying to solve real problems.”

Reeve would never play the Man of Steel again, but there was one modern Superman title that received his seal of approval. Smallville, the WB-turned-The-CW 10 season series about a teenage Clark Kent, impressed the actor, who called its writing, acting, and special effects “remarkable.” He even went on to guest star on the show twice as Dr. Virgil Swann, a scientist studying Krypton who informed Clark of his alien origins.

“I just thought it would be fun. It’s a very welcome relief from politics and medical research,” Reeve reportedly said at the time. Part of the guest appearance agreement with Warner Bros. included the broadcasting of an infomercial on behalf of the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, following the episode.

Batman is slowly approaching his centenary, with 2039 set to mark a full hundred years since the Dark Knight first prowled the crime-ridden streets of Gotham City. Over that time he’s seen countless adventures in comic books, video games and on television, but it’s the silver screen that’s cemented him as a bona fide pop culture icon.

So, without further ado, let’s list these cinematic caped crusaders!

Lewis Wilson 1l2z25

Gotham’s Dark Knight fights crime in a sweatsuit and a balaclava. The evil Asian villain is played by a white guy who would later get Hollywood legend James Hong fired from a movie for being too Asian. The guys doing the titles aren’t sure if “Batman” is one word or two. 

All this and more can be found in 1943’s Batman, the first of Bruce Wayne’s big-screen, live-action adventures. Our first Batman came to us via Lewis Wilson, a 23-year-old working actor whose career never peaked higher than the “played the first Batman” footnote. Featuring high melodrama and exactly the kind of racism that you’re probably imagining, Batman was released in 15 chapters between July and October of 1943. At 260 minutes in length it still feels shorter than The Batman.

Robert Lowery 6a5j6p

In 1949, Batman returned to theaters in Batman and Robin, another 15-part serial. Produced by Sam Katzman – think World War II-era Roger Corman – it was cheap, messy, poorly thought out, but kinda fun. This time, 36-year-old Robert Lowery stepped into the lumpy bat suit, going toe-to-toe with an evil inventor called the Wizard. 

Adam West 6v3d14

There’s not much in the world that’s more fun than the Adam West Batman series. Chaotically campy and played with a straight-faced earnestness, it’s joyfully goofy. For this iteration’s theatrical film, the CBS Batman show’s main cast returned, along with a good chunk of the rogues’ gallery. Frank Gorshin’s Riddler, Burgess Merideth’s Penguin, and Cesar Romero’s Joker all turned up to chew scenery, while an otherwise occupied Julie Newmar was replaced by Lee Meriwether. The 1966 motion picture remains worth watching nearly 60 years later, and will have you wondering why more evil plans don’t end in the arms of the Penguin’s exploding octopus.

Michael Keaton p673

A full five decades after the Batman was introduced in the pages of Detective Comics, it was time for fans to put away childish things, focusing on a version of their favorite superhero who was just for big boys. Following Frank Miller’s lead, Tim Burton tried to leave the goofiness of ‘60s-era Batman behind him, giving audiences the first full-throated interpretation of the character in a high-budget movie.

He chose Michael Keaton for the part. Fans were not happy, reportedly sending tens of thousands of angry letters to Warner Bros – an almost quaint amount of complaining by today’s standards, but that’s what things were like back when you had to pay postage every time you wanted to send an angry tweet.

Keaton’s debut was a monster hit, but he bowed out after 1992’s Batman Returns when the studio decided to move in a less emotionally traumatizing direction and canned Burton. 

Val Kilmer 2ou6o

Among the briefest tenures in Batman movie history, Val Kilmer only defended the streets of Gotham once, during Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever in 1995. He would go on to give many reasons for leaving the franchise, as would other people involved in the project.

Kilmer said that he felt unappreciated in the role, and that he couldn’t connect with a character who punches all of his problems away. Schumacher said that Kilmer got into a shoving match with him on set. Bad vibes all round. Oh well, next time Schumacher will nail it… right?

George Clooney 5419w

The only Batman actor ever to offer to personally refund anyone that saw his movie in theaters, George Clooney took over the role for 1997’s Batman and Robin, a film that’s aged like a fine wine someone opened a glowstick into. Still hot off of the success of ER, Clooney didn’t have much to do in the flick. He mostly stood, stiffly, not turning his head very much. He’s nobody’s favorite Batman. Not even his own. Not even Brad Pitt’s, probably.

Christian Bale  1f1w42

With another decade of goofiness in the rearview, Christopher Nolan pulled a hard reset on Batman, bringing realism (relative to mid-2000s superhero movies) to the franchise. For his series, he’d need an intense, dramatically charged actor – the kind that could sell even the weirdest lines of dialogue from American Psycho, or Newsies, or whatever.

Christian Bale became a generation’s favorite Batman in 2005’s Batman Begins, finally presenting the character as scarred, traumatized, and obsessed with justice to an unhealthy degree. His interpretation proved so popular, that it contributed to WB’s decision to stay out of the MCU-adjacent shared universe model of filmmaking until Bale’s solo Dark Knight story was over.

Ben Affleck 1s2t5l

Nerds of a certain age will never forget where they were the day that DC announced that Ben Affleck would be their shared universe’s new Batman. Some of us went “ew.” Others went “huh.” 

If Christian Bale’s Batman poked moodily at his oatmeal, Affleck’s threw his bowl across the room and screamed that he wanted Apple Jacks. He was a cranky, angry Batman, branding the criminals that he took down with pictures of his favorite animal. He wasn’t for everybody. Heck, by the end, he wasn’t even for Affleck, who was openly exhausted with the role by the time The Flash came out in 2022.

Robert Pattinson 3l763

Taking a step back from trying to make their own MCU, DC released The Batman in 2022, a sort of spiritual successor to the Batman of the Nolan/Bale era. Divorced of shared universe malarkey, he was a young, humorless Batman, all about punching, gravelly voices, and moody Nirvana covers.

Time being a flat circle, DC elected to keep this Batman off in his own universe being moody while they make plans for a different Batman to do group projects with. It was like 2005 through 2012 all over again.

Michael Keaton again 3n2c3g

Nostalgia sells, right? Michael Keaton returned to the cape and cowl for The Flash, playing kind-of-sort-of the same Batman that he’d played in Batman and Batman Returns. Early reports had his Bruce Wayne taking over as the DCEU’s Nick Fury analogue, and Keaton had already shot scenes for the studio’s Batgirl film before it was historically and unceremoniously scrapped. The Flash turned out to be an embarrassing disaster. Let’s just hope Keaton got a good payday.

The further adventures of ‘80s Bruce Wayne are doomed to remain unfilmed, but you can read about them in the pages of the comic book Batman ‘89.

George Clooney again 4g624j

For one glorious, perfect moment in the final frames of 2023’s The Flash, everything made perfect sense. The universe was scrambled by time travel. Everything was weird. Zack Snyder’s obsession with having heroes drop F-bombs finally, just for a second, fit perfectly into the events that occurred on screen. George Clooney’s Batman was back. What the f…

Shot as a bit on the recommendation of new studio co-head James Gunn and representing the troubled picture’s third or fourth ending, The Flash’s final scene sees George Clooney brought back to screens. Canon-wise, it’s unlikely to mean anything moving forward, but darned if it wasn’t an enormous swing by a company that knew that it was about to start over from scratch anyway.

Well, it was fun (some of the time, at least) while it lasted, but the DC Extended Universe has officially come to an end.

With the release of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom on Dec. 22, 2023, the DCEU is defunct. Originally created as a rival to the MCU, the DCEU was launched with 2013’s Man of Steel, shortly followed by a Marvel-like phase full of projects planned for the next decade. As it happened various corporate upheavals and box office misfires ensured the franchise’s final line-up looked very different from what was first announced. All in all, however, the DCEU released 15 theatrically released films and one famous streaming-exclusive director’s cut.

The DCEU’s day is over now, though, due to James Gunn coming in to create a new shared universe — simply titled the DC Universe — from the ground-up, starting with 2024’s Creature Commandos animated series. It’s not as unwieldy as the MCU’s 30+ movies, then, but there’s still some confusion over the best way to watch the DCEU from start to finish.

Wonder (woman) no more, however, as here’s your guide on how to view the DC Extended Universe in chronological order.

What order do I watch DC movies in? 6a5j5y

Wonder Woman (2017) 275k2n

The first film on the DCEU timeline is 2017’s Wonder Woman. A prequel origins story for the Princess of the Amazons, following her role in Batman v Superman, Wonder Woman introduces Diana as she fights alongside Chris Pine’s Steve Trevor in the War to End All Wars. Most of the film takes place in 1918, aside from a handful of scenes set in the present day. This is the perfect starting point for your DC movie marathon.

Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) 4p725b

Some scenes in this 2020 sequel take place prior to the events of the first Wonder Woman, but for the most part, Wonder Woman 1984 is set — you’ll never guess! — in 1984. Living among mortals in the 1980s, Diana is living a double life as an art historian at the Louvre and helping save the day in a (mostly) incognito fashion, which just about adds up with her being an unknown figure in the DCEU’s present-day.

Man of Steel (2013) 2d95x

Man of Steel was the movie that kickstarted the DCEU and gave us Henry Cavill’s cult favorite incarnation of the Man of Tomorrow. The film showcases Superman’s origin story, including the destruction of Krypton, growing up as Clark Kent on Earth, and facing the fearsome General Zod. Man of Steel introduces key characters, components. and ideas that went on to shape the trajectory of the DCEU.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) 3v1p3y

Batman v Superman introduces the character of Bruce Wayne/Batman (Ben Affleck) into the DCEU. The movie initially positions itself as an action epic pitting the billionaire vigilante against the Last Son of Krypton, but it quickly becomes apparent that they will have to team up to deal with the dual threat of Lex Luther and Doomsday. This film acts as an all-important bridge for the DCEU as Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman unite in live-action for the first time.

Suicide Squad (2016) 113420

While the film takes place inside the DCEU and references the events of Batman v Superman, Suicide Squad’s narrative is mostly disconnected from the other films. The main cast of the movie consists of villains making their big-screen debuts — excluding the Joker, of course — including Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Deadshot (Will Smith), and plenty more of Task Force X — a black-ops team made out of expendable supercriminals — from the comics.

Justice League (2017) 47213a

The theatrical cut of Justice League was the first film to assemble DC’s premier group of heroes. The DCEU’s incarnation of the team consists of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash (Ezra Miller), Cyborg (Ray Fisher), and Aquaman (Jason Momoa). During the film, the League is forced to deal with the threat of Steppenwolf and the hordes of foes sent by Darkseid in his conquest to assemble the apocalyptic Mother Boxes.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021) 4r689

After the fierce backlash to Justice League’s theatrical cut, Zack Snyder was invited back to complete his original vision for the film. The resulting Snyder Cut is a four-hour spectacle that adds new scenes explaining the reasoning for major choices in the film as well as adding whole new plot points and characters to jazz up the action. Although fans would prefer this one to be canon, filmmakers have confirmed WB considers 2017’s Justice League to be in continuity, so feel free to watch this one as an optional extra.

Aquaman (2018) 2h4a3r

After his introduction in Justice League, fans got their first standalone take on Aquaman in 2018. In this movie, we pick up months after the events of (the theatrical) Justice League and see Arthur Curry return to Atlantis to deal with a threat of his power-hungry brother, Prince Orm, and the revenge-fueled Black Manta. The film also has some flashbacks which give viewers a glimpse into the origin story of the Atlantean hero.

Shazam! (2018) q611m

For the past couple of decades, DC has been notorious for the dark and serious tone of its movies, but Shazam! completely threw that formula away and was well-received by fans and critics alike. This film takes place after the events of Justice League, but doesn’t rely on the previously established lore to build its characters. The standalone spectacular is simply an introduction and origin story to the hero of Shazam and his family (or *sigh* Shazamily).

Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous… Whatever) (2020) 2i532d

Birds of Prey (full subtitle: (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) takes place around the same time as Shazam!, following the formation of the Justice League. The film follows on most directly from Suicide Squad, picking up with Harley Quinn as the lead, putting together her own team of anti-heroes to take on the crime boss Black Mask. The mish-mash group has a lot of chemistry, and there are a lot of stylish choices from directory Cathy Yan, making this a fun addition to the DCEU.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023) 4e343a

Due to the interconnectivity drying up (more on that in a moment), it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly where the latter-day releases fall in the timeline. However, thanks to the importance of the ages of the Shazamily, we know exactly where Shazam! Fury of the Gods falls. Billy Batson and his foster siblings are known to be two years older than in Shazam!, which means the sequel must take place in 2020. Just a sunny, happy alternate 2020 where no one’s heard of COVID.

The Suicide Squad (2021) 5j712p

According to James Gunn, who made his retroactively significant DC debut with this one, The Suicide Squad takes place in 2021. Righting the wrongs of David Ayers’ first outing for the anti-hero team, The Suicide Squad introduces a massive cast of new characters and brings some familiar faces back into the fold to do what the Suicide Squad does: save the world and die along the way.

Peacemaker (season 1) 6p633m

No, Peacemaker is not a movie, but as the only TV series set within the continuity of the DCEU it is a much-watch. Apart from following up on characters introduced in The Suicide Squad, including Jennifer Holland’s Emilia Harcourt (who went on to cameo in both Black Adam and Shazam! Fury of the Gods as well), it also features a memorable — and hilarious — appearance from the Justice League themselves.

Black Adam (2022) q4u2i

By this point in the DCEU, WB was only interested in making standalone films rather than movies that are just one piece of the puzzle, a la Marvel, so even though Black Adam is ostensibly a Shazam! spinoff it’s mostly self-contained. It’s notable for introducing the Justice Society of America into the canon, establishing that superheroes have been around since long before Superman and the Justice League.

The Flash (2023) 4d4c2p

The Flash is a tricky one to map out in the canon because it’s mostly set in an alternate universe in 2013, the Flashpoint timeline, in which a different version of the events of Man of Steel take place. However, if we use Barry Allen as the barometer then, as he comes from the present-day and is a veteran member of the Justice League at this point, it’s probably best to stick it on at this point in the watch-through.

Blue Beetle (2023) 522j6m

In many ways, Blue Beetle is a taste of the DCU to come as James Gunn has confirmed Xolo Maridueña’s Jaime Reyes is the first DCU character. However, slightly confusingly, the film itself is counted as DCEU not DCU. At one point, we thought this might’ve meant Blue Beetle took place before some big DCU-birthing universal reset in The Flash, but now that doesn’t seem to be the case, so the film occupies the penultimate position in both the release and chronological watch orders.

Aquaman and the Lost Kindom (2023) 4q2ea

An inebriated Arthur Curry featured in The Flash‘s post-credits scene, so presumably we can infer that the events of The Lost Kingdom occur soon after that. Clearly, many years have ed since the events of 2018’s Aquaman, as the King of Atlantis is now a husband to Amber Heard’s Mera and a father to Arthur Junior, meaning we can probably say that it matches the real-life gap between the two films. It’s unintentionally fitting that the DCU ends with a movie introducing the next generation of the Justice League, just as we’re about to get a fresh roster of heroes in the DCU.

In some respects, 2023 was a great year for cinema. For once superheroes didn’t dominate the highest-grossing list. Greta Gerwig’s Barbie quite snatches the crown of the highest-grossing movie, with its release date rival Oppenheimer performing way above expectations to score fifth place.

We’ve also been treated to Martin Scorsese’s excellent Killers of the Flower Moon, Taylor Swift’s incredible The Eras Tour concert movie, and the still very underrated Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (it’s really great!).

But, sadly, the year was also littered with releases that absolutely failed to live up to the hype. So, without further ado, grab your sad trombone, and let’s get to it.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (February) d2o5r

Nobody could have predicted Disney’s 2023 would have been this disastrous, but Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania clued us in that not all was well at Marvel Studios. This third Ant-Man entry ditches much of the charm of the previous two movies for a confusing and aesthetically ugly story that wasted the cast’s talents. The objectively awful (and unfinished) VFX was just the cherry on top.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods (March) 22lp

Warner Bros. Discovery essentially sent Shazam! Fury of the Gods out to die. After having suffered multiple delays it was shuffled out in mid-March, arriving pre-mortally wounded by the announcement that the DCEU was dead, that James Gunn was rebooting everything, and that none of this mattered. That would be something of a tragedy if Fury of the Gods was secretly great. It wasn’t.

Paint (April) 1o5b2i

You have to try really, really hard to dampen Owen Wilson’s natural charisma and innate sense of comedy, but the ill-conceived Bob Ross parody Paint somehow manages it. The original script was considered so good it was included on the famous Hollywood ‘Black List’ of unproduced screenplays, but somewhere along the line something went wrong and Paint ended up as a boring and unfunny 96 minutes. The kiss of death? This was a comedy and I didn’t laugh out loud once.

The Pope’s Exorcist (April) 4g675v

It is not difficult to sell me a movie ticket. I see a poster of Russell Crowe dressed up as a priest, sporting a majestic beard and striding manfully towards the camera. The Pope’s Exorcist? Hell yeah. Soon after my butt was on a seat at the theater. But The Pope’s Exorcist did not live up to my expectations, and, truth be told, Crowe’s commanding beard was the best thing about it. This wasn’t the worst exorcist-based movie of the year (see below), but it’s far from what it could have been.

Renfield (April) 4i323

How on Earth do you screw up Nicolas Cage playing Count Dracula? Renfield had great trailers, an excellent cast and a lot of pre-release buzz. All that eventually amounted to… not much, as it ended up feeling more like a comedy sketch than a feature film. Once the novelty of Cage’s Dracula has worn off there’s just not much to this lame comedy, and we’ll be forever annoyed that Renfield squandered its premise.

The Little Mermaid (May) 38651w

The shine has been coming off Disney’s live-action adaptations for some time now, but the much-anticipated The Little Mermaid should have been a home run. After all, an undersea world is ripe for glittering CGI, the songs still slap, and it’s got some talent in front of the lens. So The Little Mermaid ending up so underwhelming and dull was a massive let-down. Its shortcomings were made all the more apparent by the similarly subaquatic Avatar: The Way of Water arriving a few months earlier and delivering an underwater world leagues beyond Triton’s kingdom.

The Flash (June) 703f4m

If you’re going to market yourself as “the greatest superhero movie ever” you better deliver the goods. And… well, The Flash was The Flash, which would have been an awful movie even if Ezra Miller hadn’t spent the last few years on a whirlwind crime spree apparently intent on destroying their career.

But Miller did do that, and it left an indelibly bad odor on an already stinky movie. A series of PS2-lookin’ CGI cameos from dead actors reeked not only of bad taste but of studio execs flailing around in panic as they tried to salvage something from this disaster.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (June) 5p3u5t

Let’s be clear: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is not a bad movie. It has its moments, it’s nice to see Harrison Ford in a fedora again, it showcased some very well-done de-ageing VFX, and is a damn sight better than The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. But was it disappointing? Absolutely. The second half of the movie steadily gets worse and eventually devolves into fan service, and it largely wastes Mads Mikkelsen. Ultimately, perhaps a summer blockbuster starring an actor pushing 80 wasn’t a great idea.

The Exorcist: Believer (October) 5u5z18

I went into The Exorcist: Believer with low expectations. Sequels to the 1973 classic have always been hit and miss and director David Gordon Green’s dreadful Halloween Ends had me prepared for the worst. To be fair, Believer isn’t the worst movie in the franchise, but it’s far from the worthy successor we’d been pitched. By the end, it’s collapsed into a pile of generic special effects that felt like a parody. Oh well, here’s hoping 2025’s The Exorcist: Deceiver is an improvement.

Wish (November) 3e4a1d

Wish was billed as a return to the golden age of Disney, consciously echoing the hand-drawn 2D animation with which the studio made its name. In that at least it succeeds. In everything else? Well, if 2023 can be noted for anything it’s wallowing in nostalgia. Sometimes it pays off (hi, Barbie), but sometimes it doesn’t. Wish is packed with overt references to older, better Disney movies and just left me wishing I was watching them rather than this.

However, it’s important to note that we’re only just heading into December, so perhaps there’s room for one more cinematic disaster to make this list. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, I’m looking in your direction…

We all knew The Marvels couldn’t replicate the phenomenal success of 2019’s Captain Marvel, not in this current climate, but nobody could’ve predicted that it would fail so badly it’s crashing faster than The Flash.

The Flash crowned itself the most embarrassing flop of the summer once it fell far short of expectations to debut with a mere $130 million worldwide over its opening weekend — pretty pitiful for a Marvel/DC production. Unfortunately, The Marvels has fared even worse, with its own opening stint at the box office bringing home just $110 million. It’s sunk even harder in its second weekend, facing a 79% drop in earnings that’s worse than even Morbius.

As shocking as it may be, The Marvels could well struggle to reach The Flash‘s total gross of just $270 million by the time it’s limped out of theaters. But there’s still time, people, to stop this travesty from happening. Please, don’t let The Flash win over The Marvels. It doesn’t deserve it.

The Marvels is flawed, but at least it isn’t as offensively bad as The Flash 6s6e1m

If I could time travel back to the beginning of the year and show my younger self the above subheading, I would’ve been shocked. As a lifelong fan of Michael Keaton’s Batman and someone who doesn’t necessarily count Captain Marvel as among their top 10 MCU films, I was not expecting to prefer The Marvels over The Flash as a moviegoing experience. And yet, I do, because it really is the only sensible option.

As much as I enjoyed Nia DaCosta’s energetic direction and the chemistry between the three leads, I get it. The Marvels isn’t perfect. But while you may personally dislike the musical scenes on Aladna or feel Dar-Benn is a weak villain, do such negatives really match up to the crimes against cinema that include Barry Allen microwaving babies or resurrecting beloved icons with CGI so bad it makes your eyes bleed? And say what you like about Brie Larson (and I know some of you will), but Ezra Miller has nothing on her in the controversy department.

As journalist David Opie went viral on Twitter/X for pointing out, “Wild how so many people are hating on [The Marvels], a fun, inoffensive film, when The Flash grotesquely resurrected dead actors, battered horrendous CGI to an inch of its life and cast AN ACTUAL AB in the lead role. Wtf is wrong with people.”

To be fair, Opie’s tweet makes it sound like The Flash got off scot-free, when as detailed above, it has already paid the price for its unsavory qualities — or Warner Bros. Discovery has, anyway. That said, The Flash thoroughly deserved its place as the most notorious superhero bomb of 2023 — and not just because this hideous hodge-podge of intellectual property is now Keaton’s final DC film instead of 1992’s sublime Batman Returns — but sadly it seems that it has ed that fate onto The Marvels.

And yet the consequences of this rivalry could stretch beyond the confines of these two releases…

Whether The Marvels and The Flash wins the battle, DC is destined to win this war v3p60

Whatever your personal feelings about The Marvels and/or The Flash, however, it’s all academic given that both of these very different and yet oddly similar movies failed to ignite enough interest at the box office. While each of these were supposedly about one particular corner of their respective franchises — a sequel to Captain Marvel and the Scarlet Speedster’s long-awaited solo movie — in reality they were both doing the heavy-lifting to establish a Marvel/DC multiverse.

And yet, despite the promise of DC crossovers galore and Marvel spoiling that X-Men crossover ahead of time, audiences didn’t bite. For DC, that’s a shame but not a fatal move as it had already put a new plan in place before The Flash was even out. Clearly, James Gunn could see the writing was on the wall as nothing is pointing to his rebooted DCU dealing with any kind of multiversal shenanigans. Unfortunately, for Marvel, it’s a different story. We’re still in the midst of the Multiverse Saga, don’t forget.

Both The Marvels and The Flash are obvious corporate products, that can be itted, but even with Frasier Beast showing up at the end, at least the former doesn’t feel quite so much like IP: The Movie. So, I’m begging you, go see The Marvels again or give it a first try if you’re yet to do so. Not necessarily to help the MCU’s flagging Phase Five, but just because we can’t let what appears to be the first movie written by Chat-GPT land any kind of win.

I mean, that’s how the robo-pocalypse from The Matrix started. Probably.

After everybody from James Gunn and Stephen King to Tom Cruise and Jaden Smith hyped it up as one of the greatest superhero movies ever made, the rumors that The Flash director Andy Muschietti was in line to reboot Batman yet again with The Brave and the Bold were greeted with open arms.

However, once he was officially confirmed to be stepping behind the camera and wielding the megaphone on the Dark Knight’s latest reinvention – which came after the Scarlet Speedster’s long-gestating solo blockbuster had hit theaters and revealed we’d all been lied to – it would be an understatement of epic proportions to say a lot of the excitement evaporated in an instant.

That’s not to say Muschietti is guaranteed to drop the ball as horrendously as he did during his first stint at the helm of a big budget DC Comics adaptation, but the goodwill was undeniably eroded, never mind the fact Matt Reeves has already set a very high bar through The Batman and will look to repeat the trick with its sequel, which will arrive in theaters long before The Brave and the Bold.

And yet, all it’s taken is for a writer to allegedly be hired, and the first shoots of positivity in a long time have started to grow. While it hasn’t been confirmed or even acknowledged by anybody associated with DC or Warner Bros. as of yet, three-time Academy Award-nominated scribe John Logan is reportedly the person set to tackle the screenplay.

No stranger to critical acclaim, box office success, awards season recognition, or effects-heavy epics, Logan’s back catalogue includes Any Given Sunday, Gladiator, The Last Samurai, The Aviator, Hugo, Skyfall, Spectre, Alien: Covenant, and cult favorite TV series Penny Dreadful, so it’s easy to see why the flames of anticipation are being stoked merely by the mention of his candidacy.

It’s been a lifelong dream of Nicolas Cage to play Superman in a live-action movie, with the actor easily the Man of Steel’s most famous fan in all of Hollywood.

A quarter of a century after Tim Burton’s Superman Lives fell apart, he finally got the chance to make it a reality… well, kind of. The Academy Award winner may have been actively present and in-costume to shoot his cameo appearance in The Flash, but it came as part of the haunting Chronobowl sequence that dwelled firmly within the uncanny valley.

Tim Burton was horrified by its very existence, and while speaking to Yahoo!, Cage echoed those sentiments on the dangers of AI, but not not before itting that what ended up onscreen was hardly reflective of what he actually contributed in his physical form.

“First and foremost, I was on set. What I was supposed to do was literally just be standing in an alternate dimension, if you will, and witnessing the destruction of the universe. I had no dialogue [so had to] convey with my eyes the emotion. So that’s what I did. I was on set for maybe three hours. When I went to the picture, it was me fighting a giant spider. I did not do that. That was not what I did. I don’t think it was [created by] AI. I know Tim is upset about AI, as I am.

It was CGI, OK, so that they could de-age me, and I’m fighting a spider. I didn’t do any of that, so I don’t know what happened there. … But I get where Tim’s coming from. I know what he means. I would be very unhappy if people were taking my art … and appropriating them. I get it. I mean, I’m with him in that regard. AI is a nightmare to me. It’s inhumane. You can’t get more inhumane than artificial intelligence.”

It doesn’t sound as though Cage regrets showing up in The Flash regardless of the end product hardly being a true representation of what he actually did, but that doesn’t make it any less nightmarish.

Based on the standards he set himself over the last dozen years, it’s been a suspiciously long time since Ryan Reynolds poked fun at Green Lantern, so we were well overdue.

Returning to familiar territory for the umpteenth time, the actor’s infamous one-and-done stint as Hal Jordan has been taken to task yet again, and this time he’s even roped in a former Scarlet Speedster to take what could easily be construed as a thinly-veiled shot at The Flash as well.

As he tends to do, Reynolds has used his marketing savvy to place both DC productions in the firing line, recruiting Grant Gustin to play fictional Chief Performance Officer Seymour Roas in a new promo for MNTN, which does at least manage to hold off on the superhero references for a good 10 seconds or so.

In addition to the obligatory winks and nods towards Gustin’s lengthy tenure as a pillar of the Arrowverse, things get as blatant as possible when Reynolds tells his opposite number “you’ll always be my Barry.” Not one to take things lying down, “Mr. Roas” then responds by telling Reynolds he’ll “always be my Hal,” checking off the shot fired at Green Lantern.

“That hurts, Seymour” is all the Deadpool headliner can muster to such a biting comeback, and then it’s all over. Even by Reynolds’ ongoing MO, shilling one of his many extracurricular endeavors, prodding the misfortunes of Warner Bros.’ $200 million misfire, and acknowledging his own costumed calamity in the space of just 41 seconds is quite the achievement.