Reality names were reused several times. See also DC Universe, DCU, DCAU. The DC Extended Universe^[1] (officially Earth-1)^[6] is a reality within the Post-Crisis Arrowverse.^[7] It is the setting of a franchise of live-action films adapting DC Comics stories, beginning in 2013 with Man of Steel and ending in 2023 with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.

The franchise also includes various tie-in media, including television series, a fiction podcast, comics and more. At least three divergent realities have branched off from it, and it was eventually replaced by the DC Universe franchise,^[8] which shares some events with DCEU canon.^[9]

History

Early history

This universe is designated Earth-1^[6] in the Arrowverse multiverse, replacing the previous Earth-1 in the wake of the Anti-Monitor crisis.^[7] Various advanced races from many worlds reside here, but its Earth's technology and connection to other planets and alien races is rather primitive compared to some other universes.

In the early years of human civilization, powerful wizards gifted some humans such as Teth-Adam magical abilities and making them "champions of magic",^[10][11] while other races related closely to humanity, such as the Olympians, Amazons and Atlanteans, existed separate from them, using their natural enhanced abilities to build their own civilizations. These civilizations came together once to face the invading intergalactic tyrant Darkseid, and after that became separate once more for thousands of years.^[12]

20th century

The first superhero of this world seems to be the Amazon Wonder Woman, who emerged in 1917 during World War I^[13] and operated primarily in secret throughout the 20th century.^[14] Years later, other superheroes such as Hawkman, Doctor Fate and Atom Smasher, formed the Justice Society to battle evil as a team.^[15][11]

While some heroes, such as the second Blue Beetle, were celebrated by many,^[16] the emergence of the brutal vigilante Batman in Gotham City around 1995 brought some controversy to the idea of superheroes, though it was mostly kept quiet as the Batman dispelled crime around the city.^[17]

21st century

Emergence of Kryptonians

In 2013, a group of extraterrestrial Kryptonians, led by General Zod, invaded Earth and attempted to terraform it into a new breeding ground for his people with his ship, the Black Zero. He was challenged by Superman, a Kryptonian who had been raised on Earth, and the ensuing battle to stop him destroyed much of the city of Metropolis and led to thousands of human casualties.^[18]

In the aftermath of this event, more superpowered metahumans were inspired to become superheroes than ever before, and Superman became an increasingly controversial figure, with some believing his arrival held religious importance as either a messiah or harbinger of the apocalypse. This controversy reached a fever pitch in 2015 after Superman was framed for mass murder in Nairomi by genius billionare Lex Luthor, who then blackmailed him into fighting the Batman as part of an elaborate plot to destroy him. When this failed and the two instead joined against their common enemy, Luthor unleashed a powerful Kryptonian deformity on the world, which led Superman to sacrifice his life for humanity's survival.^[17]

Metahuman influx

In the two years following Superman's death, the number costumed metahumans, both heroic and villainous, increased even more dramatically across Earth, which led to the formation of teams such as the United States government-sanctioned Task Force X, through which incarcerated supervillains were blackmailed to battle powerful threats to the American people,^[19] and later the Justice League, the Batman's superhero strike team who resurrected Superman and stopped the invasion of the Apokoliptian warmonger Steppenwolf.^[12]

Included on this team were Wonder Woman and the Aquaman, both representing the Amazons and the Atlanteans respectively to the wider world, and bringing Earth's sapient races slightly closer together once again.^[12]

In the wake of the League's formation, the founder of Task Force X, Amanda Waller, expanded her campaign to control metahumans and costumed vigilantes, operating the covert mission Project Butterfly,^[20] reforming the Justice Society under her jurisdiction,^[11][21] and even acquiring contacts to Superman and the League. Eventually, Waller's daughter exposed the Task Force X program to the public, presumably shutting it down.^[22]

Multiversal incursions

As early as 2019, Earth-1 began to experience interdimensional incursions, with the speedster known as the Flash meeting his Earth-Prime counterpart during the Anti-Monitor crisis,^[7] Wonder Woman meeting a counterpart of Serena Williams who had her powers and used the moniker Wonderous Serena,^[7][23] and the hero Beast Boy of Earth-9 traveling across the multiverse using the Red, briefly flying past this reality and several others.^[24]

In 2022, the Flash used his connection to the Speed Force to travel back in time and save his mother from death. His alterations created a divergent reality in which General Zod's invasion was more successful, Batman was older and had retired, and Superman had been killed as an infant.

When his attempts to use time travel to protect this world from Zod resulted in the multiverse destabilizing, the Flash was forced to go back in time once more to stop himself from changing anything at all. However, this only sent him into a second divergent reality much closer to his own, but still very different in some ways.^[25] He currently resides in this alternate universe.^[26]

Potential future

In a future first glimpsed by the Batman in 2015, Darkseid found his way back to Earth and found the Anti-Life Equation, which he used to make Superman his slave. While the Justice League fought against them, they were no match for their combined power and were defeated easily as Darkseid conquered and ravaged Earth, transforming it into a primordial, apocalyptic wasteland.^[12][27]

Points of Interest

• Butterflies' homeworld^[22] (Destroyed)
• Earth^[18][17][12]
  • Atlantis^[28][12]
  • Corto Maltese^[29]
    • Valle Del Mar^[29]
      • Jotunheim^[29] (Destroyed)
  • Egypt^[14][11]
  • Kahndaq^[11]
    • Al Hadidiyah Mountains^[11]
    • Shiruta^[11]
  • Themyscira^[13][12][14]
  • Nairomi^[17]
  • United Kingdom^[13][12]
    • London^[13][12]
  • United States^[18][17]
    • Belle Reve Correctional Center, Louisiana^[19][29]
    • Central City, Ohio^[12][25]
    • Evergreen, Washington^[20]
    • Gotham City, New Jersey^[30][17]
      • Batcave^[17]
      • GCPD Headquarters^[12]
      • Wayne Aerospace Hangar^[12]
      • Wayne Manor^[17]
    • Metropolis, Delaware^[18][30]
      • Daily Planet Building^[18]
      • Heroes Park^[17][12]
      • LexCorp Tower^[18][17]
      • S.T.A.R. Labs^[12]
    • Palmera City^[16]
    • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania^[10][21]
    • Washington, D.C.^[17][14]
      • Capitol Building^[17][14] (Destroyed)
• Krypton^[18] (Destroyed)
  • Kandor^[18]
• Pocket dimensions
  • Fifth Dimension^[31]
  • Phantom Zone^[18]
  • Quantum Unfolding Storage Area^[20][32]
  • Rock of Eternity^[10][11]
  • Speed Force^[12][25]
  • "The dark place"^[12]
    • Apokolips^[12]

Residents

See full list of residents

Media

Films

Feature films

• Man of Steel (2013)
• Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
• Suicide Squad (2016)
• Wonder Woman (2017)
• Justice League (2017)^{[note 1]}
• Aquaman (2018)
• Shazam! (2019)
• Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020)
• Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
• Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)
• The Suicide Squad (2021)
• Black Adam (2022)
• Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)
• The Flash (2023)
• Blue Beetle (2023)
• Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023)

Short films

• Epilogue: Etta's Mission (2017)
• Black Adam Precursor (2020)
• The Mother Box Origins (2021)

Series

Television series

• Peacemaker (2022) (season 1 only)^[9]

Fiction podcasts

• The Flash: Escape the Midnight Circus (2023)

Ancillary material

Comics

• Man of Steel: The Prequel
• Warner Bros. Pictures Presents Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (Volume 1 (Digital))
• General Mills Presents Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (Volume 1)
• Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice #1
• Suicide Squad: Suicide Blonde
• Secret Files of the Suicide Squad
• Mercedes-Benz Presents: Justice League (Volume 1 (Digital))
• Wonder Woman 1984 #1
• Serving Up Justice (Volume 1)
• Black Adam: The Justice Society Files (Volume 1)
• The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive (Volume 2)
• Shazam!: Fury of the Gods Special - Shazamily Matters #1
• Shazam!: Thundercrack
• Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom Special #1
• Aquaman: Through Fire and Water #1
• Peacemaker Presents: The Vigilante/Eagly Double Feature! (Volume 1)^{[note 2]}

Motion comics

• Superhero Hooky

Books

• Man of Steel: The Early Years: Junior Novel (2013)
• Man of Steel: The Official Movie Novelization (2013)
• Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice - Cross Fire (2016)
• Time Out Shortlist Gotham and Metropolis (2016)
• Suicide Squad: The Official Movie Novelization (2016)
• Wonder Woman: The Official Movie Novelization (2017)
• Aquaman: Undertow (2018)
• Shazam!: Freddy's Guide to Super Hero-ing (2019)
• Wonder Woman 1984: The Junior Novel (2020)

Video games

• Man of Steel: Hero's Flight (2013)
• Man of Steel (2013)
• Batman v Superman: Who Will Win (2016)
• Suicide Squad: Special Ops (2016)
• Wonder Woman: Rise of the Warrior (2017)
• Justice League VR: The Complete Experience (2017)

Notes

• The Suicide Squad, the first season of Peacemaker, and Blue Beetle were originally produced as part of the DCEU, but many of their events also retroactively take place in the DC Universe.^{[9][33][34][35]}
• The "DC Extended Universe" name was coined by Zack Snyder, the director of Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League.^[1]
• The 2011 film Green Lantern was meant to jumpstart the DCEU, but it did so poorly commercially and critically that Warner Bros. decided to start over with Man of Steel two years later.^[36]
• Every DCEU film from Suicide Squad to Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom was produced by DC Films.

Canceled media

• The films Joker and The Batman were originally meant to be set in the DCEU, but due to shifting creative teams and other matters, they became standalone movies.
• When originally announced, the TV series Krypton was intended to be set in the DCEU, but it was later reworked to be set it within its own universe.^[37]
• The film Batgirl was meant to be released in 2022 as a part of the DCEU, but a few months before release, the project was permanently shelved for a tax write-off, despite being in post-production at the time. The film was shot from November, 2021 to March, 2022. After entering post-production, the film was cancelled by Warner Bros. Discovery in August 2022. It was reported that WBD felt the film "simply did not work" and went against the new desire and mandate from CEO David Zaslav to make DC films "big theatrical event films". The film was directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, and starred Leslie Grace as Batgirl, J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon, Brendan Fraser as Ted Carson/Firefly, Michael Keaton as Batman, Ivory Aquino as Alysia Yeoh, and Jacob Scipio as Anthony Bressi.^[38] It was also reported that writing off the film as a tax break was the most "financially sound" option for WBD.^[39]

See Also

• Characters from DC Extended Universe
• Other things related to DC Extended Universe
• DC Extended Universe's Comic Appearances
• Reality Gallery: DC Extended Universe

Links and References

• DC Extended Universe Wiki
  

References