This is kinda stupid, you have what, 4? movies that are coming out and would say are in the current "Universe" ?
These movies will now tank at the box office because the people in charge have said, this universe is Dead, so why go see it and invest any money or emotions into the movie if we now know for certain that there won't be any more Shazam, etc. even if it makes a Billion. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.
It's definitely shooting themselves in the foot and hoping the audience will be there to see them run a marathon.
Shazam Fury of the Gods, Aquaman The Lost King, Blue Beetle and Flashpoint. All those films are now dead ends. It's still early enough for them to bookend them nicely. Why Flash hasn't been outright cancelled yet with Miller's antics is beyond me.
I blame everything regarding DC's situation on WB.
They recut Suicide Squad 1 to be similar to Deadpool 1. Disrupting Ayer's vision and putting it out of step with Snyder's JL.
The executives fired Snyder, brought in Whedon to do an Avengers 1 copycat and spent tens of millions to reshoot a movie that was nearly completed. Like we saw Disney do with Solo on Star Wars. And like Solo, theatrical Justice League was a flop. They spent all that money and rushed it into theaters to hit a 4th quarter deadline for end of the year bonuses.
WW84 flopping and middling reviews. The aftermath of which we are seeing with the current situation regarding Patty Jenkins walking from Wonder Woman 3 and that movie being canned. Given her expanded influence on WW84, its not something execs want to see a repeat of.
Birds of Prey flopped.
Gunn’s own The Suicide Squad flopped.
Ezra Miller self-destructing and jeopardizing the Flash movie. Even back in 2017, the WB execs were hyping Flashpoint to erase the Snyder influence. Now all those execs are gone too.
The Latina Supergirl and mixed Batgirl projects getting canned.
Black Adam flopped.
Don't forget WB’s inaction on those Green Lantern projects they wanted to get going. WB has been saying for years that they’ve had plans for GL and GL Corps on HBOMax.
Aquaman, Shazam, Joker and The Batman are the only DC films that have been pulling their weight. Since JL theatrical, every director, producer writer team has just done their own thing. And that started 5 years ago. It’s almost 2023. Firing Snyder left the DC movies directionless. All the movies made money under him and met their production dates. Why WB didn't move sooner to get a captain of the DC ship before now, I have no idea.
I don't begrudge Gunn and Safran. They want a clean slate to work with. And as I illustrated above, WB mismanaged their properties to an absurd degree. I didn't care that they were recasting Miller. I'm sad and mad to see Gadot and Cavil go. WB certainly had a moment, and they missed it.
P.S.
I would totally be satisfied if the DCEU cast was moved to only ensemble projects. Gunn tweeting out a Kingdom Come adaptation last week was a good idea. Other stories like the New Frontier, wrapping up the Darkseid saga in one movie would be a decent farewell to the old guard.