Both MCU and DC Are Rebooting: What Does It Mean for the Franchises?
The two major superhero franchises are rebooting in the near future, but they have very different approaches and goals. What are Marvel and DC trying to achieve?
Summary:
- While both Marvel and DC aim to reboot in the upcoming years, they have different end goals and will approach this process very differently.
- DC goes for a hard reboot that will wipe out everything done previously, and Marvel takes the path of a soft reboot to keep most of its legacy intact.
- The simultaneous reboot of both major superhero franchises is likely to benefit the genre in general and reinvent its least-loveable aspects.
Despite the overwhelming popularity of the superhero genre, there are only two dominating studios in the live-action arena: Marvel and DC. Amid the more and more vocal declarations of so-called “superhero fatigue,” both studios decided to reboot their cinematic universes — but they (unsurprisingly) don’t see eye-to-eye on this.
Marvel and DC have very different goals and methods of rebooting their live-action franchises, and here’s what the upcoming changes really mean for both of them.
DC Universe: Leaving No Stone Unturned
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After years of suffering that accompanied Zack Snyder’s DCEU, DC decided to go for a hard reboot. Having replaced the studio’s previous management with the new widely acclaimed co-heads, James Gunn and Peter Safran, DC intends to completely ignore everything that has been done in its universe’s previous versions.
The absolute majority of the DCEU actors will be recast, and the few who stay will play different versions of their characters. All heroes and villains’ arc will start anew, with no regard to whatever happened to their other iterations. Virtually everything released before 2024 will not affect the new DCU in any way, shape, or form.
DC is cutting ties to all its previous movies, TV shows, and animated films.
Marvel Universe: Keeping All That Works
Marvel Studios has an entirely different reason for its reboot: this cinematic universe has always been immensely successful but became too complicated and cluttered over time. To fix this, Marvel goes for a soft reboot which will allegedly happen with Avengers: Secret Wars and will remove many unnecessary characters and subplots.
Admittedly, Marvel’s goal is to streamline the MCU, bringing all the multiverse characters it intends to keep into the same continuity. The multiverse in itself will likely be forgotten as every hero and villain worth keeping track of will become part of the same world. At the same time, it will allow Marvel to quietly get rid of the extras.
Marvel will keep its major characters and events intact and clean up its universe.
Double Reboot: What Does It Mean for Us?
Seeing how both Marvel and DC are rebooting in the near future, many superhero fans wonder what it might mean for them and whether it’s a good or a bad thing in general. The two major franchises have never synchronized on such a grand scale before, so this worry is understandable — but this process will benefit both parties.
After many years of the two franchises’ overwhelming domination, they have grown both old and complex, and having them simultaneously restart is likely to have a positive effect: one could even call it a reinvention of the genre or its cleansing. The double reboot will also allegedly stimulate both Marvel and DC to aim higher out of pure competition.