The Right Way to Watch the DC Extended Universe Movies Is in Order
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A few years removed from director Christopher Nolan's wildly successful Dark Knight trilogy, Warner Bros. saw its superhero rivals, Marvel, in the midst of putting together something at a scale that hadn't been done before: a series of movies, all featuring different heroes and different combinations of heroes, connecting in one way or another and crossing over. It had been tried before, but Marvel was putting together the most successful cinematic universe in history. With some of the greatest standalone superhero movies in the vault already between Nolan's movies and director Richard Donner's original Superman franchise, WB looked at Marvel, and, starting with 2013's Man of Steel, said: "We can do that."
It hasn't turned out to be that easy. At this point, WB and DC Studios have put out either 13 or 14 (depending on if you count Zack Snyder's Justice League) feature films in their connected world (officially known as the "DC Extended Universe") while Marvel reached 32 with the release of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Marvel got a head start, so the quantity isn't necessarily the issue; the quality, though, has presented more of an issue, with many of the early entries in the franchise coming out dark, dreary, and humorless. Now, as Guardians writer/director James Gunn takes charge of DC Studios as co-CEO, we could see the slate wiped completely clean—he's referred to his new slate of projects as the "DCU," dropping the 'E' with what we can only assume will be a soft reboot at the very least and potentially an eventual complete reset.
Still: for those of us who love heroes of all shapes and sizes flying through the air and facing off with bad guys, it can be fun to keep up with the worlds and see how everything fits together. Hell, some of the movies end up being a decent time (and a few are actually good). It takes charisma to be a superhero, so usually all it takes is a good villain for the movie to be at least watchable. If you're a DC loyalist, or maybe if you've already watched the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, and you're looking to give a whole new world a shot, well, there are certainly less entertaining ways to spend your time.
Like Star Wars, Marvel, and the now-discontinued series of X-Men movies, we're going to suggest that if you plan to watch the entirety of the DC Extended Universe, that you watch them in the order in which they were released. Films and reveals are designed specifically with that intent, particularly upon a first watch. If something is a big reveal but you haven't watched the connecting movie being referenced yet, well, you're going to miss that reveal. If you've already seen the movies, then, sure, get creative if you want. But the first time through any franchise, really, should be in their chronological order by release.
People who like to get cute often like to deprive themselves of some of those reveals and watch movies in "timeline order," meaning in order of the events happening within the universe.
As usual, we wouldn't recommend this, but if you really insist, this would be the chronological order of events within the universe, following each movie's main plotline (some of them do jump around a bit; another reason to just watch these movies in the order they came out):
Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman 1984
Man of Steel
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Suicide Squad
Justice League
Zack Snyder's Justice League (we're counting it)
Aquaman
Shazam!
Birds of Prey
The Suicide Squad
Black Adam
Shazam: Fury of the Gods
The Flash
The above list doesn't include previous movies based on DC Comics properties—like Christopher Nolan's Batman movies or any prior Superman movies, for instance—because they aren't connected to the DC Extended Universe. The same reason is what causes 2019's Joker to be excluded; it was made in the modern DC era, but is not planned to connect to the larger DC Extended Universe. The same applies to the Matt Reeves/Robert Pattinson The Batman series—those films take place in their own siloed universe.
But we digress. There are already plenty of movies for you to watch in the DC Extended Universe (and they are all on Max!), and more are steadily on the way. Blue Beetle hits theaters in the summer, followed by Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom in December. From there, things will start to get funky: we've got stuff like Creature Commandos, Swamp Thing, and a James Gunnwritten/directed Superman: Legacy in the works. But that may be for a different article and timeline, so stay tuned.
But for the proper order—chronological by release date—we'd suggest the following:
Man of Steel (2013)
Man of Steel is an appropriate entry to the first half of the DC Extended Universe: unnecessarily dark, fairly joyless, and ultimately underwhelming. It's certainly a watchable movie: Henry Cavill's first outing as superman is not exactly charismatic but it's fine, Amy Adams is great but the Lois Lane character is underwritten, and Michael Shannon's turn as villain General Zod is far under his usual excellence. If you want an entry point to the DCEU this isn't a bad spot, and there are some solid visuals and fun action sequences to keep you entertained, but it's not a great movie.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
Three years later, the DCEU continued as Cavill and Adams were joined by Ben Affleck (as Bruce Wayne/Batman), Jesse Eisenberg (as Lex Luthor) and a handful of others in this first cinematic face-off between the Man of Steel and The Dark Knight himself. Unfortunately, the movie suffers from the same problems as Man of Steel: it's overwrought, overdramatic, and takes itself far too seriously. It is what it is; Eisenberg's Luthor is actually a fun turn, but the movie, again, is kind of a slog to get to, and at times doesn't even really make all that much sense. But if you love superheroes, it could be worse.
Suicide Squad (2016)
There's no beating around the bush: Suicide Squad is one of the worst blockbuster movies you'll ever see. This movie should work: a team of imprisoned villains and scoundrels are brought together and freed for the purpose of performing what's deemed a suicide mission. A Ben Affleck cameo ties things together, and the cast includes Viola Davis, Joel Kinnaman, Will Smith, Cara Delevigne, Jared Leto, and Margot Robbie. Unfortunately, Robbie is the only one who brings her A-game to the movie (put her in things as Harley Quinn forever). Quite literally nothing else, except for a couple musical cues, works at all.
Leto and Smith are aggressively bad in their roles for distinctly different reasons. Leto's Joker kind of works in theory, but he so wildly overplays it in his limited screentime that it's a joke, and not the kind of joke he was probably hoping for. Smith wasn't given the gift of good writing at all, but his delivery is bad, and it's clear that he refuses to accept the fact that he's playing a bad guy; instead of dialing into his character's immoral nature, he plays him as a wrongly accused hero. It doesn't work at all. And don't even get us started on Delevigne as the movie's main villain, a witch named Enchantress; it... it just does not work. At all.
The most upsetting part about all of this is that it's a pretty damn good concept—thankfully James Gunn's reboot/sequel The Suicide Squad, where Robbie, Viola Davis, and Jai Courtney, among others, return, got it right. But as far as the DCEU's continuity goes, if you want to watch in order, well, you've gotta watch.
Wonder Woman (2017)
Wonder Woman is good! The movie was a smash hit at the box office and pretty damn successful with critics alike upon release in 2017. While Gal Gadot's Diana Prince had already been introduced in Batman v Superman, Patty Jenkins' wonderfully directed Wonder Woman gives us a background story we can buy into about the Amazonian superhero. Chris Pine proves his place on the Mount Everest of Chrises as Steve Trevor, Diana's badass pilot love interest. There are a number of memorable action sequences throughout the film, and the overall plot feels accordingly epic, while still fitting in with the other surrounding universe pieces.
Justice League (2017)
Unfortunately, things went back to bad with Justice League in 2017. Let's talk about the bright spots first: Ezra Miller is actually fun as The Flash, and the first real look at Jason Momoa as Aquaman shows him to be a pretty fun character too. Cavill is fine (though he has an awkwardly-digitally-removed mustache), as are Gadot and Affleck. But the movie is kind of a mishmash of things, and the villain is generic and awful.
Due to a personal tragedy, Zack Snyder exited production before Justice League concluded and Avengers director Joss Whedon ended up controversially finishing the film. As a result, years later, a fan campaign eventually resulted in Snyder's re-filmed, re-edited, four-hour-long cut of Justice League entering production and eventually existence, as Zack Snyder's Justice League, a vast improvement on this piece of crap.
Aquaman (2018)
At least Aquaman is self-aware enough to not take itself that seriously; Jason Momoa plays a version of Aquaman that comics and cartoons never really portrayed, and he laughs and grins between the overwrought drama and action at least. This movie has an absolutely stellar supporting cast, including Nicole Kidman and Temuera Morrison as Aquaman's parents, along with villains played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Patrick Wilson, and Willem Dafoe riding around on a seahorse.
Shazam! (2019)
The aptly-titled Shazam! follows Aquaman's lead in not taking it anywhere near as seriously as its preceding films. Shazam! plays kind of like an adventure film from the '80s, following a kid named Billy Batson in a foster home who suddenly gets mystical, Superman-esque powers and becomes an adult version of himself (played by Zachary Levi). Jack Dylan Grazer is, as usual, a charming kid as Billy's friend, and Mark Strong, as usual, plays a great villain.
Birds of Prey (2020)
Birds of Prey is the most fun movie in the DC Extended Universe. Centering on a post-breakup Harley Quinn (thank you, writers, for excluding this universe's Joker from the narrative), the movie finds her on a wacky, anti-hero, renegade journey through Gotham's criminal underworld, coming into contact with a host of other badass women including a cop played by Rosie Perez, a singer played by Jurnee Smollett, and a vigilante played by Mary-Elizabeth Winstead. And the movie's villain, Roman Sionis/Black Mask, is played with some much-needed fun and gusto by the always-great Ewan McGregor. McGregor and Robbie here are just excellent, giving two of the best performances by anyone in the entire DCEU.
Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
This movie certainly makes some big swings, and its casting can't be blamed: aside from the returning Gal Gadot and Chris Pine, the movie adds Kristin Wiig and Pedro Pascal as villains. Both give it a damn good effort—and Pascal really goes herculean with the ham, something that certainly does't hurt the movie. The movie doesn't really work (and doesn't really connect to anything else in the DCEU), but the reasons aren't quite the same as the earlier films in the franchise; WW84 isn't too dark or dreary—it just kind of becomes too much. Hard to get too much deeper without spoiling, but there's a lot of disbelief suspension required to make it all the way through this overstuffed flick.
Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)
It's four hours long, so this is a big ask. But we'd actually advocate to watch Zack Snyder's Justice League—also known as the mythical and much-hyped Snyder Cut—instead of the Joss Whedon theatrical cut. This movie treats its characters with much more care, and is in general just... a lot better and more captivating. While the movie sets up some threads that likely won't be followed, it's a much better conclusion to some of these arcs than what the original film gave us. Ray Fisher's Cyborg and Affleck's Batman, in particular, feel much more fully formed. Snyder is a professional director, and this is the story he always wanted to tell.
The Suicide Squad (2021)
A great movie! The Suicide Squad is the best movie in the DCEU for a number of reasons; it connects to the other movies in the series if you'd like it to (Harley Quinn, for instance, shows some signs of her growth from Birds of Prey), but otherwise can be watched without any context by just about anyone with even cursory knowledge of the DC world. (Do you know who Superman is? If so, you're good to go! And even that is only in there to add a little bit of context for one character in one line.) Even though some characters return, you don't need to remember anything about the 2016 Suicide Squad. And that is certainly for the better.
Adding James Gunn to the mix as the movie's writer/director is the best choice any DC movie has made since Wonder Woman signing Patty Jenkins up. Gunn's ability to balance an exciting but deft story with big-time laughs (and very fun super violence) make him the perfect fit for this R-rated DCEU flick. Margot Robbie is great as Harley Quinn as always, and an vastly-improved Kinnaman makes Rick Flag into the heart of the movie. Viola Davis sells her Amanda Waller role, and Idris Elba and Sylvester Stallone are among the standout newcomers. Perhaps the best performance in the entire movie is John Cena, who seems to tap into an action/humor space he's been building toward for a long time. If you're into The Boys or Deadpool, this is a very similar vibe. And then afterwards, you can watch Peacemaker.
Black Adam (2022)
Look—this is not a good movie. Sorry! It's just not. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson took a long road (more than a decade) to get here, and his attempt to change the "hierarchy of power" in the DC Extended Universe did not work out. That said, it connects with some other stuff in a few particularly notable ways, including appearances from a few familiar characters (and a post-credits scene that won't ever go anywhere). You know who's fun in this movie? Pierce Brosnan is fun in this movie.
Stream It Here
Shazam: Fury of the Gods (2023)
The Shazam sequel is part of this connected world, but doesn't really connect to the world, outside of a cameo or two. That said, it's got a star-studded cast, so if you're a fan of Helen Mirren, Rachel Zegler, or Lucy Liu, this could be the movie for you. The movie did not do particularly well at the box office, so don't hold your breath waiting to see these characters again as DC moves into its next era.
The Flash (2023)
As James Gunn and Peter Safran get ready to usher in a new era of DC as co-CEOS, The Flash could be the end, really, of the DC Extended Universe as we know it; Ezra Miller, who was first cast in this world in Batman v. Superman by Zack Snyder, is still the titular, lightning-fast star, and comes with all sorts of crimes and problems following them. But the movie, with its massive budget and numerous cameos, was vital to the future of the universe—and so it's being released in all of its multiverse-shattering glory. If this is the end of the DCEU, well, it's been a weird run. On to the DCU we go.
