DC Comics' Cinematic Universe

The DC Comics' Cinematic Universe (DCCU) is an American media franchise and shared universe that is centered on a series of superhero films, independently produced by DC Films and based on characters that appear in American comic books published by DC Comics. The franchise has expanded to include comic books, short films, television series, and digital series. The shared universe, much like the original DC Universe in comic books, was established by crossing over common plot elements, settings, cast, and characters.

The first film released in the DCCU was Batman Begins (2008), which began the first phase of films culminating in the crossover film DC's Justice League (2012). Phase Two began with The Dark Knight Rises (2013), and concluded with Booster Gold (2015). The films are currently in Phase Three, which began with the release of Superman: Doomsday (2016).

The franchise has been commercially successful as a multimedia shared universe, though some critics have found that some of its films and television series have suffered in service of the wider universe. It has inspired other film and television studios with comic book character adaptation rights to attempt to create similar shared universes.

FILMS
POST PHASE 3:

Nightwing (July 5, 2019)

Green Lantern: Blackest Night (May 1, 2020)

(August 7, 2020)

The Flash: Rogues (November 2, 2020)

MAN OF STEEL
The planet Krypton, unstable from years of industrial mining, faces impending destruction. Jor-El, chief advisor to Krypton's supreme council, recommends a full-scale evacuation of the planet's inhabitants. Before any action can be taken, soldiers led by General Zod, an old friend of Jor-El's, launch an uprising and arrest the councilors. Realizing that Krypton is doomed, Jor-El sends his infant son, Kal-El – to Earth. Zod orders the rocket's destruction, only to learn that forces loyal to the council have suppressed the rebellion. In a brief trial, Zod and a handful of surviving rebels are convicted of treason and imprisoned in the Phantom Zone just seconds before Krypton explodes.

Following Jor-El's coordinates, the rocket lands in the Kansas town of Smallville. A childless couple, Jonathan and Martha Kent, recover the infant Kal and adopt him, naming him Clark. As he grows up, Clark becomes an outcast as a result of developing superhuman abilities. He then learns his true origins from Jonathan, who tries to push Clark into the right direction. Several years later, Clark leaves to wander the world under several aliases, seeking a purpose.

Lois Lane, a veteran journalist at the Daily Planet, receives an assignment to investigate the discovery of a Kryptonian scout ship in the Canadian Arctic. Clark, posing as a worker, enters the ship and activates its central computer using a key left by Jor-El, allowing him to communicate with an artificial intelligence modeled after his father. The AI explains that Clark was sent to Earth to guide its people, and presents him with a Kryptonian uniform bearing his family's symbol. Meanwhile, Lois, who had been following Clark, accidentally triggers the ship's security system. Clark saves her and uses his heat vision to cauterize her wounds before donning the uniform and testing his ability to fly. Lois attempts to get editor Perry White to publish an article on the incident, but he refuses to do so without proof.

Zod and his crew, having escaped from the Phantom Zone, travel to Earth after intercepting a transmission from the scout vessel. Deducing that Kal-El is nearby, they broadcast a global address demanding that he surrender or risk war. Clark meets with the U.S. Army and agrees to comply. Zod reveals that he possesses advanced terraforming equipment salvaged from Kryptonian outposts, which he intends to use to transform Earth into a new Krypton. With help from Jor-El, Clark escapes while Zod and his forces attack the Kent farm to locate Kal-El's ship, which holds Krypton's genetic codex. Zod's forces kill Jonathan and confronts Martha before a furious Clark subdue them away. Clark warns Lois and the U.S. Military just as Zod orders his invasion.

Given the codename "Superman", Clark destroys the terraforming platform, while his human allies launch a suicide attack that kills Zod's troops. Enraged, Zod vows to eradicate all humans himself, and engages Superman in a brutal hand-to-hand fight. With the help of Lois, Superman is able to activate the phantom drive, and traps Zod back inside.

Recognizing that he is now the last surviving Kryptonian, Superman persuades the Army to let him act independently, so long as he does not turn against them. To allow access to dangerous situations without attracting attention, Superman is hired as a freelance reporter for the Daily Planet as Clark Kent.

BATMAN BEGINS
As a child, Bruce Wayne falls down into a dry well and is attacked by a swarm of bats, subsequently developing a phobia of the creatures. While watching an opera with his parents, Thomas and Martha, Bruce becomes frightened by performers masquerading as bats and asks to leave. Outside, mugger Joe Chill murders Bruce's parents in front of him. Orphaned, Bruce is raised by the family butler, Alfred Pennyworth.

Fourteen years later, Chill is freed in exchange for testifying against Gotham City mafia boss Carmine Falcone. Bruce intends to murder Chill, but one of Falcone's assassins does so first. Bruce's childhood friend, assistant district attorney Rachel Dawes, berates him for attempting to undermine the justice system, saying that his father would be ashamed. Bruce confronts Falcone, who tells him that real power comes from being feared. Bruce decides to travel the world and learn how to confront injustice. While serving a prison sentence for theft in Bhutan, he meets Henri Ducard, who trains him as a member of the League of Shadows, led by Ra's al Ghul. After completing his training and purging his fears, Bruce learns that the League intends to destroy Gotham, believing it to be corrupt, decadent, hypocritical and beyond saving. Bruce rejects the League's cause and burns down their temple during his escape. Ra's is killed by falling debris, while Bruce saves the unconscious Ducard.

Bruce returns to Gotham intent on fighting crime. Inspired by his childhood fear, he takes up the vigilante identity of "the Batman" and sets up a base in the caves beneath Wayne Manor. He takes an interest in his family's company, Wayne Enterprises, now run by the unscrupulous William Earle. Company archivist Lucius Fox allows Bruce access to prototype defense technologies, including a protective bodysuit and a heavily armored car, the Tumbler. Bruce poses as a shallow playboy to allay suspicion.

Batman intercepts a drug shipment, provides Rachel with evidence against Falcone, and enlists Sergeant James Gordon, one of the few honest cops left in Gotham, to arrest him. In prison, Falcone meets with Dr. Jonathan Crane, a corrupt psychiatrist whom he has helped smuggle drugs into Gotham, and threatens to reveal his complicity if he does not declare him mentally unfit for trial. Crane puts on a scarecrow mask and sprays Falcone with a fear-inducing hallucinogen that drives him insane (which causes Falcone to constantly mouth the word "Scarecrow"), and has him transferred to Arkham Asylum. While investigating "the Scarecrow", Batman is exposed to the hallucinogen and left incapacitated. He is saved by Alfred and given an antidote developed by Fox. When Rachel accuses Crane of corruption, Crane reveals that he has been pouring his fear-inducing drug into Gotham's water supply. He drugs Rachel with it, but Batman saves her and subdues Crane, who claims to work for Ra's al Ghul. Batman evades the police to get Rachel to safety, administers the antidote, and gives her a vial of it for Gordon and another for mass production. Ducard reappears at Bruce's birthday party and reveals himself to be the true Ra's al Ghul. Having stolen a powerful microwave emitter from Wayne Enterprises, he plans to vaporize Gotham's water supply, rendering Crane's drug airborne and causing mass hysteria that will destroy the city. He sets Wayne Manor aflame and leaves Bruce to die, but Alfred rescues him.

Ra's loads the microwave emitter onto Gotham's monorail system, intending to release the drug as the train travels toward the city's central water source. Batman rescues Rachel from a drugged mob and indirectly reveals his identity to her. He pursues Ra's onto the monorail and fights him just as Gordon uses the Tumbler's cannons to destroy a section of the track. Batman refuses to kill Ra's, but also chooses not to save him, gliding from the train and leaving Ra's aboard as it crashes and explodes, killing him.

Bruce gains Rachel's respect but loses her love, as she decides she cannot be with him while he is Batman. Bruce buys a controlling stake in the now publicly traded Wayne Enterprises, fires Earle, and replaces him with Fox. Gordon is promoted to Lieutenant of the Gotham City Police Department, shows Batman the Bat-Signal, and mentions a criminal who leaves Joker playing cards at crime scenes. Batman promises to investigate, and disappears into the night.

WONDER WOMAN
In present-day Paris, Diana Prince receives a photographic plate of herself and four men taken during World War I, prompting her to recall her past. Daughter of Queen Hippolyta, Diana was raised on the hidden island of Themyscira, home to the Amazonian warrior women created by Zeus to protect mankind. Hippolyta shares the Amazonian history with Diana, including how Ares, Zeus's son, became jealous of humanity and orchestrated its destruction. When the other gods attempted to stop him, Ares killed all but Zeus, who used the last of his power to wound Ares and force his retreat (thus dying in the process). Zeus left the Amazons the island and a weapon, the "Godkiller", to prepare them for Ares' return.

Initially forbidding Diana to train as a warrior, Hippolyta allows her sister Antiope to train Diana, only more rigorously than any other warrior. In 1918, Diana, now a young woman, rescues American pilot Captain Steve Trevor when his plane crashes off the Themysciran coast. The island is soon invaded by a German ship pursuing Trevor. The Amazons kill the crew, but Antiope sacrifices herself to save Diana. Steve is interrogated with the Lasso of Hestia, and reveals that a war is consuming the outside world, and that he is an Allied spy. He has stolen a notebook of the chief chemist Isabel Maru, who is attempting to engineer a deadlier form of mustard gas, under the orders of General Erich Ludendorff. Believing Ares to be responsible for the war, Diana arms herself with the "Godkiller" sword, the lasso, and her armor before leaving Themyscira with Steve to locate and destroy Ares for good.

In London, they deliver Maru's notebook to the Supreme War Council, where Sir Patrick Morgan is trying to negotiate an armistice with Germany. Diana translates Maru's notes and reveals that the Germans plan to release the deadly gas at the Western Front. Although forbidden by his commander to act, Steve, with secret funding from Sir Patrick, recruits spy Sameer, marksman Charlie, and smuggler Chief to help prevent the gas from being released. The team reaches the front in Belgium. Diana goes alone through No Man's Land and captures the enemy trench, allowing the Allied forces to help her liberate the village of Veld. The team briefly celebrates, while Diana and Steve grow closer romantically.

The team learns a gala will be held at the nearby German High Command. Steve and Diana separately infiltrate the party, with Steve intending to locate the gas and destroy it, while Diana intends to kill Ludendorff, believing that he is Ares and thus killing him will end the war. Steve stops her to avoid jeopardizing his mission, but this allows Ludendorff to unleash the gas on Veld, killing its inhabitants. Blaming Steve for intervening, Diana pursues Ludendorff to a base where the gas is being loaded into a bomber aircraft bound for London. Diana fights and kills Ludendorff, but is confused and disillusioned when his death does not stop the war.

Sir Patrick appears and reveals himself as Ares. He tells Diana that although he has subtly given humans ideas and inspirations, using Ludendorff and Maru as pawns in the process, it is ultimately their decision to resort to violence as they are inherently corrupt. When Diana attempts to kill Ares with the "Godkiller" sword, he destroys it, then reveals Diana to be the "Godkiller", as the daughter of Zeus and Hippolyta. He fails to persuade Diana to help him destroy mankind to restore paradise on Earth. While the two battle, Steve's team destroys Maru's laboratory. Steve hijacks and pilots the bomber carrying the gas to a safe altitude and detonates it, sacrificing himself in the process. Ares attempts to direct Diana's rage and grief at Steve's death by convincing her to kill Maru, but the memories of her experiences with Steve cause her to realize that humans have good within them. She spares Maru and redirects Ares' lightning into him, killing him. Later, the team celebrates the end of the war. In the present day, Diana sends an email to Bruce Wayne thanking him for the photographic plate of her and Steve and reaffirms her new mission to fight and give on the world's behalf.

In a post credits scene, Etta Candy finds Diana and Steve Trevor's old allies in their favourite pub to deliver their next mission. She talks about delivering something very old and very powerful to America after it was uncovered on the battlefields of the First World War.

BATMAN VS SUPERMAN
Twenty two months after Superman 's destructive battle with General Zod in Metropolis, Superman has become a controversial figure. Billionaire Bruce Wayne, who has operated in Gotham City as the vigilante "Batman" for nearly two decades, sees Superman as a potential threat to humanity. After discovering Batman's brutal forms of justice, Clark views Batman as a threat and seeks to stop him. Lois Lane interviews a warlord in Nairomi but LexCorp 's mogul Lex Luthor stages a mass shootout and Superman's interference causes an international incident.

In Gotham City, The Joker enters into an antique shop and steals large pieces of Kryptonite found in the bottom of the Indian Ocean following the results of Zod's terraforming attempt. Batman examines a peice of the kryptonite, and realizing what the Joker is up to, heads off to Metropolis. Wayne attends a gala at LexCorp where he meets Diana Prince and she gives him encrypted data from the company's mainframe. While decrypting the drive at the Batcave, Wayne discovers that Luthor is experimenting with kryptonite. Wayne admits to Alfred Pennyworth that he plans to steal the kryptonite, but to weaponize it, should it become necessary to fight Superman. That night, Joker sets up his base in Metropolis and Batman appears and finds a runaway thug from the gang Joker recruited. While Batman is interrogating the thug, Superman arrives, saying he doesn't want Batman's brand of vigilantism in his town. The two briefly fight while the thug escapes. Using his x-ray vision, Superman looks beneath the mask and sees that Batman is Bruce Wayne. Batman then pulls out the fragment of Kryptonite and warns Superman of Joker's plan.

At a congressional hearing, as Finch questions Superman on the validity of his actions, a bomb goes off and kills everyone present but Superman. Believing he should have detected the bomb, and frustrated by his failure to save them, Superman goes into self-imposed exile. Batman breaks into LexCorp and steals the kryptonite. Meanwhile, Luthor enters the Kryptonian ship and accesses a vast technology database accumulated from over 100,000 worlds. He is informed about the kryptonite stolen and realizes that he'll be connected to the crime. He decides to cut his losses and orders one more meeting with Joker.

Joker and Luthor meet at a LexCorp aeronautics factory, where Luthor informs Joker that he intends to kill him and frame him for all the mayhem that's been going on. Joker is able to then take Luthor prisoner. Since he can no longer collect his billion dollars, Joker decides on a "consolation prize": Luthor's heavily armed airship. Luthor asks how much he'll have to pay for his release, but Joker says he isn't interested in money anymore. Instead, he wants to destroy everything Luthor built, just as Batman destroyed everything that he built. Batman and Superman arrive but are attacked by Lexcorp's security system before they can stop Joker from taking off. They are then confronted by Wallace Keefe, a former Wayne's Enterprises employee armed with kryptonite. Batman pursues Joker while Superman battles Wallace, using lead Wayne gave him to protect him from the kryptonite.

While Batman confronts the Joker, Superman arrives just in time to steer the wing away from a collision with a building. Joker accidentally drops his entire bag of marble grenades and as the grenades start to explode, the Joker starts laughing. The wing is destroyed as it crashes into the ocean. Joker's body isn't found, Luthor is arrested and Batman confronts him in prison. He warns Luthor that he will always be watching him. Luthor warns back that Superman's presence on Earth has made the world challengeable to powerful alien threats. Bruce later reveals to Clark that he plans to form a team of metahumans to help protect the world.

In a post credits scene, Luthor has been taken to a CADMUS facility, where Amanda Waller opens a briefcase and asks him to study a mysterious cube-shaped object, which Waller says may hold untold power. An invisible Ares prompts Luthor to agree, and he does.

GREEN LANTERN
Billions of years ago, beings called the Guardians of the Universe used the green essence of willpower to create an intergalactic police force called the Green Lantern Corps. They divided the universe into 3600 sectors, with one Green Lantern per sector. One such Green Lantern, Abin Sur of Sector 2814, crash-lands on Earth where he commands his power ring to find a worthy successor. Hal Jordan, a cocky test pilot working at Ferris Aircraft, is chosen by the ring and transported to the crash site, where the dying Abin Sur appoints him a Green Lantern, telling him to take the lantern and speak the oath. Jordan says the oath and is whisked away to the Green Lantern Corps home planet of Oa, where he meets and trains with veteran Corps members Tomar-Re, Kilowog, and Corps leader Sinestro, who is investigating Abin Sur's death.

Hal is placed under the supervision of Sinestro, who believes he is unfit and fearful. While undercover on the ship of infamous warlord Kanjar Ro, they search for the whereabouts of a stolen yellow element that Abin had come under attacked by. However, unbeknownst to the other Green Lanterns, Sinestro had provided Kanjar with the location of the element in order to have it fashioned into a weapon of comparable power to the Green Lantern battery. Jordan realizes that Sinestro's beliefs are not in line with those of the Guardians, and during the mission, he is knocked unconscious by Kanjar's energy staff. Sinestro then kills Kanjar, pinning the blame on Jordan. As punishment, the Guardians strip Jordan of his ring.

While Jordan waits to be taken home, Jordan convinces fellow Lanterns Boodikka and Kilowog that Sinestro is not what he seems. When they catch Sinestro enacting his plot, Boodikka reveals her true allegiance and incapacitates Kilowog, allowing Sinestro to escape. On Qward, the Weaponers bestow Sinestro with the yellow ring and battery. Using its power, he lays waste to Oa, the yellow light easily overpowering the Green Lantern rings. The yellow battery destroys the green battery, rendering all the Green Lantern Corps' power rings inert and causing death by asphyxiation of countless Green Lanterns who were in space at the time of their rings' failure. Jordan, having recovered his ring moments too late, finds the battery and absorbs the whole of its power. Imbued with the full might of the green energy, he destroys the yellow battery. Having exhausted most of his power, Jordan is left to fight against Sinestro under his own power. After an intense hand-to-hand battle without constructs, Jordan uses the last of his power to knock Sinestro to the surface of Oa where Kilowog crushes the yellow ring with his foot. Kilowog then takes to the air and saves Jordan from a fatal fall to the planet's surface.

Once Oa is rebuilt and the Green Lantern battery is restored, the Guardians give their privilege in leading the Corps by reciting the Green Lantern oath, and congratulating Jordan and honoring him Green Lantern of Sector 2814. Jordan then leaves for Earth to check in with Carol Ferris, remarking on the long "commute".