Warning: This article contains spoilers for Black Adam.The DCEU has been in a state of course correction for five years, but after Black Adam, the biggest mistake Warner Bros. hasn't fixed yet is Ray Fisher's Cyborg. While there were many mistakes made in the early days of the DCEU and the universe was in a state of disarray after the fallout of Justice League's reshoots, Warner Bros. is slowly putting the pieces back together, but still has a ways to go.
Replacing Zack Snyder with Joss Whedon as the director of Justice League and conducting massive rewrites and reshoots caused massive damage to the brand and derailed years of planning. One of the biggest stories to come out of the reshoots was Ray Fisher's claims of abuse, racism, and toxicity towards the cast during reshoots from Joss Whedon, DC Films co-presidents Geoff Johns, and John Berg, and their replacement, Walter Hamada, who wasn't even DC Films president when the reshoots happened, but Fisher says he tried to obstruct an investigation into the allegations. With the recent departure of Hamada, every person Fisher accused by name has left the studio, possibly opening the door to fix their relationship with Fisher and bring Cyborg back to the DCEU.
The Justice League Debacle Derailed The Whole DCEU
Justice League became the laughingstock of the DCEU after its release thanks to its cringe dialogue, corny jokes, poor character, and bad CGI, including an embarrassing CGI mustache removal on Superman's (Henry Cavill) face. The movie's intent was to pivot away from Zack Snyder's controversial approach to the DC Universe, but instead, it put a virtual halt to the development of the franchise. Zack Snyder's original DCEU roap had been abandoned, Henry Cavill and Ben Affleck both seemed to be done with their roles as Superman and Batman, and Ray Fisher said he wouldn't play Cyborg in a movie produced by Walter Hamada.
After failing to provide a more enticing alternative for the franchise, Warner Bros. finally released Zack Snyder's Justice League. While the studio claimed it marked the end of Zack Snyder's time with DC, releasing Zack Snyder's Justice League fixed a major injustice as Snyder's movie was clearly superior and he'd been muscled out of his role as director in the wake of a family tragedy. While a sequel to Zack Snyder's Justice League isn't currently in the cards, the release of the Snyder Cut fixed the DCEU's biggest mistake.
Black Adam Gives The DCEU Direction Again
It may not be the five-part Superman and Justice League arc charted out by Zack Snyder, but the DCEU is finally building towards something again. In the wake of Justice League 2017, the DCEU had abandoned Darkseid and the Knightmare and all the interesting future teases set up in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Man of Steel, but none of the new DC movies provided any kind of replacement. Justice League's reshoots added a tease for the Legion of Doom or Injustice League to face off against the Justice League next, but none of the following movies did anything to build towards that end.
The DCEU still has a long way to go in this regard, but Black Adam gives the universe a direction again, particularly with Henry Cavill's appearance as Superman in the post-credits scene. It may not be as big of a tease as Snyder's Knightmare future or Darkseid, but having Superman back in the DCEU back in the DCEU is a big deal. Instead of treading water, the DCEU can finally move forward, and another Justice League movie with the original cast could even be in the cards.
The DCEU Finally Got Back Its Biggest Actors
Superman's story was dead in the water after Whedon's Justice League. While Snyder continued him down an arc mapped out over several more movies, Whedon quickly resolved all the plots involving Superman, accelerating his character growth to the point that there was no obvious place to take the character next. In addition to his cheesy writing and somewhat frightening CGI face, it looked like Cavill could be done playing the character. While there was still strong demand from fans for him to return, it turns out Walter Hamada was actively blocking his return to the franchise, and it took Dwayne Johnson going over his head to Warner Bros. Pictures heads Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy (and Hamada's departure) to get Cavill back for his Black Adam cameo.
Meanwhile, Ben Affleck also had a rough time during Justice League, leading him to walk away from directing his own Batman movie and leaving the role altogether. Despite swearing off the role in multiple interviews, Affleck participated in some additional photography for Zack Snyder's Justice League and then eventually agreed to come back and play Batman for The Flash, and will now also appear in Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom. It's not clear how invested Affleck is in the franchise this time, but having the DCEU's original Batman and Superman actors secured repairs one of the biggest consequences of Whedon's Justice League.
Ray Fisher Is the Biggest Mistake WB Hasn't Fixed Yet
Despite getting the universe back on track and bringing back Affleck and Cavill, the DCEU will still have the looming shadow of the behind-the-scenes situation on Justice League until Ray Fisher returns to the role of Cyborg. Fortunately, all the execs accused by Fisher are now gone, so there shouldn't be any remaining tension between Fisher and the studio.
It would be an obvious smart gesture to extend an olive branch to Fisher to bring him back to Cyborg. Not only would it get the character back on the screen again and undo an injustice, but it would also send a strong signal at a time when Warner Bros. Discovery could benefit from the PR undoing past injustices.
While the DCEU has felt mostly aimless since 2017, the release of the Snyder Cut, the return of Ben Affleck's Batman, and now the return of Henry Cavill's Superman in Black Adam finally fix many of the things that had gone wrong in the franchise. At this point repairing bridges with Ray Fisher to bring him back as Cyborg would finally undo most of the damage done to the DCEU by previous Warner Bros. istrations.
