A recent report revealed that Disney tried to buy WarnerMedia in 2016. Here's what the DCEU could have looked like if the deal had gone through.

A recent report revealed that Disney attempted to acquire WarnerMedia in 2016, which could have created a very different future for the DCEU. AT&T ultimately ended up purchasing the media giant, which holds brands like DC Comics and HBO under its umbrella. It was recently announced that AT&T will be parting with WarnerMedia in a $43 billion deal with Discovery.

Since it began in 2013 with Man of Steel, the DCEU has been plagued by box office disappointments and questionable creative decisions. Zack Snyder’s original plan for a connected cinematic DC universe was cut short after the failures of Batman v. Superman and the theatrical cut of Justice League. More independent films like Aquaman and the Wonder Woman movies, initially meant to tie together in a manner similar to the MCU, have wound up as relatively isolated entries in a series that has struggled to find a united identity. Despite some recent hits and a few promising releases on the horizon, the DCEU is still struggling to create a brand as powerful and singular as the MCU.

But what if Disney had acquired Warner Bros. back in 2016, instead of AT&T? For starters, it would have made Disney the unparalleled king of pop culture, with ownership of Marvel, Star Wars, DC, Game of Thrones, the MonsterVerse, and many more beloved properties. For the DCEU specifically, though, it could have meant a much more united franchise with a very different tone. Here’s what a Disney-run DCEU may have looked like.

The Snyderverse Would Still Have Been Cancelled

Unfortunately for Snyder fans, A Disney acquisition of Warner Bros. Probably wouldn’t have saved the Snyderverse. Because films like Suicide Squad and Justice League were already well into development when the purchasing deal was proposed by Bob Iger, they would have likely still been released in 2017. The poor reaction to those films would have surely caused Disney to make the same move Warner bros. did – cancel the planned Justice League sequels and rethink the franchise. Since Disney likely would have wanted to reboot the DCEU with their own tone and storylines anyway, this would have been a perfect opportunity.

Most DCEU Characters Would Be Recast

With a franchise reboot, recasts are inevitable, and it’s unlikely that Disney would have kept stars like Ben Affleck (whose Batman was widely disliked), Ezra Miller, Jason Momoa, and Ray Fisher. Henry Cavill would have probably also been kicked from the Superman role, as his character was already pretty thoroughly developed in non-Disney movies. The most likely star to have been kept by Disney is Gal Gadot, for a couple of reasons. Wonder Woman was the DCEU’s most successful film at the time by far, and its tone and energy are much more in line with Disney’s overall brand image. It’s possible that Gadot and director Patty Jenkins could have been brought back for Disney’s DCEU, either in quasi-sequel to the original Wonder Woman or in a soft reboot.

What A Disney DCEU Would Mean For Batman

Out of all the DCEU characters, Batman would have been the trickiest for Disney to handle. The character and his stories have been almost exclusively portrayed as dark and gritty in recent decades – a style that clashes directly with the Disney brand. It wouldn’t be impossible for Disney to make a Batman movie, but it would have certainly looked different from the DCEU version, or even from Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy.

The best living example of what a Disney Batman franchise would look like is probably the 1989 Tim Burton Batman film, which maintained a level of dark imagery but played more to the colorful aspects of the Batman comics. With modern special effects and an MCU-caliber budget, such a film could have been quite successful. Superheroes have often been reinvented through the years, after all, and there’s no reason to think the right creative team couldn’t have made a compelling Batman that stayed loyal to the comics without getting too brutal and dark.

How Disney Would Change The Tone Of The DCEU

Beyond Batman, Disney wouldn’t have to make too many drastic changes to the tone of the DCEU. However, some shifts would be necessary. Zack Snyder’s dark approach to the universe wouldn’t work under Disney, and the overall tone of the DCEU would inevitably slide closer to the MCU – a more focus-tested, all-age friendly approach. However, it would still be in Disney’s best interest to maintain some stylistic differences between the two franchises. DC and Marvel have very different fan bases who often want very different things, and it would be detrimental to the overall DC brand if it became too similar to Marvel. Therefore, the DCEU under Disney would likely have still skewed toward an older audience. Shazam! is perhaps the best example from the current DCEU of what a Disney-run franchise could have looked like.

DC/Marvel Crossovers

A Disney/Warner merger would also bring huge potential in the realm of official Marvel and DC crossovers. The distinct styles and fan bases of the two franchises would mean they’d likely stay pretty independent – just as Marvel and Star Wars have stayed independent from one another at Disney – but there would inevitably be some crossover between them. At first, while Disney figured out its own spin on the DC brand, that would have probably meant minor things – streaming specials, shared advertising campaigns, and other smaller-scale projects. Eventually, though, Disney could have built to a big-budget theatrical crossover, invoking multiverse storylines to bring matchups like Superman vs. Thor and Iron Man vs. Batman.

The DCEU’s Future Films Would Be More Connected

Another way a Disney DCEU would have likely differed from the current one is in its interconnectedness. Obviously, the DCEU started out with big ambitions of a shared universe, but those plans were cut short after the Snyderverse was canceled by Warner. Since then, the DCEU has gone in a more fragmented direction, without plans for major crossover films like Avengers: Infinity War.

Disney has shown with both Marvel and Star Wars that it values worldbuilding over everything else in its franchises. While The Mandalorian can exist in a vacuum, it features numerous characters from the original trilogy, Clone Wars, and Star Wars Rebels. The DC universe has so many opportunities for big crossovers that it seems impossible Disney wouldn’t have taken advantage of them. That wouldn’t necessarily have meant copying the MCU model play for play, but it would have probably meant a large pool of characters and more cameos in individual films. We’ll never know for sure what a Disney DCEU would have looked like, but it certainly would have changed the landscape of modern pop culture in a massive way.

Next: Every DCEU Movie Ranked From Worst To Best (Including the Snyder Cut)