The DCU has stumbled a bit as of late. As Supergirl flops at the box office and Booster Gold now sits in limbo, the blossoming comic book universe has to lean heavily on two of its upcoming projects.

The DCU began with a lot of promise following 2025’s Superman, which kickstarted the DCU in the world of film. Since then, though, the universe has had some troubling stumbles. Supergirl, the next film in the DCU, was a massive disappointment, and might go down as one of 2026’s biggest box office flops (even if it maybe doesn’t warrant that).

On the TV side, the long-in-development Booster Gold show is now sitting in limbo, after David Jenkins’ version of the show is no longer moving forward as DC looks to find a new creative team. At one point, the DCU looked ready to come running out of the gate. Now, though, the next two projects set in the DCU have massive pressure on them.

Lanterns and Man of Tomorrow need to be big hits

While DC Studios would love everything it releases to be a success, the company is likely looking at its next two projects with much keener eyes. Lanterns and Man of Tomorrow, two high-profile projects set in the DCU, always had high expectations, but will now be looked at with even more pressure on it. Lanterns specifically, after months of criticism from fans and haters alike, faces the biggest pair of eyes.

On the movie side, Man of Tomorrow suddenly has a lot of weight on its shoulders, so to speak. After Supergirl underperformed at the box office, and Superman itself didn’t draw the billion-dollar mark some fans had hoped, the Superman follow-up will need to do very well. Thankfully, it seems like fans have taken to the Superman franchise much more than Supergirl, so that might not be the impossibility some may think it is.

On the whole, the DCU isn’t in an extremely dire place. It still seems like James Gunn and Peter Safran have a plan in place for the continuation of the universe. However, any more poorly received projects, and with WB and Paramount’s merger looming, and it wouldn’t be too shocking to see WB begin to look at the universe a bit more closely.