The DCU has an upswell of positivity behind it lately. The upcoming release of Superman has the DCU on everyone’s mind, which is very a good thing. DC Studios head James Gunn’s Superman has a lot to overcome, and it looks like it’s going to fly the DCU into a great future. This is something that honestly didn’t seem like it was ever going to happen for DC fans. The DCEU, the last attempt at DC superhero movies, was rife with bombs and failed to connect with anyone but the most fervent fans of director Zack Snyder, who basically abandoned it after Snyder left. The DCEU was a mitigated failure, and the fact that the DCU has so much positivity behind it is a huge change of pace.The failure of the DCEU didn’t come from just one factor, but a big part of the problems with the DCEU was the worldbuilding. The DCEU failed to take advantage of the best parts of DC Comics, and it turned off a lot of fans. The DCU has built a lot of anticipation, but it can still fail if it makes the same kinds of mistakes that the DCEU has made. Worldbuilding is one of the most important parts of a franchise as large as the DCU, and it needs to make up for the mistakes of the past.The DCU Needs to Remember the Key to Worldbuilding Is StorytellingThe biggest worldbuilding mistake that the DCEU made, and it’s honestly one that seems like it could be a problem looking at Superman, was that it rushed everything. Man of Steel wasn’t a massive hit, but it did well at the box office and with critics. Warner Bros. wanted some of that Marvel Cinematic Universe money and moved forward with using Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice as a way to do all of the work that Marvel Studios had done in Phase One in one movie. The DCEU’s worldbuilding didn’t work because they crammed too much of it into one movie. Instead of organically introducing characters, the DCEU tried to debut a bunch of them in one scene of a movie that was already introducing Batman, Lex Luthor, and Wonder Woman. Introducing three characters is a big job and an argument can be made that Batman v Superman did a good job with establishing who those characters were. However, everyone else? The movie would have been better off not even trying to introduce characters like the Flash, Cyborg, and Aquaman. Warner Bros. wanted to get to The Avengers without ever doing the movies to build those characters up.RELATED: Superman: Who Is the Movie’s Main Villain (And Is There A Secret One)?Right off the bat, it’s plain to see the similarities between Superman and Batman v Superman. Multiple DC characters are also making their first appearance in Superman, and it can be easy to paint this as a mistake sight unseen. However, the biggest problem with Batman v Superman‘s inclusion of characters like Flash, Cyborg, and Aquaman wasn’t that they appeared, it’s that their appearance didn’t matter to the story. To make this sort of thing work, new characters have to be a part of the story. That’s why Batman worked in Batman v Superman, because he was a part of the story. Superman in particular and the DCU in general need to remember that worldbuilding is actually, well, building. It’s fine to introduce a bunch of characters, but the way to do it isn’t a bunch of weird little cameos that have little to no bearing on the actual story. Worldbuilding is storytelling.

Characters like Mister Terrific, Hawkgirl, Guy Gardner, and Metamorpho all seem to be playing a role in the story of Superman, and that’s the way to go. They aren’t just there to show that this is a universe; that’s good worldbuilding. That’s the lesson that the DCEU didn’t always learn.The DCU Needs to Embrace the Strengths of DC ComicsThere’s another problem with the worldbuilding of the DCEU as well, and it’s that the DCEU never seemed to embrace what DC really is. The DCEU started out as a darker superhero alternative to the MCU, but that ignored the fact that DC Comics aren’t dark. Superman is a character defined by hope, who likes to rescue cats from trees for kids. Batman started his war against crime in order to make sure no one dies ever again, not so that he could kill criminals. DC stories aren’t always ponderous affairs about the nature of superheroes and gods — although DC does this very well — they’re more often fun superhero adventures about characters who smile and have fans who love them. The DCEU could never find a way to hit the right tone, and it suffered gravely for that.Superman will premiere in theaters on July 11th.