10 Ways The DC Extended Universe Could End

Tired of its DC Extended Universe films stinking up Rotten Tomatoes, Warner could be a handful of critically-lambasted films away from abruptly cancelling the franchise.

If Wonder Woman's acclaim turns out to be a one-off and the negative reviews continue to flood in, there will come a time when they start to erode box office takings, no matter how critic-proof characters like Batman and Superman happen to be.

It's obvious Warner and DC are desperate to emulate the Marvel Cinematic Universe's formula for box office success and critical acclaim. The rival franchise has a strong track record of striking a balance between the two.

No doubt there's growing frustration at the studios regarding these recurrent creative failures, and if this continues, the powers that be could cut their losses on the DCEU and kill the project, with character arcs unfulfilled and plot threads left dangling.

Let's hope this doesn't happen, because there are few things worse in cinema than stories left untold, but if Warner concludes that standalone films are the only way to save its DC characters, the shift towards them could be more abrupt than gradual.