8 Critical Mistakes The DC Film Universe Has Made
4. Separating TV And Film Universes
Some would argue that this is a positive, considering how disconnected Marvel's TV shows are from its movies, but in the long run, it will do the DCEU more harm than good.
The Flash's TV series is the biggest case study here, a show that draws solid ratings and a strong fan response week in, week out, but despite this, Warner Bros. chose to hire a completely different actor to play a completely different version of the Flash in a completely different universe.
And that means, no matter how good Ezra Miller will be in the role, he'll ultimately be compared to his TV counterpart, Grant Gustin. And given that Gustin is a fan-favourite, a good chunk of the audience who digest DC's television and big-screen material will be against Miller from day one (his casting has already received a ton of backlash online) which could impact the reception and word-of-mouth of the film.
It's a conundrum similar to that of the relationship between Heath Ledger's Joker, and Jared Leto's; if Leto came first (or we never got The Dark Knight at all), would audiences have looked upon the character's portrayal in Suicide Squad a little more favourably? No matter how unrelated they are, different versions of a character do impact each other - usually in a negative way - and DC could begin to see this effect with their entire film universe.
And then there's the smaller issue of two different universes confusing the less-informed viewer, with multiple versions of a character running about at once, as well as the fact that both interpretations could end up feeling a little samey.
Whether you're a fan of Marvel's interconnected universe or not, having single portrayals of a character allows them to be definitive, and fresh, because we haven't seen them before - and DC have missed a trick here.