After the downfall of the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), the new DC Universe (DCU) cinematic universe has risen from the ashes and kicks off with Superman on July 11, 2025.
Fans of DC have both eagerly anticipated this meant and dreaded it ever since filmmaker James Gunn announced DC Studios’ planned DCU line up in early 2023 with a slate of films and TV shows. The first TV show which actually started the DCU last year was the animated Creature Commandos which streamed on Max. The show received positive reactions although it seemed similar to James Gunn’s DCEU film The Suicide Squad, but with monsters as the main characters forced to work for the government instead of supervillains. One thing that Gunn made clear was that Creature Commandos was canon to the DCU and even one of the featured characters from that show, Rick Flagg, Sr., will appear in Superman.
Right now, fandom and the public at large are focused on Superman, which inaugurates the DCU in live action. The marketing push for the film is very intense and pervasive with the usual deluge of merchandise and trailers (but gotta admit any merch about Krypto the Super Dog is so damn cute; Gunn has a way with animals) and publicity. There is a good reason for the push by DC Studios’ parent company Warner Bros.
RIP DCEU
As everyone knows, the DCEU was supposed to be film studio’s answer to Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), which has been wildly successful ever since it debuted in 2008. The DCEU had everything going for it: popular superheroes that enjoyed success in the box office and TV with projects like Christopher Nolan’s Batman films, the Arrowverse on TV and Smallville. Even Nolan helped launch the DCEU by helping to create Man of Steel. But for many reasons the DCEU was plagued by many problems, mostly due to studio interference, impatience and greed. Warner Bros. was in a rush to compete with the MCU and didn’t allow the DCEU to grow organically and build up a fanbase like with the MCU. Instead of carefully introducing characters, they were clumsily mashed together just to premiere Justice League, the DCEU answer to The Avengers, just a few short years after Man of Steel. Many of the films were not well received and it seemed as if the DCEU was playing catch up with the MCU. But what really killed the DCEU was interference by studio executives who were chasing the almighty dollar and did not seem to care about the quality of the films.
Despite attempts to salvage the DCEU by the early 2020s it was clear that the cinematic universe was without direction and falling apart. To the studio’s credit, they recognized James Gunn’s talent and vision with The Suicide Squad and offered him the opportunity to revamp its cinematic universe. He essentially started over with the DC properties and has launched the DCU with its initial projects being labeled as Chapter One: Gods & Monsters. Of course, this entailed huge changes including the recasting of the DC characters. Actors, like Henry Cavill, were removed from playing iconic characters and in the case of Jason Momoa, he was recast to play a different role in the DCU. This development was controversial and incense some fans of the DCEU who automatically hated anything to do with the DCU and have taken to the Internet to troll Gunn and the DCU. Unfortunately, that is par for the course with social media these days.
The Disney + Star Wars TV series Andor concluded to much deserved acclaim, and it did something that seemed improbable given the state of the Star Wars franchise. Andor has helped create renewed enthusiasm for Star Wars as it showed how versatile and mature the franchise can be.
Ever since Disney acquired Star Warsfrom its creator George Lucas, the projects the company and Lucasfilm put out have received mixed reactions. At first, the franchise received a lot of renewed enthusiasm after the releases of Disney’s first two Star Wars films, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
But the reception to the following films, Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, Solo: A Star Wars Story and Star WarsEpisode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, was a lot less muted as many fans soured against the Disney films. As a result, the box office returns were not quite as high as the early films and in fact, Solo did not perform well in theaters.
This Was the Way
The Star Wars franchise recovered significantly when the first Disney + StarWars TV show, The Mandalorian, debuted on the streaming app in 2019. For a couple of years, Mandalorian fever gripped fans and the larger public as Grogu, the infant Yoda-like co-star of the show captured the public’s hearts and imagination. It seemed as if the TV show single-handedly rescued the franchise and injected new life into it. However, many of the other Star Wars TV shows were not as popular or had the level of quality as The Mandalorian, except for Andor. In fact, although Andor did not have the high viewership numbers that The Mandalorian enjoyed, it was a massive critical hit as it presented a fresh and adult take on Star Wars with its grounded look at how the Rebellion began in earnest against the Galactic Empire.
Still, despite Andor’s critical success, Star Wars on the whole was floundering as inferior TV shows like The Book of Boba Fett and Ahsoka disappointed fans and emboldened toxic trolls to attack Star Wars. Then there was the fact that the film franchise was essentially dead as many announced films never went into production, except for next year’s The Mandalorian and Grogu. Even recently, The Mandalorian fell out of favor with many fans because of its third season, which was not as well received as its first two seasons.
New Heights of Quality Star Wars Television
When the second season of Andor first streamed fans and critics applauded the show’s mature, sweeping and complex nature with its nuanced and well-developed characters that quickly generated memes and online discussion about the nature of defiance, sacrifice and societies.
What truly captured the hearts of fans were its story arcs devoted to the Ghorman Massacre and the final arc that wrapped up the story lines of many characters including Cassian Andor himself. The last time we see him, he was departing for what would be his final mission in Rogue One. A mission he never returned from. What made his final on screen moments so heartbreaking was the revelation in Andor’s final scene that he fathered a child that he would never know. And no, this child is not Poe Dameron from the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy.
What made Andor so great and unique was that it had no connection to the Jedi, the Sith, or the larger Star Wars/Skywalker saga. It instead focused on random, everyday people living regular lives and how the Empire affected them to either join the cause or support the Empire through simple acts that cascaded into mass movements that affected the galaxy.
It should be noted that Andor was not the only TV show to break out of the traditional Star Wars mold. Others like Skeleton Crew and The Acolyte gave us different stories that took place at different time periods and had little to do with the Skywalker Saga. However, they were not as regarded as highly as Andor.
Andor just completed its second and final season on Disney + and it proved beyond question that it is the greatest Star Wars TV show ever presented. Some fans may complain that it is too slow or too adult or too unlike StarWars, but they are missing the point. Andor demonstrates that Star Wars can be much more than action-oriented, near fantasy stories that are supposedly geared more to children. The IP is much more than that and Andor shows us the potential of what Star Wars can be.
The second season of Andor is broken up into three-episode arcs, with each arc taking place a year apart as the overall narrative counts down to the original Star Wars and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. As each arc progresses, we get to see how the complex characters develop and grow.
Among the great things about Andor are its rich characters starting with the title character himself, Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), a spy for the burgeoning Rebel Alliance. In the early years of the rebellion against the Galactic Empire, Andor travels through many worlds on spy missions to undermine the Empire. But in his heart, even though he detests the Empire, he wants to retire to a quiet life with his girlfriend, Bix Caleen (Adria Arjona), who is suffering from PTSD after being tortured by the Empire in the first season. Sadly, as anyone who has seen Rogue One knows, that is not to be for Cassian. Knowing Andor’s ultimate fate and the impact he will unknowingly have in the fight against the Empire makes his personal growth so compelling. We see that he has grown as a character since the first season. Back then, he largely looked out for himself and only through tragedies did he join the Rebellion. When we see him throughout the second season, Andor is now a polished spy who could blend into several environments as he pulls off capers like stealing advanced Imperial TIE fighters or doing reconnaissance in the tragic world of Ghorman, as it becomes a hotbed for unrest against the Empire.
It turned out that the storyline in Ghorman, which continued through two arcs, was the centerpiece of Andor. We get to see a rich culture that seemed vaguely European and an obvious stand-in for France during World War II with amateur spies and rebels facing a hopeless situation against the Empire. What made matters worse was that the unrest on Ghorman was orchestrated by the Empire just to create a media narrative that the populace was full of terrorists just so the planet could be mined for a mineral needed for the Death Star battle station. The entire storyline was an unsettling mirror and a damning commentary for our current situation where people blindly believe whatever narrative government officials tell them and the misuse of media.
The two-part story arc of Ghorman culminated in the so-called Ghorman massacre in the seventh episode as many brewing subplots came to a head. Several characters had cathartic encounters with each other, notably the Imperial bureaucrat Syril Karn (Kyle Soller), who was obsessed with finding and arresting Andor that was like Inspector Javert chasing after Jean Valjean. While Syril is a sniveling and insecure man, his storyline is quite captivating and is a grounded look at how civilians live in the age of the Galactic Empire. He was basically a nobody who was needled by his mother and only wanted to move up in middle management. What made his story interesting was that we see that he slowly began to sympathize with the Ghormans and that he was being manipulated by his girlfriend Dedra Meero (Denise Gough), an Imperial operative who was equally ambitious.
Deedra herself was obsessed with learning the identity of who she considered to be the mastermind behind the Rebellion: a person she called Axis. This turned out to be none other than Andor’s recruiter and mentor Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgard), a master spy who runs an antique shop in the Imperial capital world Coruscant and helped fund and coordinate the intelligence network for the Rebellion. Skarsgard gave what is probably the performance of his career as Luthen, a morally complex and mysterious operative who has no boundaries and will use anyone and any means to defeat the Empire. That is incredible considering how perfect the performances are from the other cast members, starting with Luna.
Getting back to the Ghorman Massacre, the incident in the episode “Who Are You?” was very disturbing and hammers home how evil the Empire is; they really are space Nazis who should not be admired. This incident turned out to be a turning point not just with the Galactic Civil War but with the destinies of many characters including Andor. As mentioned before, Andor played a critical role in the early days of the Rebellion. In the second season his most important contribution was when he went to Coruscant and extracted Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly), one of the few senators who spoke out against the Empire after the massacre and ended up becoming the leader of the Rebellion. The episode “Welcome to the Rebellion” is where Andor extracts her from Coruscant and it was very intense and rousing, especially in the scenes where she gives her speech to denounce the Empire and afterwards when Andor has to get her to safety. What made everything so heartbreaking for Andor was how everything ended for him personally after he succeeded. These developments helped set him up for his situation when we saw him in Rogue One.
A remarkable thing the second season of Andor did was seamlessly connect to Rogue One. The final episode of the series “Jedha, Kyber, Erso” felt like a countdown as many story arcs concluded and featured characters that would show up in the film. The entire series helps us look at the film in a new way when it comes to Andor as we now understand the strife he went through in life and the level of sacrifice he made for the cause. One story line that was never resolved was that of Cassian looking for his little sister. As shown in the first season, the two siblings were separated as children and his search for her when he was an adult set in place his involvement with the Rebellion and his destiny. In one tragic sequence, in the last moments of the last episode, Andor is still dreaming about her, and he never will find out what happened to his sister. That is how life goes unfortunately.
Grounded moments like Andor’s bitter memories, the tragic deaths of beloved characters, the bitter sacrifices made by most characters, and how characters weave in and out of each other’s lives are what set Andor apart from most television shows. It’s a miracle that the show’s creators like Tony Gilroy were given the freedom and the budget to present this masterpiece. It is also unfortunate that we only got two seasons of Andor as it was originally planned for five seasons, one can only wonder how much greater the series would have been.
But perhaps it is for the best that Gilroy decided to conclude the series as it probably helped him, and the other creators to focus on the complex stories and had the budget to develop these impressive worlds with rich cultures. Yes, the entire production was of movie quality and captivating. It is not known if Lucasfilm will ever greenlight a TV series like Andor again, but it should. It would be great to see other series focusing on other Rogue One characters like Chirrut and Baze or even Bodhi. But we are fortunate that at least we had Andor, which is not only the best Star Wars TV show of all time but one of the greatest TV shows of all time.
Most people agree that the original Daredevil TV show that streamed on Netflix was the pinnacle of superhero TV shows. Buoyed by powerful performances by Charlie Cox as the blind lawyer and superhero, Matt Murdock/Daredevil and Vincent D’Onofrio as his arch nemesis, Wilson Fisk/Kingpin, Daredevil was dark, gritty, and intense. Sadly, the show was cancelled by Netflix, and it would take some time before Marvel Studios resurrected the TV show and its characters in the newest Disney + Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) TV show, Daredevil: Born Again.
The main question fans of Daredevil had was whether the new TV show could measure up to the old one? The answer is yes, for the most part.
It is fairly well known that when Daredevil: Born Again was first announced, it was not clear if the original TV show was part of the MCU and it seemed as if it wasn’t even though Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk appeared in properties like Spider-Man: No Way Home, Hawkeye and Echo. This was evident by the Kingpin’s portrayal in Hawkeye where he displayed previously unmentioned superhuman strength and wore more leisurely clothing. Not much was known about the original episodes of Daredevil: Born Again, except that it did not capture the spirit of Daredevil and Marvel Studios head, Kevin Feige, was not impressed with what he saw, which was reportedly more of a legal drama where Murdock didn’t wear his Daredevil costume until the sixth episode. So, Feige decided to retool the TV show by bringing in a new creative team, which filmed three new episodes and re-edited the original six episodes of Daredevil: Born Again.
Looking at the complete first season of Daredevil: Born Again it is very obvious that the episodes varied in quality between the revamped episodes and three episodes done by the new team. It’s not that the six original episodes were bad, they were fine, but they lacked the oomph and high standards of the original Daredevil that the newer episodes were able to match. This is not a knock against Daredevil: Born Again because it ranks as one of the best Disney + MCU TV shows. There is a lot to admire about it overall, and it is nearly perfect. It’s just frustrating that there were undeniable flaws with the season that prevent it from reaching the heights of seasons one and three of Daredevil (the second season had its issues). But it’s important to note that the first season of Daredevil: Born Again starts off powerfully strong and ends on a similar high note, which will continue with the second season.
Right now, we’re all basking in the joy that Daredevil has returned to TV with Daredevil: Born Again. What’s even more joyous is that not only is the character now firmly in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, (MCU) but the TV show is a direct continuation of the Netflix series, Daredevil, that streamed a few years ago. That may be obvious since the blind superhero is being played again by Charlie Cox and his villain, Wilson Fisk, has been reprised by Vincent D’Onofrio. But for a while, it was unclear if Daredevil: Born Again would be a soft reboot of the original series. However, that question has been answered by Marvel Studios and was shown with the additions of other cast members from Daredevil and other references and Easter eggs to the Marvel Netflix universe.
Aside from returning actors like Debra Ann Woll, Ayelet Zurer and Elden Henson, two notable references were dropped in the first episode of Daredevil: Born Again. During some conversation, Elden Henson’s character, Foggy Nelson, mentioned that he worked for the law firm, Hogarth, Chao & Benowitz, that was introduced in the Marvel Netflix series, Jessica Jones. The other reference was in a crowd scene taking place in Times Square during New Year’s Eve. In addition to MCU references like Rogers: The Musical and the Pym Van Dyne Foundation, we can spot an advertisement for Harlem’s Paradise, the underworld nightclub in Luke Cage that was eventually taken over by the title hero.
So, we can infer that the other Marvel Netflix heroes, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and yes, Iron Fist, who made up the superhero team, the Defenders, are part of the MCU now. No more vague references to a “Big, green guy” or “the Incident” aka Loki’s alien attack on New York City. But this has not been officially verified by Marvel Studios, which as usual remains tightlipped about such matters. Remember they kept quiet about Matt Murdock (Daredevil’s civilian identity) appearing in Spider-Man: No Way Home for the longest time and pleasantly surprised fans when the blind lawyer turned up to represent Peter Parker. They also were mum before the Kingpin was revealed to be the main villain in Hawkeye.
As of now, all we have to go on are rumors from insiders that the Defenders will be part of the second season of Daredevil: Born Again. Kristen Ritter, the actor who portrayed Jessica Jones, was asked in recent interviews if she was reprising her role. She replied that she was available and willing to play the superhuman private detective. However, she has posted on social media that she has been at the gym, possibly to get in shape for the role. She also posted that she was traveling to New York City in late February of 2025 for unknown reasons. At the same time, filming for the second season of Daredevil: Born Again commenced in New York City last month. This could mean Ritter went to the city to film her scenes or it could be just a coincidence.
So far, there’s no word if Michael Colton and Finn Jones will reprise their roles of Luke Cage and Iron Fist, respectively, although Jones stated recently he wanted to return. However, given how negatively the TV show, Iron Fist, was received, it would be understandable if the role was recast in order to distance the character from the Netflix series.
It would be great for the Defenders to return to the world of Daredevil and be a part of the MCU. There were some plot threads that were left unresolved in the other Marvel Netflix TV shows that need to be addressed. For example, when Luke Cage took over the night club did he become a criminal? Did Iron Fist and his step brother finish their mystical quest in Asia? Also, a running plot line in Daredevil: Born Again is that Wilson as the mayor of New York City bans vigilantes; how does this affect the Defenders? Supposedly, this was to be part of the plot for the next Spider-Man film until Sony decided they want to continue playing with the multiverse, instead. Too bad, since Fisk was originally a Spider-Man villain, as was the Punisher. Involving the Defenders would better flesh out the anti-vigilante plot in Daredevil: Born Again and could adapt the events of the Devi’s Reign comic book mini-series that was devoted to Fisk’s term as Mayor and his anti-superhero crusade.
Speaking of vigilantes, the Punisher (Jon Bernthal) is part of the first season of Daredevil: Born Again and will have his own TV special next year. If he could get his own special then the Defenders should get their own specials or mini-series, as well. Just leave out the Hand as the adversaries and get better fight choreographers.
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