I can't believe Marvel and DC's last three major live-action superhero franchises ended in the same weird way

I'm surprised that the last three superhero movie franchises developed by Marvel and DC, outside of Marvel Cinematic Universe and the DC Universethey all ended in the same disappointing way. Over the past few decades, there have been many attempts to adapt epic Marvel and DC Comics events and characters into some huge, expansive live-action film franchises. I'm not alone in favor of Marvel Studios' growing MCU, while the new DCU under the leadership of James Gunn and Peter Safran also looks promising, but not all superhero movie franchises have been so lucky.

Outside of the MCU and the recently rebooted DCU, 20th Century Fox's X-Men Universe, DC Extended Universe, and Sony's Spider-Man Universe have all delivered their own interpretations of these Marvel and DC Comics stories. All of these franchises have also come to an end, the most recent being SSU, with 2024 Kraven the Hunter marking his final film. I can't say I was surprised that these franchises were cancelled, but I was quite surprised to see them all come to an end, unfortunately, in similar ways..

The New Mutants ended Fox's X-Men franchise with a whimper

The New Mutants ended Fox's X-Men universe on August 28, 2020

In 2020, The New Mutants marked the sad end of 20th Century Fox X-Men franchise, which introduced an entire world of live-action mutant heroes and villains before any other superhero franchise had legs. Fox produced 13 films in X-Men franchise, starting with 2000 X-Men and coming to an end shortly after Disney's acquisition of Fox was finalized in 2019. Unfortunately, I do not consider The New Mutants to be a fond farewell X-Men franchise, and Josh Boone's film really summed up everything that was wrong with the franchise.

The box office draw for The New Mutants is emblematic of X-Men the franchise's disappointing ending, although this was certainly also affected by the restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. I absolutely loved several films from Fox's Marvel franchise, with X2, First Class, Days of Future Past, Logan and the Dead Pool films standing out as my favorites. However, the lack of care given Dark Phoenix and The New Mutants amid Disney's acquisition of Fox meant the franchise ended incredibly poorlyalthough Marvel Studios paid homage to the old franchise.

2024 Deadpool and Wolverine Fox canonized X-Men franchise, its reality now dubbed Earth-10005, in the MCU's multiversal timeline, bringing back Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool and several other notable heroes from the Fox era. I loved that the Fox franchise was honored, since the X-Men The film series laid the foundation for today's most successful superhero franchises, namely the MCU. However, the ever-diminishing finale of the franchise with The New Mutants set the standard for superhero franchises to follow in its wake.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom Was a Strange Ending for the DCEU

Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom end the DC Extended Universe on December 22, 2023

In the same way as The New Mutants2023 Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom ended the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) after the franchise's cancellation had already been confirmed. James Gunn and Peter Safran took over as co-CEOs of the then-new DC Studios in late 2022, and the former announced DC Studios' plans to reboot the DCEU in January 2023. We then saw that this announcement had an extremely detrimental effect on the DCEU films still to be released in 2023including Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Flash, Blue Beetle and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.

As a sequel to DC Films' most successful film, 2018 Aquaman, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdomunsurprisingly, it had the best performance of DC's 2023 films. However, the film was still negatively received, marking the sad end of the DCEU after several years of disappointing releases, behind-the-scenes controversies, and a lack of direction. Filmmaker Zack Snyder had the clearest direction for the start of the DCEU, but his vision was squandered after he left due to a personal tragedy during the development of Justice Leaguewhich caused me and many others to lose faith in the franchise.

Since The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker were two of the most positively received projects in recent years of the DCEU, creator James Gunn was hired in a permanent capacity and more creative control to reinvent DC's live-action franchise. The new DCU started with Creature Commands in early December and will begin to expand with a Superman reboot in July 2025, which I'm really excited about. Hopefully, Gunn and Safran's DCU will help us forget the disappointments of the DCEU's ending, as I think most would rather just forget about it.

Kraven the Hunter is the final nail in the SSU's coffin

Kraven The Hunter premieres on December 13, 2024

It's rare that a live-action superhero shared universe begins and it's safe to say that it's doomed to fail from the start, but that's exactly what I predicted for Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU). In December 2024, The wrap (through Discussing Film) reported that Kraven the Hunter would be SSU's last film, as Instead, Sony will shift its focus to the MCU Spider-Man 4the lively Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse sequel and live action Spider-Noir series. As the shortest franchise and the most full of disappointments, I'm not surprised that SSU is coming to an end.

With just six films spanning the entire franchise, SSU sets itself apart from the larger Fox X-Men franchise and the DC Extended Universe. Notably, both the X-Men and DC franchises were forced to close due to studio changes, but Sony could easily continue SSU. Fortunately, however, Sony appears to have listened to us fans, as there has been scathing criticism aimed at the quality and impact of its Marvel franchise.. Many even hope that the rights to Spider-Man and his related Marvel Comics characters will be handed over to Marvel Studios, although I think this is unlikely.

Although great talents such as Jared Leto, Matt Smith, Dakota Johnson, Sydney Sweeney and most recently Aaron Taylor-Johnson have been involved with SSU, it is only the Poison trilogy that had moderate success. I even considered the Poison movies have huge problems, however, so I never got along with SSU and, frankly, I'll be happy to see the end of the franchise. Fortunately, the future of Marvel Cinematic Universe and the DC Universe looks brilliant – I just hope these franchises don't reach regrettable conclusions like Marvel and DC's biggest franchises before them.

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