The Best DC Extended Universe Characters

With the DECU coming to an official close–though Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has yet to hit movie screens, fans can take a look back over the past 10 years and reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and what surprised audiences. Could any of them ever return? Hey, Michael Keaton donned the bat-suit almost 30 years after he last wore it, so never count the best DC Extended Universe characters out.

Harley Quinn

With Birds of Prey came a new Harley that explored the world with Cassandra Cain and it set up two incredible series ideas: One for Harley and one for the Birds of Prey. We know that a Harley series would do well and it if brings us more Dinah Lance, Helena Bertinelli, and Renee Montoya then we’re ready for it.

Ratcatcher II

We got a brief look at Ratcatcher II’s history with her father during The Suicide Squad but the instant fan favorite is a character that would be interesting to explore on a deeper level. She’s the kind of character that is so rich with mysteries that a series about her could really flesh out some of the aspects of this character that we don’t really know yet.

King Shark

There’s something about a giant shark man trying to be a good guy that is both delightful and frightening in the same breath. And we know that King Shark, as a character, is different from what we saw in The Suicide Squad and it’d be cool to get to explore that in a live-action series.

Wonder Woman

It took so long for Diana Prince to have her big-screen debut. A show that looks into a decade or some area of Diana’s life between the movies could be fun and give us Diana back quicker than the movies are sing we have so long to wait until the third Wonder Woman movie.

Clark Kent

What if we focused it on Clark Kent’s life as a reporter? We have so many shows exploring his rise to Superman, his life with Lois, and more but we don’t have a journalistic look into his world and it could be fun to explore that side of Clark Kent.

We know he’s a good journalist but we keep getting brief glimpses into that world and not the full picture. The old Superman movies showed us enough but a new show or movie could show the Daily Planet and the work that Superman gets to do when he’s not saving the world time and time again. 

Poison Ivy

We have versions of Poison Ivy in live-action and in the animated form happening all the time but there’s not a show all her own and it could be the time for her to have one on HBO.

What works so well with Poison Ivy is that she isn’t a straight-up villain. She is trying to make the world a better place and just isn’t the best at doing so but she tries and exploring that dynamic with her (and maybe her relationship with Harley Quinn in live-action) would be the fun twist we need to see for the character.

Rick Flag

Rick Flag deserved better after Suicide Squad and then had better in The Suicide Squad and then died so…again, he needs more. The character was a hardass who wasn’t fun for the team to have around but each time, he came to care about the squad that Amanda Waller built and wanted to get the job done with them. He trusted people like Harley to have his back even though he probably shouldn’t have and he cared.

It ended up getting him killed by Peacemaker, but Rick Flag died doing what he loved, and a show about his missions and him as a character working for Waller and doing jobs before either of the Suicide Squad movies would be nice. 

Themyscira

The hidden world that Diana Prince came from plays a huge role in shaping her character nd yet we only have glimpses (in recent years) during the Patty Jenkins’ movies. While we know that she is a demi-God, we barely get to know of her origin outside of what we see before Steve Trevor comes and the Amazonian Olympics from Wonder Woman 1984.

Boomerang

Jai Courtney came into Suicide Squad with exciting energy. Harley could join there, we know she loves Boomerang, or any of the other members of the Suicide Squad and we could explore more of his character than either of the movies really did. Jai Courtney did a great job, we had fun with the character, and then the character died, and it felt like a wasted opportunity, so why not have a little bit of fun with the character in a series?

The Weasel

The show would, obviously, not be solely his. Maybe we can see characters like Deadshot or Bloodsport show up and deal with the Weasel. Still, it’d be hilarious to have him running around and interacting with members of The Suicide Squad and deal with them in the midst of him licking windows and running around like a lost dog. 

Cyborg

Talk about a missed opportunity! Ray Fisher gave a star-making turn in Zack Snyder’s Justice League–or at least, it should have made him a star. Joss Whedon’s butchery of the movie an alleged loathing of Fisher did great harm to Cyborg’s impact on screen. Fisher’s sparring with Warner Bros. brass also did his character no favors; WB dropped Cyborg from a major role in The Flash. Can someone please give Fisher and Cyborg their due?

The Joker

Okay, so Mr. J–between Joker, The Batman, the DCEU, and various animated outings–has a bit of an overexposure problem right now. That said, Jared Leto never really had a chance to explore the character in any real depth on screen. Studio meddling diminished his role in Suicide Squad, and the cancellation of Ben Affleck’s Batman movie precluded his inclusion there. The final scene of “The Snyder Cut” however hints at what Leto really could have done with the role. Can someone please get us more?