title: Cold War

text: Nixon and Brezhnev proclaimed a new era of "peaceful coexistence" and established the groundbreaking new policy of détente (or cooperation) between the two superpowers. Meanwhile, Brezhnev attempted to revive the Soviet economy, which was declining in part because of heavy military expenditures. Between 1972 and 1974, the two sides also agreed to strengthen their economic ties, including agreements for increased trade. As a result of their meetings, "détente" would replace the hostility of the Cold War and the two countries would live mutually. These developments coincided with Bonn's "Ostpolitik" policy formulated by the West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, an effort to normalize relations between West Germany and Eastern Europe. Other agreements were concluded to stabilize the situation in Europe, culminating in the Helsinki Accords signed at the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe in 1975.


title: Cold War

text: Kissinger and Nixon were "realists" who deemphasized idealistic goals like anti-communism or promotion of democracy worldwide because those goals were too expensive in terms of America's economic capabilities. Instead of a Cold War they wanted peace, trade and cultural exchanges. They realized that Americans were no longer willing to tax themselves for idealistic foreign policy goals, especially for containment policies that never seemed to produce positive results. Instead, Nixon and Kissinger sought to downsize America's global commitments in proportion to its reduced economic, moral and political power. They rejected "idealism" as impractical and too expensive, and neither man showed much sensitivity to the plight of people living under Communism. Kissinger's realism fell out of fashion as idealism returned to American foreign policy with Carter's moralism emphasizing human rights, and Reagan's rollback strategy aimed at destroying Communism.


title: Cold War

text: In the 1970s, the KGB, led by Yuri Andropov, continued to persecute distinguished Soviet personalities such as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Andrei Sakharov, who were criticising the Soviet leadership in harsh terms. Indirect conflict between the superpowers continued through this period of détente in the Third World, particularly during political crises in the Middle East, Chile, Ethiopia, and Angola.


title: Cold War

text: Although President Jimmy Carter tried to place another limit on the arms race with a SALT II agreement in 1979, his efforts were undermined by the other events that year, including the Iranian Revolution and the Nicaraguan Revolution, which both ousted pro-US regimes, and his retaliation against Soviet intervention in Afghanistan in December.


title: Cold War

text: The term "new Cold War" refers to the period of intensive reawakening of Cold War tensions and conflicts in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Tensions greatly increased between the major powers with both sides becoming more militant. Diggins says, "Reagan went all out to fight the second cold war, by supporting counterinsurgencies in the third world." Cox says, "The intensity of this 'second' Cold War was as great as its duration was short."


title: Cold War

text: In April 1978, the communist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) seized power in Afghanistan in the Saur Revolution. Within months, opponents of the communist government launched an uprising in eastern Afghanistan that quickly expanded into a civil war waged by guerrilla mujahideen against government forces countrywide. The Islamic Unity of Afghanistan Mujahideen insurgents received military training and weapons in neighboring Pakistan and China, while the Soviet Union sent thousands of military advisers to support the PDPA government. Meanwhile, increasing friction between the competing factions of the PDPA—the dominant Khalq and the more moderate Parcham—resulted in the dismissal of Parchami cabinet members and the arrest of Parchami military officers under the pretext of a Parchami coup. By mid-1979, the United States had started a covert program to assist the mujahideen.


title: Cold War

text: In September 1979, Khalqist President Nur Muhammad Taraki was assassinated in a coup within the PDPA orchestrated by fellow Khalq member Hafizullah Amin, who assumed the presidency. Distrusted by the Soviets, Amin was assassinated by Soviet special forces during Operation Storm-333 in December 1979. A Soviet-organized government, led by Parcham's Babrak Karmal but inclusive of both factions, filled the vacuum. Soviet troops were deployed to stabilize Afghanistan under Karmal in more substantial numbers, although the Soviet government did not expect to do most of the fighting in Afghanistan. As a result, however, the Soviets were now directly involved in what had been a domestic war in Afghanistan.


title: Cold War

text: Carter responded to the Soviet intervention by withdrawing the SALT II treaty from ratification, imposing embargoes on grain and technology shipments to the USSR, and demanding a significant increase in military spending, and further announced that the United States would boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. He described the Soviet incursion as "the most serious threat to the peace since the Second World War".


title: Cold War

text: In January 1977, four years prior to becoming president, Ronald Reagan bluntly stated, in a conversation with Richard V. Allen, his basic expectation in relation to the Cold War. "My idea of American policy toward the Soviet Union is simple, and some would say simplistic," he said. "It is this: We win and they lose. What do you think of that?" In 1980, Ronald Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential election, vowing to increase military spending and confront the Soviets everywhere. Both Reagan and new British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher denounced the Soviet Union and its ideology. Reagan labeled the Soviet Union an "evil empire" and predicted that Communism would be left on the "ash heap of history," while Thatcher inculpated the Soviets as "bent on world dominance." In 1982, Reagan tried to cut off Moscow's access to hard currency by impeding its proposed gas line to Western Europe. It hurt the Soviet economy, but it also caused ill will among American allies in Europe who counted on that revenue. Reagan retreated on this issue.


title: Cold War

text: By early 1985, Reagan's anti-communist position had developed into a stance known as the new Reagan Doctrine—which, in addition to containment, formulated an additional right to subvert existing communist governments. Besides continuing Carter's policy of supporting the Islamic opponents of the Soviet Union and the Soviet-backed PDPA government in Afghanistan, the CIA also sought to weaken the Soviet Union itself by promoting Islamism in the majority-Muslim Central Asian Soviet Union. Additionally, the CIA encouraged anti-communist Pakistan's ISI to train Muslims from around the world to participate in the jihad against the Soviet Union.


title: Cold War

text: Pope John Paul II provided a moral focus for anti-communism; a visit to his native Poland in 1979 stimulated a religious and nationalist resurgence centered on the Solidarity movement that galvanized opposition and may have led to his attempted assassination two years later.


title: Cold War

text: In December 1981, Poland's Wojciech Jaruzelski reacted to the crisis by imposing a period of martial law. Reagan imposed economic sanctions on Poland in response. Mikhail Suslov, the Kremlin's top ideologist, advised Soviet leaders not to intervene if Poland fell under the control of Solidarity, for fear it might lead to heavy economic sanctions, resulting in a catastrophe for the Soviet economy.


title: Cold War

text: The Soviet Union had built up a military that consumed as much as 25 percent of its gross national product at the expense of consumer goods and investment in civilian sectors. Soviet spending on the arms race and other Cold War commitments both caused and exacerbated deep-seated structural problems in the Soviet system, which experienced at least a decade of economic stagnation during the late Brezhnev years.


title: Cold War

text: Soviet investment in the defense sector was not driven by military necessity but in large part by the interests of the nomenklatura, which was dependent on the sector for their own power and privileges. The Soviet Armed Forces became the largest in the world in terms of the numbers and types of weapons they possessed, in the number of troops in their ranks, and in the sheer size of their military–industrial base. However, the quantitative advantages held by the Soviet military often concealed areas where the Eastern Bloc dramatically lagged behind the West. For example, the Persian Gulf War demonstrated how the armor, fire control systems, and firing range of the Soviet Union's most common main battle tank, the T-72, were drastically inferior to the American M1 Abrams, yet the USSR fielded almost three times as many T-72s as the US deployed M1s.


title: Cold War

text: By the early 1980s, the USSR had built up a military arsenal and army surpassing that of the United States. Soon after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, president Carter began massively building up the United States military. This buildup was accelerated by the Reagan administration, which increased the military spending from 5.3 percent of GNP in 1981 to 6.5 percent in 1986, the largest peacetime defense buildup in United States history. The American-Soviet tensions present during 1983 was defined by some as the start of "Cold War II". Whilst in retrospective this phase of the Cold War was generally defined as a "war of words", the Soviet's "peace offensive" was largely rejected by the West.


title: Cold War

text: Tensions continued to intensify as Reagan revived the B-1 Lancer program, which had been canceled by the Carter administration, produced LGM-118 Peacekeeper missiles, installed US cruise missiles in Europe, and announced the experimental Strategic Defense Initiative, dubbed "Star Wars" by the media, a defense program to shoot down missiles in mid-flight. The Soviets deployed RSD-10 Pioneer ballistic missiles targeting Western Europe, and NATO decided, under the impetus of the Carter presidency, to deploy MGM-31 Pershing and cruise missiles in Europe, primarily West Germany. This deployment placed missiles just 10 minutes' striking distance from Moscow.


title: Cold War

text: After Reagan's military buildup, the Soviet Union did not respond by further building its military, because the enormous military expenses, along with inefficient planned manufacturing and collectivized agriculture, were already a heavy burden for the Soviet economy. At the same time, Saudi Arabia increased oil production, even as other non-OPEC nations were increasing production. These developments contributed to the 1980s oil glut, which affected the Soviet Union as oil was the main source of Soviet export revenues. Issues with command economics, oil price decreases and large military expenditures gradually brought the Soviet economy to stagnation.


title: Cold War

text: On 1 September 1983, the Soviet Union shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007, a Boeing 747 with 269 people aboard, including sitting Congressman Larry McDonald, an action which Reagan characterized as a "massacre". The airliner had violated Soviet airspace just past the west coast of Sakhalin Island near Moneron Island, and the Soviets treated the unidentified aircraft as an intruding US spy plane. The incident increased support for military deployment, overseen by Reagan, which stood in place until the later accords between Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. During the early hours of September 26, 1983, the 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident occurred; systems in Serpukhov-15 underwent a glitch that claimed several intercontinental ballistic missiles were heading towards Russia, but officer Stanislav Petrov correctly suspected it was a false alarm, ensuring the Soviets did not respond to the non-existent attack. As such, he has been credited as "the man who saved the world". The Able Archer 83 exercise in November 1983, a realistic simulation of a coordinated NATO nuclear release, was perhaps the most dangerous moment since the Cuban Missile Crisis, as the Soviet leadership feared that a nuclear attack might be imminent.


title: Cold War

text: American domestic public concerns about intervening in foreign conflicts persisted from the end of the Vietnam War. The Reagan administration emphasized the use of quick, low-cost counterinsurgency tactics to intervene in foreign conflicts. In 1983, the Reagan administration intervened in the multisided Lebanese Civil War, invaded Grenada, bombed Libya and backed the Central American Contras, anti-communist paramilitaries seeking to overthrow the Soviet-aligned Sandinista government in Nicaragua. While Reagan's interventions against Grenada and Libya were popular in the United States, his backing of the Contra rebels was mired in controversy. The Reagan administration's backing of the military government of Guatemala during the Guatemalan Civil War, in particular the regime of Efraín Ríos Montt, was also controversial.


title: Cold War

text: Meanwhile, the Soviets incurred high costs for their own foreign interventions. Although Brezhnev was convinced in 1979 that the Soviet war in Afghanistan would be brief, Muslim guerrillas, aided by the US, China, Britain, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, waged a fierce resistance against the invasion. The Kremlin sent nearly 100,000 troops to support its puppet regime in Afghanistan, leading many outside observers to dub the war "the Soviets' Vietnam". However, Moscow's quagmire in Afghanistan was far more disastrous for the Soviets than Vietnam had been for the Americans because the conflict coincided with a period of internal decay and domestic crisis in the Soviet system.


title: Cold War

text: A senior US State Department official predicted such an outcome as early as 1980, positing that the invasion resulted in part from a "domestic crisis within the Soviet may be that the thermodynamic law of entropy up with the Soviet system, which now seems to expend more energy on simply maintaining its equilibrium than on improving itself. We could be seeing a period of foreign movement at a time of internal decay".


title: Cold War

text: By the time the comparatively youthful Mikhail Gorbachev became General Secretary in 1985, the Soviet economy was stagnant and faced a sharp fall in foreign currency earnings as a result of the downward slide in oil prices in the 1980s. These issues prompted Gorbachev to investigate measures to revive the ailing state.


title: Cold War

text: An ineffectual start led to the conclusion that deeper structural changes were necessary, and in June 1987 Gorbachev announced an agenda of economic reform called "perestroika", or restructuring. Perestroika relaxed the production quota system, allowed private ownership of businesses and paved the way for foreign investment. These measures were intended to redirect the country's resources from costly Cold War military commitments to more productive areas in the civilian sector.


title: Cold War

text: Despite initial skepticism in the West, the new Soviet leader proved to be committed to reversing the Soviet Union's deteriorating economic condition instead of continuing the arms race with the West. Partly as a way to fight off internal opposition from party cliques to his reforms, Gorbachev simultaneously introduced "glasnost", or openness, which increased freedom of the press and the transparency of state institutions. "Glasnost" was intended to reduce the corruption at the top of the Communist Party and moderate the abuse of power in the Central Committee. Glasnost also enabled increased contact between Soviet citizens and the western world, particularly with the United States, contributing to the accelerating détente between the two nations.


title: Cold War

text: In response to the Kremlin's military and political concessions, Reagan agreed to renew talks on economic issues and the scaling-back of the arms race. The first summit was held in November 1985 in Geneva, Switzerland. At one stage the two men, accompanied only by an interpreter, agreed in principle to reduce each country's nuclear arsenal by 50 percent. A second summit was held in October 1986 in Reykjavík, Iceland. Talks went well until the focus shifted to Reagan's proposed Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), which Gorbachev wanted to be eliminated. Reagan refused. The negotiations failed, but the third summit (Washington Summit (1987), December 8–10, 1987) led to a breakthrough with the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF). The INF treaty eliminated all nuclear-armed, ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges between and their infrastructure.


title: Cold War

text: During 1988 it became apparent to the Soviets that oil and gas subsidies, along with the cost of maintaining massive troops levels, represented a substantial economic drain. In addition, the security advantage of a buffer zone was recognised as irrelevant and the Soviets officially declared that they would no longer intervene in the affairs of allied states in Central and Eastern Europe.


title: Cold War

text: Bush and Gorbachev met at the Moscow Summit May 29–June 3, 1988 and the Governors Island Summit December 7, 1988.


title: Cold War

text: In 1989, Soviet forces withdrew from Afghanistan. In 1989, the Berlin Wall, the Inner German border and the Iron Curtain fell.


title: Cold War

text: In February 1990, Gorbachev drafted the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany and signed it on 12 September 1990; it allowed the German reunification, as the only alternative was a Tiananmen Square scenario. When the Berlin Wall came down, Gorbachev's "Common European Home" concept began to take shape.


title: Cold War

text: During the final summit in Moscow in July 1991, Gorbachev and George H. W. Bush signed the START I arms control treaty.


title: Cold War

text: By 1989, the Soviet alliance system was on the brink of collapse, and, deprived of Soviet military support, the communist leaders of the Warsaw Pact states were losing power. Grassroots organizations, such as Poland's Solidarity movement, rapidly gained ground with strong popular bases.


title: Cold War

text: The Pan-European Picnic in August 1989 in Hungary finally started a peaceful movement that the rulers in the Eastern Bloc could not stop. It was the largest movement of refugees from East Germany since the Berlin Wall was built in 1961 and ultimately brought about the fall of the Iron Curtain. The patrons of the picnic, Otto von Habsburg and the Hungarian Minister of State Imre Pozsgay, saw the planned event as an opportunity to test Mikhail Gorbachev's reaction. The Austrian branch of the Paneuropean Union, which was then headed by Karl von Habsburg, distributed thousands of brochures inviting the GDR holidaymakers in Hungary to a picnic near the border at Sopron. But with the mass exodus at the Pan-European Picnic the subsequent hesitant behavior of the Socialist Unity Party of East Germany and the non-interference of the Soviet Union broke the dams. Now tens of thousands of media-informed East Germans made their way to Hungary, which was no longer willing to keep its borders completely closed or to oblige its border troops to use armed force. On the one hand, this caused disagreement among the Eastern European states and, on the other hand, it was clear to the Eastern European population that the governments no longer had absolute power.


title: Cold War

text: In 1989, the communist governments in Poland and Hungary became the first to negotiate the organization of competitive elections. In Czechoslovakia and East Germany, mass protests unseated entrenched communist leaders. The communist regimes in Bulgaria and Romania also crumbled, in the latter case as the result of a violent uprising. Attitudes had changed enough that US Secretary of State James Baker suggested that the American government would not be opposed to Soviet intervention in Romania, on behalf of the opposition, to prevent bloodshed.


title: Cold War

text: The tidal wave of change culminated with the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, which symbolized the collapse of European communist governments and graphically ended the Iron Curtain divide of Europe. The 1989 revolutionary wave swept across Central and Eastern Europe and peacefully overthrew all of the Soviet-style Marxist–Leninist states: East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria; Romania was the only Eastern-bloc country to topple its communist regime violently and execute its head of state.


title: Cold War

text: In the USSR itself, "glasnost" weakened the ideological bonds that held the Soviet Union together, and by February 1990, with the dissolution of the USSR looming, the Communist Party was forced to surrender its 73-year-old monopoly on state power. At the same time the union's component republics declared their autonomy from Moscow, with the Baltic states withdrawing from the union entirely.


title: Cold War

text: Gorbachev used force to keep the Baltics from breaking away. The USSR was fatally weakened by a failed coup in August 1991. A growing number of Soviet republics, particularly Russia, threatened to secede from the USSR. The Commonwealth of Independent States, created on 21 December 1991, was a successor entity to the Soviet Union. The USSR was declared officially dissolved on 26 December 1991.


title: Cold War

text: US President George H. W. Bush expressed his emotions: "The biggest thing that has happened in the world in my life, in our lives, is this: By the grace of God, America won the Cold War."


title: Cold War

text: After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia drastically cut military spending, and restructuring the economy left millions unemployed. The capitalist reforms culminated in a recession in the early 1990s more severe than the Great Depression as experienced by the United States and Germany. In the 25 years following the end of the Cold War, only five or six of the post-socialist states are on a path to joining the rich and capitalist world while most are falling behind, some to such an extent that it will take several decades to catch up to where they were before the collapse of communism.


title: Cold War

text: Communist parties outside the Baltic states were not outlawed and their members were not prosecuted. Just a few places attempted to exclude even members of communist secret services from decision-making. In some countries, the communist party changed its name and continued to function.


title: Cold War

text: Stephen Holmes of the University of Chicago argued in 1996 that decommunization, after a brief active period, quickly ended in near-universal failure. After the introduction of lustration, demand for scapegoats has become relatively low, and former communists have been elected for high governmental and other administrative positions. Holmes notes that the only real exception was former East Germany, where thousands of former Stasi informers have been fired from public positions.


title: Cold War

text: The Cold War continues to influence world affairs. The post-Cold War world is considered to be unipolar, with the United States the sole remaining superpower. The Cold War defined the political role of the United States after World War II—by 1989 the United States had military alliances with 50 countries, with 526,000 troops stationed abroad, with 326,000 in Europe (two-thirds of which were in West Germany) and 130,000 in Asia (mainly Japan and South Korea). The Cold War also marked the zenith of peacetime military–industrial complexes, especially in the United States, and large-scale military funding of science. These complexes, though their origins may be found as early as the 19th century, snowballed considerably during the Cold War.


title: Cold War

text: Cumulative US military expenditures throughout the entire Cold War amounted to an estimated $8 trillion. Further nearly 100,000 Americans died in the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Although Soviet casualties are difficult to estimate, as a share of gross national product the financial cost for the Soviet Union was much higher than that incurred by the United States.


title: Cold War

text: In addition to the loss of life by uniformed soldiers, millions died in the superpowers' proxy wars around the globe, most notably in eastern Asia. Most of the proxy wars and subsidies for local conflicts ended along with the Cold War; interstate wars, ethnic wars, revolutionary wars, as well as refugee and displaced persons crises have declined sharply in the post-Cold War years.


title: Cold War

text: However, the aftermath of the Cold War is not considered to be concluded. Many of the economic and social tensions that were exploited to fuel Cold War competition in parts of the Third World remain acute. The breakdown of state control in a number of areas formerly ruled by communist governments produced new civil and ethnic conflicts, particularly in the former Yugoslavia. In Central and Eastern Europe, the end of the Cold War has ushered in an era of economic growth and an increase in the number of liberal democracies, while in other parts of the world, such as Afghanistan, independence was accompanied by state failure.


title: Cold War

text: During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union invested heavily in propaganda designed to influence people around the world, especially using motion pictures. The Cold War endures as a popular topic reflected extensively in entertainment media, and continuing to the present with numerous post-1991 Cold War-themed feature films, novels, television, and other media. In 2013, a KGB-sleeper-agents-living-next-door action drama series, "The Americans", set in the early 1980s, was ranked No. 6 on the Metacritic annual Best New TV Shows list; its six-season run concluded in May 2018.


title: Cold War

text: As soon as the term "Cold War" was popularized to refer to post-war tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union, interpreting the course and origins of the conflict has been a source of heated controversy among historians, political scientists, and journalists. In particular, historians have sharply disagreed as to who was responsible for the breakdown of Soviet–US relations after the Second World War; and whether the conflict between the two superpowers was inevitable, or could have been avoided. Historians have also disagreed on what exactly the Cold War was, what the sources of the conflict were, and how to disentangle patterns of action and reaction between the two sides.


title: Cold War

text: Although explanations of the origins of the conflict in academic discussions are complex and diverse, several general schools of thought on the subject can be identified. Historians commonly speak of three different approaches to the study of the Cold War: "orthodox" accounts, "revisionism", and "post-revisionism".


title: Cold War

text: "Orthodox" accounts place responsibility for the Cold War on the Soviet Union and its expansion further into Europe. "Revisionist" writers place more responsibility for the breakdown of post-war peace on the United States, citing a range of US efforts to isolate and confront the Soviet Union well before the end of World War II. "Post-revisionists" see the events of the Cold War as more nuanced, and attempt to be more balanced in determining what occurred during the Cold War. Much of the historiography on the Cold War weaves together two or even all three of these broad categories.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: The DC Extended Universe (DCEU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of superhero films and television series produced by DC Studios and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is based on characters that appear in American comic books published by DC Comics. The DCEU also includes comic books, short films, novels, and video games. Like the original DC Universe in comic books, the DCEU was established by crossing over common plot elements, settings, cast, and characters.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: Warner Bros. had plans to bring various DC Comics superheroes together in films since 2002, when Wolfgang Petersen was set to direct a crossover of the "Superman" and "Batman" film franchises. After a planned Justice League film was put on hold in 2008 and initial universe plans were scrapped due to the critical and commercial disappointment of the 2011 film "Green Lantern", Warner Bros. established this shared universe in 2013.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: The DCEU began with the film "Man of Steel" (2013), a reboot of the "Superman" film series, followed by "" (2016), which served as a reboot of the "Batman" film series. These films were followed by "Suicide Squad" (2016), "Wonder Woman" (2017), "Justice League" (2017; a director's cut of the film, "Zack Snyder's Justice League", was released in 2021), "Aquaman" (2018), "Shazam!" (2019), "Birds of Prey" (2020), "Wonder Woman 1984" (2020), "The Suicide Squad" (2021), and "Black Adam" (2022). Future films include "Shazam! Fury of the Gods", "The Flash", "Blue Beetle" and "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom" in 2023, with other films in various stages of development. The DCEU was expanded to include television series for the streaming service HBO Max in 2022, beginning with "Peacemaker".


title: DC Extended Universe

text: The DCEU is the ninth-highest-grossing film franchise of all time, having grossed over $6.2 billion at the global box office. Its highest-grossing film, "Aquaman", earned over $1.15 billion worldwide and became the highest-grossing DC Comics-based film to date. Reception to the franchise has generally been mixed among critics and fans.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: Upon announcement of the film series, the universe was commonly called the "DC Cinematic Universe" by fans and the media, in keeping with the naming convention of the already established Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Keith Staskiewicz, writing for "Entertainment Weekly", jokingly coined the term "DC Extended Universe" in an article about "" on July 1, 2015. This term and the abbreviation DCEU quickly spread among the press and fans thinking of it as the official name of the franchise over the following years. According to "Vulture" writer Abraham Riesman, DC confirmed to him in September 2017 that the term was not used internally and they did not consider it official.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: In 2016, as part of "DC Films Presents: Dawn of the Justice League", both Geoff Johns and Kevin Smith referred to the franchise's name as being the "Justice League Universe". During the DC Films panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2018, a video banner displayed the words "Welcome to the Worlds of DC", after showcasing some upcoming films. As a result, some media outlets interpreted this as DC officially naming their shared film universe as the "Worlds of DC". However, in March 2020, Jim Lee referred to the franchise as the DC Extended Universe at C2E2. The franchise was officially titled DC Extended Universe when the WarnerMedia streaming service HBO Max launched the following May.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: Following the appointment of Peter Safran and James Gunn as heads of DC Studios, Warner Bros. Discovery (created from the merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery Inc.) referred to DC's film and television series as part of the "DC Universe" (DCU), which some media outlets interpreted as a rebranding of the DCEU.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: In 2002, Wolfgang Petersen was set to direct a "Batman vs. Superman" film from a script by Akiva Goldsman. Warner Bros. canceled development to focus on individual Superman and Batman projects after J. J. Abrams submitted another draft for "Superman: Flyby". In February 2007, Warner Bros. hired husband and wife duo Michele and Kieran Mulroney to write a script for a "Justice League" film. Christian Bale, who starred as Batman in "Batman Begins" (2005), was not approached to reprise the role, nor was Brandon Routh, who starred as Superman in "Superman Returns" (2006). George Miller was hired to direct the film, reportedly titled "Justice League Mortal", with Armie Hammer cast as Batman, D. J. Cotrona as Superman, Adam Brody as Flash, Santiago Cabrera as Aquaman, Common as Green Lantern, Megan Gale as Wonder Woman, Hugh Keays-Byrne as Martian Manhunter and Jay Baruchel as Maxwell Lord. The project was put on indefinite hold in January 2008, after failing to secure tax breaks for filming in Australia, as well as the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike preventing progress on the script.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: In 2013, a reboot of the "Superman" franchise, "Man of Steel", was set to lay the groundwork for future DC films. The film contained references to other characters in the DC Universe, so if it were a success, it could launch a shared universe. At San Diego Comic-Con in July, one month after "Man of Steel"s release, Warner Bros. announced that Superman and Batman would meet for the first time in a cinematic format in a sequel to "Man of Steel", establishing the shared universe. A slate of ten DC films was announced in 2014, with initial plans of those universe-driven films spanning through 2020. Warner Bros. president of creative development Greg Silverman explained DC's approach to their cinematic universe in 2015: "We ... take these beloved characters and put them in the hands of master filmmakers and make sure they all coordinate with each other".


title: DC Extended Universe

text: In May 2016, following criticism of "", Warner Bros. established a DC Films division with DC's chief creative officer Geoff Johns and Warner Bros. executive vice president Jon Berg as its heads to oversee production and form a cohesive creative direction for the franchise. DC Films would not be fully autonomous, as Johns reported to DC president Diane Nelson and Berg reported to Silverman. Charles Roven was also moved from his day-by-day producer role on future DC films, which he had served since 2005's "Batman Begins", to an administrative executive producer role. In December, Silverman was ousted from his role in Warner Bros., and Toby Emmerich was promoted to president and chief content officer in his place. By January 2017, Johns and Berg reported to Emmerich. Following the financial and critical success of "Wonder Woman" in June, Johns stated that moving forward the films would focus on the heart, humor, hope, heroics, and optimism of the characters. As a result of "Justice League"'s underperformance at the box office, Berg left his position by January 2018 and became a production partner with Roy Lee. DC also sought to deemphasize the shared nature of their films, with Diane Nelson stating: "Our intention, certainly, moving forward is using the continuity to help make sure nothing is diverging in a way that doesn't make sense, but there's no insistence upon an overall storyline or interconnectivity in that universe... Moving forward, you'll see the DC movie universe being a universe, but one that comes from the heart of the filmmaker who's creating them".


title: DC Extended Universe

text: In January 2018, Walter Hamada was appointed the President of DC Films and co-runner of the DCEU, replacing Berg. The following month, Chantal Nong was named Vice President of DC Films. The pair were hired to oversee the franchise with Johns, as the key production team managers. However, Johns stepped down from his executive roles at DC that June, and created a production company, Mad Ghost Productions, to have a greater hands-on role in various DC media as a writer and producer. After the financial success of "Aquaman", Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara said the upcoming slate of DC films would be focused on individual character stories instead of interconnectivity. In 2021, WarnerMedia reversed course and announced that future films would again be interconnected.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: In May 2020, WarnerMedia launched the streaming service HBO Max. In September, HBO Max ordered "Peacemaker", the DCEU's first television series and a spin-off of the film "The Suicide Squad". After this announcement, Walter Hamada stated that DC Films was interested in producing spin-off series for every film in the DCEU slate for HBO Max. In February 2021, HBO Max and executive producer J. J. Abrams began developing multiple series based on the individual team members of the Justice League Dark, with a plan to eventually culminate these projects in a crossover and team-up miniseries.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: In April 2022, following the merger of Discovery Inc. with WarnerMedia, Warner Bros. Discovery announced to overhaul the functions of DC Entertainment and DC Films productions. President and CEO of the newly merged company, David Zaslav, and its executives believe that DC "lacks coherent creative and brand strategy" and is looking to hire a czar of creativity and strategy, comparable to Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige. Discovery intends to revitalize certain top-tier DC characters that they believe had been neglected in previous years, such as Superman. Walter Hamada is believed to be included in Zaslav's business plan, pending a renegotiation deal at the end of his contractual obligations to DC Films in 2023. The following month, the future of DC Films was revealed to prioritize theatrical films over streaming releases, as a part of plans overseen by Zaslav. In June, executive restructuring of the studios began with Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy being named as the co-chairmen of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, taking over from Toby Emmerich who will step down from his position. The pair were also announced to temporarily oversee DC Films and Warner Animation Group output until he does so, with Hamada reporting directly to them. In August, at the second quarter earnings call presentation, Zaslav confirmed the studio's overall 10-year plan to focus on theatrical films: "We're not going to launch a movie until it's ready. ...We're not going to launch a movie to make a quarter and we're not going to put a movie out unless we believe in it". He additionally confirmed plans for Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman to be the primary focus of the franchise.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: In October, Dwayne Johnson said that he will serve in an advisory role for the franchise, including helping Warner Bros. find the new leadership they need for DC Films to thrive, while expressing confidence in the future under the direction of Zaslav, De Luca, and Abdy. Johnson said that "Black Adam" is the first step in the new slate of films, that will continue to expand the DCEU. In November, DC Films became DC Studios with James Gunn and Peter Safran announced as its co-CEOs/co-Chairmen with the two overseeing all future DC projects including film, television, and animation. Gunn and Safran jointly stated: "Our commitment to Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Harley Quinn, and the rest of the DC stable of characters is only equaled by our commitment to the wonder of human possibility these characters represent. We're excited to...tell some of the biggest, most beautiful, and grandest stories ever told."


title: DC Extended Universe

text: At the first meeting between Warner Bros. Discovery and DC Studios held in November, Gunn and Safran detailed the structure of the franchise moving forward, stating that it will entail film, television, animation, gaming, and other mediums. While working on the studio's 10-year plan, Gunn acknowledged Johnson's previous statements that all creatives involved are determined to listen to the fans, after which the CEO asked fans via his social media page which DC characters they would like to see a part of the franchise in the future. Gunn and Safran are scheduled to present their plans for the franchise to Zaslav in December 2022.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: Kal-El / Clark Kent, who arrived on Earth years ago as an infant from Krypton, struggles with why he was sent to Earth. Raised by his adoptive parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent, Clark adopts the persona "Superman", and learns if his abilities are meant to maintain peace or conquer the world.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: During story discussions for "The Dark Knight Rises" (2012), David S. Goyer told Christopher Nolan his idea regarding how to present Superman in a modern context. Impressed with Goyer's concept, Nolan pitched the idea to the studio, who hired Nolan to produce and Goyer to write based on the financial and critical success of "The Dark Knight" (2008). In October 2010, Zack Snyder was hired to direct the film, and Henry Cavill was cast as Clark Kent / Superman in January 2011. Principal photography began in August 2011. "Man of Steel" was released in North America on June 14, 2013.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: Gotham City-based vigilante Batman travels to Metropolis to preemptively combat Superman, fearing what would happen if the latter is kept unchecked, while another threat endangers humankind.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: By June 2013, Warner Bros. were fast-tracking a sequel to "Man of Steel", with Snyder and Goyer returning as director and writer, respectively. Nolan was involved in an advisory role as executive producer. The sequel included Batman in a main role, and serves as a reboot of the "Batman" film series. Cavill, Amy Adams, Diane Lane, and Laurence Fishburne reprised their "Man of Steel" roles, while Ben Affleck was cast as Bruce Wayne / Batman. Chris Terrio was hired to rewrite Goyer's script. Originally scheduled to be released in July 2015, the release date was changed to May 6, 2016, to give the filmmakers "time to realize fully their vision, given the complex visual nature of the story". The film's title was revealed to be "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice". Initial filming occurred on October 19, 2013, at East Los Angeles College, before full principal photography began in May 2014 and concluded that December. Production took place in Detroit, Illinois, New Mexico, Africa and the South Pacific. After another date change, the film was released in North America on March 25, 2016.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" is set 18 months after the events of "Man of Steel". The film introduces Gal Gadot as Diana Prince / Wonder Woman, Ezra Miller as Barry Allen / The Flash, Jason Momoa as Arthur Curry / Aquaman, Ray Fisher as Victor Stone / Cyborg, and Joe Morton as Dr. Silas Stone. Steppenwolf, who serves as the main antagonist in "Justice League" (2017), was introduced through a brief scene not included in the film's theatrical release but instead revealed online by Warner Bros. on March 28, before being included in the "Ultimate Edition" home video release.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: After Superman's death, a secret government agency recruits imprisoned supervillains to execute dangerous black ops missions and rescue the world from a powerful threat, in exchange for clemency.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: In February 2009, prior to the development of the DCEU, Warner Bros. was developing a Suicide Squad film, with Dan Lin producing and Justin Marks writing the script. Warner Bros. announced "Suicide Squad" in October 2014, with David Ayer as director, also serving as screenwriter. The main cast included Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Jared Leto, Jai Courtney, Jay Hernandez, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Karen Fukuhara, Cara Delevingne, Viola Davis, and Joel Kinnaman. Principal photography took place from April to August 2015 in Toronto. "Suicide Squad" was released in North America on August 5, 2016.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: "Suicide Squad" is set after the events of "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice". Affleck and Miller reprise their roles as Bruce Wayne / Batman and Barry Allen / The Flash from that film. In a mid-credits scene, Amanda Waller (portrayed by Davis) meets Wayne in a restaurant and hands him a dossier containing information on future members of the Justice League.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: Diana of Themyscira, an Amazon warrior who is also the demigoddess daughter of the god Zeus, uses her talents and abilities in order to help humanity during World War I.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: In December 2013, Gal Gadot was cast as Diana Prince / Wonder Woman and signed a three-picture deal which included a solo film. The film was announced in October 2014, and Michelle MacLaren was confirmed to direct from a screenplay by Jason Fuchs the next month. MacLaren left the project the following year in April due to creative differences, and Patty Jenkins was hired to replace her. Filming occurred from November 2015 to May 2016 and took place in the United Kingdom, France and Italy. "Wonder Woman" was released in North America on June 2, 2017.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: Motivated by Superman's death at the hands of Doomsday, Batman and Wonder Woman assemble a team of metahumans to stop the threat of Steppenwolf, who is in search of three Mother Boxes scattered across Earth.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: By June 2013, Goyer was set to write "Justice League" as part of a three-film deal he signed for "Man of Steel". Snyder was confirmed to return as director in April 2014, and the film was announced in October as "Justice League Part One". In 2016, Chris Terrio was revealed to have written the script, and the title was changed to simply "Justice League" by June. Affleck, Cavill, Gadot, Momoa, Miller, and Fisher reprised their respective roles from previous films. Filming took place from April to October 2016 at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden in England, as well as locations around London and in Iceland. In May 2017, Snyder stepped down from his duties on the film due to his daughter's death; Joss Whedon filled his position on post-production, with additional scenes being written and directed by him. Though Whedon was not officially credited for his role as post-production director, he completed enough additional work for a screenwriting credit on the film. "Justice League" was released worldwide on November 17, 2017.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: Reprising their roles from previous films are Jeremy Irons as Alfred Pennyworth, Diane Lane as Martha Kent, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, Connie Nielsen as Hippolyta, Robin Wright as Antiope, and Joe Morton as Silas Stone. "Justice League" also introduces J. K. Simmons as James Gordon, Amber Heard as Mera, and Billy Crudup as Henry Allen, with Joe Manganiello appearing as Slade Wilson / Deathstroke in a post-credits scene.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: The divisive reaction to the theatrical cut of "Justice League", with Snyder leaving directorial duties and the final cut of the film in the hands of Whedon, led to a fan-driven campaign for a "Snyder Cut" of the film. Arguments were made that Snyder's vision would be more cohesive to the previous films. In March 2019, Snyder confirmed his original cut does exist, and stated that it was up to Warner Bros. to release it. Warner Bros. remained silent regarding the matter, though "Variety" reported in November that Warner Bros. was unlikely to release Snyder's version of "Justice League", with one studio insider describing it as "a pipe dream". Snyder announced in May 2020 that HBO Max would be releasing his cut of "Justice League" on their service on March 18, 2021. Initially conceived as a four-part miniseries, it was ultimately released as a four-hour film, twice the length of the theatrical version. Snyder stated this version is intended to not affect the future of the DCEU continuity, but that it takes place in a slightly alternate universe. The new cut cost an estimated $70 million to complete, primarily for visual effects and additional photography. Some actors returned to their roles for the additional photography. Work on the cut was completed in January 2021.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: Characters in the film who did not appear in the theatrical version include the Joker (with Jared Leto reprising the role from "Suicide Squad"), General Swanwick / Martian Manhunter (with Harry Lennix reprising the role from "Man of Steel" and "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice"), Darkseid (portrayed by Ray Porter), DeSaad (portrayed by Peter Guinness), Nuidis Vulko (portrayed by Willem Dafoe), Iris West (portrayed by Kiersey Clemons), Ryan Choi (portrayed by Zheng Kai), several Green Lanterns, as well as Granny Goodness.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: Arthur Curry, a half-Atlantean assistant lighthouse keeper, sets out to lead the underwater kingdom of Atlantis against his half-brother, King Orm, who seeks to unite the seven underwater kingdoms against the surface world.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: Jason Momoa was cast as Arthur Curry / Aquaman in June 2014. By August, Will Beall and Kurt Johnstad were writing competing scripts for the character's solo film. "Aquaman" was announced in October. James Wan was hired as director the following year, as well as to oversee the screenplay by Johnstad. David Leslie Johnson was later brought to write a new script. Beall returned to write the script, based on a story treatment by Wan and Geoff Johns. Johnson worked on a rewrite of Beall's script with Wan and producer Peter Safran. Principal photography began in May 2017 in Queensland, Australia and wrapped that October. "Aquaman" was released in North America on December 21, 2018.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: "Aquaman" is set after the events of "Justice League", though critics have noticed numerous inconsistencies between the two theatrically released films. Furthermore, Momoa claimed that the film takes place after "Zack's cut", with the ending of that version of the film directly tying into the events of "Aquaman". Heard reprises her role as Mera from "Justice League", while Dafoe is introduced as Nuidis Vulko.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: By speaking "Shazam", Billy Batson, a 14-year-old foster child, can turn into an adult superhero, courtesy of an ancient wizard. He attempts to master his powers and defeat the evil forces controlled by Dr. Thaddeus Sivana.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: In August 2014, Dwayne Johnson announced his attachment to a project about the superhero Shazam, formerly known as Captain Marvel. Johnson was revealed to be portraying the antihero Black Adam, Shazam's nemesis in the film, with Darren Lemke set to write the script in September. In October, Warner Bros. announced "Shazam" as a film in its upcoming slate. By January 2017, Henry Gayden was working on the script. In July, David F. Sandberg was hired to direct "Shazam!". Johnson was dropped from the project, instead starring in a Black Adam solo film. By October, Zachary Levi was cast as Shazam, and in November, Asher Angel was cast as Shazam's child-age alter ego, Billy Batson. Principal photography began in January 2018 and wrapped that May, with most of the filming taking place at Pinewood Toronto Studios, among other locations around Toronto. "Shazam!" was released in North America on April 5, 2019.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: "Shazam!" is set after the events of "Justice League". Superman makes a cameo appearance at the end of the film, but his face is not shown as Cavill was unable to reprise the role due to scheduling conflicts. The villain Mister Mind is introduced in a mid-credits scene.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: When Cassandra Cain, a young girl, comes across a diamond belonging to crime lord Black Mask, Harley Quinn joins forces with Black Canary, Huntress, and Renee Montoya to help protect her.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: By November 2016, a film based on the female superhero team Birds of Prey was in development, with Christina Hodson signed on as screenwriter. By April 2018, Warner Bros. selected Cathy Yan as director, with Margot Robbie, Sue Kroll, and Bryan Unkless serving as producers. Margot Robbie reprised her role as Harley Quinn from "Suicide Squad". The film is the first theatrical R-rated installment in the DCEU and has a smaller budget than most of the other films. In addition to Robbie's starring role, the cast also includes Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Rosie Perez, and Ella Jay Basco. The full title of the film was revealed as "Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)" by Robbie. Principal photography commenced in January 2019 in Los Angeles and lasted until April. "Birds of Prey" held its world premiere in London on January 29, 2020 and was later released in North America on February 7.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: Diana Prince comes into conflict with the Soviet Union during the Cold War in the 1980s and finds two formidable foes in the form of Maxwell Lord and Cheetah.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: By June 2017, Geoff Johns and Patty Jenkins had begun work on the story treatment for a "Wonder Woman" sequel. In July, Johns was working on the script, and the sequel was officially announced at San Diego Comic-Con, with Gadot reprising the lead role. In September, Jenkins signed a deal to return as director, and brought on David Callaham to pen the script with her and Johns. Production began in June 2018 and concluded that December. Filming locations included the District of Columbia, Northern Virginia, Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden in the United Kingdom and the islands of Tenerife and Fuerteventura in Spain. "Wonder Woman 1984" was released in the United States on HBO Max and in theaters simultaneously on December 25, 2020.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: In a mid-credits scene, Lynda Carter, who starred as Wonder Woman in a 1970s television series, is introduced as Asteria, a legendary Amazon warrior who possessed ancient golden armor that Gadot's Wonder Woman wears in the film.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: Amanda Waller sends a new Task Force X, consisting of both old and new members, on a mission to destroy a Nazi-era laboratory containing experiments.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: In March 2016, a "Suicide Squad" sequel was announced to be in development, with Ayer returning as director. Adam Cozad was hired to write the script by March 2017. By July, a new story treatment was written by Zak Penn. In September, Gavin O'Connor was hired as director and writer after Ayer dropped out. O'Connor completed the script with David Bar Katz and Todd Stashwick by September 2018. The next month, O'Connor left the project as Warner Bros. believed the script was too similar to "Birds of Prey". In 2019, the film was re-titled "The Suicide Squad", with James Gunn directing, from a new script he wrote. Gunn chose the project over various other films Warner Bros. had in development, including a Superman film. In March, Idris Elba joined the cast. He was initially hired to replace Smith as Deadshot, who dropped out due to scheduling conflicts, but was later decided that Elba would play a new character so Smith could return in the future. Robbie, Kinnaman, Courtney, and Davis reprise their roles from "Suicide Squad". Production began in September 2019 at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Atlanta, with additional filming following in Panama, and concluded in February 2020. "The Suicide Squad" began its international release on July 30, 2021, in the United Kingdom, and was released theatrically and on the streaming platform HBO Max in the United States on August 5.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: Nearly 5,000 years after he was bestowed with the powers of the Egyptian gods and imprisoned, Black Adam is freed from his tomb, ready to unleash his form of justice on the modern world.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: In September 2014, after being considered to play Shazam and Lobo, Dwayne Johnson was cast as Black Adam, a central villain of DC's "Shazam" franchise. The character was intended to be introduced in "Shazam!", but Johnson convinced the film's production studios to divide the narrative to focus on Black Adam's origin, with Black Adam and Shazam instead set to cross paths in a future film. Adam Sztykiel was hired as screenwriter. Jaume Collet-Serra was hired as director in June 2019, with Johnson, Beau Flynn, Hiram Garcia, and Dany Garcia attached as producers. By September 2020, Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani had written a new draft of the script. Filming began in April 2021 and wrapped that July. "Black Adam" was released in the United States on October 21, 2022.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: The film features the Justice Society of America, consisting of Aldis Hodge as Hawkman, Noah Centineo as Atom Smasher, Quintessa Swindell as Cyclone, and Pierce Brosnan as Doctor Fate. Reprising their roles from previous DCEU media are Davis as Amanda Waller, Djimon Hounsou as the wizard Shazam, and Jennifer Holland as Emilia Harcourt, with Cavill appearing as Kal-El / Clark Kent / Superman in a mid-credits scene.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: A sequel to "Shazam!" entered development in April 2019, with Henry Gayden returning as writer. David F. Sandberg and Peter Safran were later confirmed to return as director and producer, respectively, and Chris Morgan was hired as an additional screenwriter. Zachary Levi reprises his role as the titular superhero, as most of the adult and child cast in the Shazam Family. At DC FanDome in August 2020, the film's title was announced as "Shazam! Fury of the Gods". Filming began in May 2021 in Atlanta and concluded that August. "Shazam! Fury of the Gods" is scheduled to be released on March 17, 2023.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: Barry Allen attempts to go back in time to prevent his mother's murder which brings unintentional consequences to his timeline.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: By July 2013, Greg Berlanti was developing a film that centered around Barry Allen / The Flash, and drafted a script alongside Geoff Johns, Chris Brancato, Michael Green, and Marc Guggenheim. In October 2014, Warner Bros. announced "The Flash" with a scheduled 2018 release date, and that Ezra Miller had been cast in the starring role. A new story treatment was being written by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller the following year in April. Over the next two years, Seth Grahame-Smith and Rick Famuyiwa had individually dropped out as director due to creative differences with the studio. Joby Harold was hired to do a page-one rewrite of the script in January 2017, which previously had drafts written by Grahame-Smith and Famuyiwa. In July, the title for the film was changed to "Flashpoint", based on the comic book storyline of the same name. Dan Mazeau was brought on as co-writer. In March 2018, John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein were hired to co-direct. In 2019, following creative differences with the co-directors' work on the script, Miller was hired to co-write a new draft in collaboration with Grant Morrison. By July, Daley and Goldstein had left the project, while Andy Muschietti and Christina Hodson were hired to replace them as director and screenwriter, respectively. Barbara Muschietti and Michael Disco serve as producers. Filming began in April 2021, at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden in Hertfordshire, England, and wrapped that October. "The Flash" is scheduled to be released on June 16, 2023.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: "The Flash" will explore the multiverse using the Speed Force and feature multiple superheroes, including Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne / Batman (reprising his role from the 1989 film "Batman" and its 1992 sequel "Batman Returns") and Sasha Calle as Supergirl. Affleck also reprises his role as the DCEU version of Batman. The film will also "restart" the DCEU, according to Barbara Muschietti. Michael Shannon and Antje Traue will reprise their roles as General Zod and Faora-Ul, respectively, from "Man of Steel", with Ron Livingston replacing Billy Crudup in the role of Henry Allen, Barry's father, who appeared in "Justice League" and its director's cut, and Kiersey Clemons returning as Iris West from the latter cut.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: In November 2018, a film centered on the Jaime Reyes incarnation of Blue Beetle was in development, with a script written by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer. By February 2021, Angel Manuel Soto signed on as director, and Xolo Maridueña was cast as the titular character in August. John Rickard will serve as producer. Principal photography commenced in May in Atlanta, and wrapped on July 18 in Puerto Rico. Initially developed as an HBO Max exclusive film, "Blue Beetle" was later changed to a theatrical release, scheduled for August 18, 2023.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: In January 2019, Warner Bros. confirmed development of an "Aquaman" sequel, with intentions for James Wan to return as director. In addition to starring, Momoa has a larger creative role in the sequel; together with his writing partner Thomas Pa'a Sibbett, he pitched their idea for the sequel to Warner Bros. and co-wrote the first story treatment. In February, David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick signed on as screenwriter; he completed the script alongside Wan. Producer Peter Safran has stated that the film will explore the other Seven Kingdoms of Atlantis. The title was announced as "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom". Filming occurred from June 2021 to January 2022 in the United Kingdom, Hawaii and Los Angeles. "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom" is scheduled to be released on December 25, 2023.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: In August 2022, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery David Zaslav stated that the company has a ten-year plan of upcoming films, similar in approach to that of Marvel Studios with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The primary focus of the franchise going forward would be centered around Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. After being named the co-CEOs/co-Chairmen of DC Studios that October, James Gunn and Peter Safran reaffirmed the primary focus of the future as being the characters that Zaslav identified, as well as Harley Quinn, while also referencing "the rest of the DC stable of characters". The pair jointly stated that they are "excited to... tell some of the biggest, most beautiful, and grandest stories ever told." Later the same month, sequels to "Man of Steel" and "The Flash" were announced. In November, while continuing to work on the studio's ten-year plan, Gunn echoed Johnson's statements regarding their determination to listen to the fans. Later that month, Zaslav stated that Gunn and Safran were close to completing their roadmap of characters and plot points that the franchise will explore under their direction. DC Studios has tentative plans for sequels to their released slate of films, as well as adaptations for new characters. The co-CEOs/co-Chairmen of DC Studios presented their plans to Zaslav in mid-December 2022. That month, Gunn confirmed that a slate of projects will be announced in January 2023. Warner Bros. Pictures and DC Studios additionally have a variety of DC films in various stages of development.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: In December 2022, Gunn revealed that a new Superman film would be a part of the future slate of the franchise. Serving as screenwriter, Gunn stated that the project will center around the character at a younger age as he begins to work at the "Daily Planet", while also revealing that Cavill would not reprise the role in the film. However, he also said that he hopes to work with the actor in the future on other projects. The same day, Cavill made the announcement that he would not return as Superman.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: In September 2020, producer Barbara Muschietti stated that "The Flash" would greatly impact the future of the DCEU, by acting as a "reset", though it would also not "forget anything" that came before. Following a variety of legal issues and disorderly conduct in Miller's personal life, the conglomerate stated that the actor might not be a part of the franchise moving forward. In October 2022, it was revealed that the script for a sequel to "The Flash" had already been completed by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, although the project's realization depends on the success of the first film.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: Task Force X member Christopher Smith / Peacemaker is sent on a black-ops mission to target "butterflies", individuals possessed by parasitic, insect-like creatures invading the human race.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: By September 2020, a television series spin-off of "The Suicide Squad" centered on Peacemaker was in development for HBO Max. James Gunn served as an executive producer alongside Peter Safran, wrote its eight episodes and directed several of them. John Cena reprises his role as Peacemaker from the film. Filming began in Vancouver, Canada in January 2021 and concluded that July. The first three episodes of "Peacemaker" were released on January 13, 2022, with subsequent episodes releasing weekly until February 17. Soon after the series ended, the series was renewed for a second season, with Gunn set to write and direct every episode.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: The first season of "Peacemaker" is set five months after the events of "The Suicide Squad", with Steve Agee and Jennifer Holland reprising their respective roles as John Economos and Emilia Harcourt from that film. Viola Davis, Jason Momoa, and Ezra Miller also make uncredited appearances as their respective DCEU roles of Amanda Waller, Arthur Curry / Aquaman, and Barry Allen / Flash, with Superman and Wonder Woman also appearing portrayed by stand-ins. The series contains references to the wider DC universe, including confirmation that Bat-Mite, Doll Man, Matter-Eater Lad, Kite Man, and Green Arrow exist in the DCEU. Additionally, a newspaper headline detailing the Intergang can be briefly seen, ahead of their debut in "Black Adam".


title: DC Extended Universe

text: Over the years, many projects that were at one point supposed to be part of the DCEU have either been moved into a different continuity, outright canceled, or unreleased:


title: DC Extended Universe

text: In October 2014, Geoff Johns explained that DC's approach to their films and television series would be different from Marvel Studios' cinematic universe, stating that their film universe and TV universes would be kept separate within a multiverse to allow "everyone to make the best possible product, to tell the best story, to do the best world". This divide lasted until January 2020, when the DCEU was retroactively established to have connections to The CW's Arrowverse continuity via an expansion of the multiverse concept, during Part 4 of the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" crossover. Ezra Miller reprised their role as Barry Allen in a cameo appearance alongside Grant Gustin's version of the character. During their conversation, Miller's Barry gets the idea to call himself "The Flash" from his alternate self and mentions "Victor". Despite their cameo, the episode did not confirm the designated Earth for the DCEU characters.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: Miller's cameo opened up more possibilities for crossovers between DC films and the Arrowverse. President of DC Films, Walter Hamada, revealed that prior to "Crisis on Infinite Earths", DC had been structured in a way that the television division had to clear the use of characters with the film division. Now, the company could "really lean into this idea of [the multiverse] and acknowledge the fact there can be a Flash on TV and one in the movies, and you don't have to pick one or the other, and they both exist in this multiverse". Arrowverse creator and executive producer Greg Berlanti agreed, feeling that "moving forward, there's more opportunity to do more things like this", and was open to more film characters appearing in the Arrowverse.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: In August 2020, Hamada announced plans to develop a multiverse inspired by the comics. In doing so, the studio also stated that all past, present, and future projects are a part of the same unified multiverse. "The Flash" director Andy Muschietti further explained that all previous adaptations of DC Comics were a part of the multiverse: "...all the cinematic iterations that we've seen before are valid... all that you've seen exists, and everything that you will see exists, in the same unified multiverse".


title: DC Extended Universe

text: In the DCEU, the events of the films rarely explicitly make their exact years known. "Man of Steel" takes place after the events of "Wonder Woman" and "Wonder Woman 1984", which are set in 1918 and 1984, respectively. "Wonder Woman" also has bookend scenes set in the present after the events of "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice". The events of "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" occur 18 months after the events of "Man of Steel", which follows the consequences and the emergence of aliens and metahumans such as Superman. The film concludes with the death of Superman, which is emphasized in the following ensemble films, "Suicide Squad" and "Justice League", taking place approximately one and two years later, respectively.


title: DC Extended Universe

text: Jason Momoa confirmed that "Aquaman" takes place right after "Zack Snyder's Justice League." "Aquaman" is followed by "Shazam!", which occurs during the Christmas season of 2018. Afterwards, the events of "Birds of Prey" are set in 2020, followed by "The Suicide Squad", confirmed to take place in 2021. "Peacemaker" is set five months after the events of "The Suicide Squad", with "Black Adam" taking place after "Peacemaker".


title: Queen (band)

text: Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1970 by Freddie Mercury (lead vocals, piano), Brian May (guitar, vocals) and Roger Taylor (drums, vocals), later joined by John Deacon (bass). Their earliest works were influenced by progressive rock, hard rock and heavy metal, but the band gradually ventured into more conventional and radio-friendly works by incorporating further styles, such as arena rock and pop rock.


title: Queen (band)

text: Before forming Queen, May and Taylor had played together in the band Smile. Mercury was a fan of Smile and encouraged them to experiment with more elaborate stage and recording techniques. He joined in 1970 and suggested the name "Queen". Deacon was recruited in February 1971, before the band released their eponymous debut album in 1973. Queen first charted in the UK with their second album, "Queen II", in 1974. "Sheer Heart Attack" later that year and "A Night at the Opera" in 1975 brought them international success. The latter featured "Bohemian Rhapsody", which stayed at number one in the UK for nine weeks and helped popularise the music video format.


title: Queen (band)

text: The band's 1977 album "News of the World" contained "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions", which have become anthems at sporting events. By the early 1980s, Queen were one of the biggest stadium rock bands in the world. "Another One Bites the Dust" from "The Game" (1980) became their best-selling single, while their 1981 compilation album "Greatest Hits" is the best-selling album in the UK and is certified nine times platinum in the US. Their performance at the 1985 Live Aid concert is ranked among the greatest in rock history by various publications. In August 1986, Mercury gave his last performance with Queen at Knebworth, England. In 1991, he died of bronchopneumonia, a complication of AIDS. Deacon retired in 1997. Since 2004, May and Taylor have toured as "Queen +", with vocalists Paul Rodgers and Adam Lambert.


title: Queen (band)

text: Queen have been a global presence in popular culture for more than half a century. Estimates of their record sales range from 250 million to 300 million, making them one of the world's best-selling music artists. In 1990, Queen received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, and with each member having composed hit singles all four were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003. In 2005 they received the Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Song Collection from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors, and in 2018 they were presented the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.


title: Queen (band)

text: The founding members of Queen met in West London during the late 1960s. Guitarist Brian May had built his own guitar with his father in 1963, and formed the group 1984 (named after Orwell's novel) the following year with singer Tim Staffell. May left the group in early 1968 to focus on his degree in Physics and Infrared Astronomy at Imperial College and find a group that could write original material. He formed the group Smile with Staffell (now playing bass) and keyboardist Chris Smith. To complete the line-up, May placed an advertisement on a college notice board for a "Mitch Mitchell/Ginger Baker type" drummer; Roger Taylor, a young dental student, auditioned and got the job. Smith left the group in early 1969, immediately before a gig at the Royal Albert Hall with Free and the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.


title: Queen (band)

text: While attending Ealing Art College in west London, Staffell became friends with fellow student Freddie Bulsara, who was from Zanzibar and of Indian Parsi descent. Bulsara had studied fashion design for a year before switching to graphic art and design, and soon became a keen fan of Smile. He asked if he could join the group as lead singer, but May felt Staffell would not give up that role. He also ran a stall in Kensington Market with Taylor.


title: Queen (band)

text: In 1970, Staffell quit Smile, feeling his interests in soul and R&B clashed with the group's hard rock sound and being fed up with the lack of success. He formed the group Humpy Bong with former Bee Gees drummer Colin Petersen. The remaining members accepted Bulsara as lead singer, and recruited Taylor's friend Mike Grose as bassist. The four played their first gig at a fundraising event in Truro on 27 June 1970. Bulsara suggested the group should be renamed to "Queen". The others were uncertain at first, but he said, "it's wonderful, dear, people will love it". At the same time, he decided to change his surname to Mercury, inspired by the line "Mother Mercury, look what they've done to me" in the song "My Fairy King". The group played their first London gig on 18 July. The early set consisted of material that would later appear on the first two albums, along with various rock and roll covers, such as Cliff Richard and the Shadows' "Please Don't Tease". They attracted the attention of producer John Anthony, who was interested in the group's sound but thought they had the wrong bass player. After three live gigs, Mike Grose decided not to continue with the band and was replaced by Barry Mitchell (ex Crushed Butler) on bass guitar. Mitchell played thirteen gigs with Queen between August 1970 to January 1971. In turn, Barry Mitchell left in January 1971 and was replaced by Doug Bogie for two live gigs.


title: Queen (band)

text: In February 1971, John Deacon joined Queen. In addition to being an experienced bassist, his quiet demeanour complemented the band, and he was skilled in electronics. On 2 July, Queen played their first show with the classic line-up of Mercury, May, Taylor and Deacon at a Surrey college outside London. May called Terry Yeadon, an engineer at Pye Studios where Smile had recorded, to see if he knew anywhere where Queen could go. Yeadon had since moved to De Lane Lea Studios' new premises in Wembley, and they needed a group to test out the equipment and recording rooms. He tried asking the Kinks but couldn't get hold of them. Therefore, he told Queen they could record some demos in exchange for the studio's acoustic tests. They recorded five of their own songs, "Liar", "Keep Yourself Alive", "Great King Rat", "The Night Comes Down" and "Jesus". During the recording, John Anthony visited the band with Roy Thomas Baker. The two were taken with "Keep Yourself Alive" and began promoting the band to several record companies.


title: Queen (band)

text: Promoter Ken Testi managed to attract the interest of Charisma Records, who offered Queen an advance of around £25,000, but the group turned them down as they realised the label would promote Genesis as a priority. Testi then entered discussions with Trident Studios' Norman Sheffield, who offered the band a management deal under Neptune Productions, a subsidiary of Trident, to manage the band and enable them to use their facilities, whilst the management searched for a deal. This suited both parties, as Trident were expanding into management, and under the deal, Queen were able to make use of the hi-tech recording facilities used by signed musicians. Taylor later described these early off-peak studio hours as "gold dust".


title: Queen (band)

text: Queen began 1972 with a gig at Bedford College, London where only six people turned up. After a few more shows, they stopped live performances for eight months to work on the album with Anthony and Baker. During the sessions at Trident, they saw David Bowie with the Spiders From Mars live and realised they needed to make an impact with the album, otherwise they would be left behind. Co-producers Anthony and Baker initially clashed with the band (May in particular) on the direction of the album, bringing the band's inexperience in the studio to bear. The band's fighting centered around their efforts to integrate technical perfection with the reality of live performances, leading to what Baker referred to as "kitchen sink overproduction". The resulting album was a mix of heavy metal and progressive rock. The group were unhappy with the re-recording of "The Night Comes Down", so the finished album uses the De Lane Lea demo. Another track, "Mad the Swine" was dropped from the running order after the band and Baker could not agree on a mix. Mike Stone created the final mix for "Keep Yourself Alive", and he would go on to work on several other Queen albums. By January 1972, the band finished recording their debut album, but had yet to secure a record contract. In order to attract record company interest, Trident booked a "showcase" gig on 6 November at The Pheasantry, followed by a show at the Marquee Club on 20 December.


title: Queen (band)

text: Queen promoted the unreleased album in February 1973 on BBC Radio 1, still unsigned. The following month, Trident managed to strike a deal with EMI Records. "Keep Yourself Alive" was released as a single on 6 July, with the album "Queen" appearing a week later. The front cover showed a shot of Mercury live on stage taken by Taylor's friend Douglass Puddifoot. Deacon was credited as "Deacon John" while Taylor used his full name, Roger Meddows-Taylor. The album was received well by critics; Gordon Fletcher of "Rolling Stone" called it "superb", and Chicago's "Daily Herald" called it an "above-average debut". However, it drew little mainstream attention, and "Keep Yourself Alive" sold poorly. Retrospectively, it is cited as the album's highlight, and in 2008 "Rolling Stone" ranked it 31st in the "100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time", describing it as "an entire album's worth of riffs crammed into a single song". The album was certified gold in the UK and the US.


title: Queen (band)

text: The group began to record their second album, "Queen II" in August 1973. Now able to use regular studio time, they decided to make full use of the facilities available. May created a multi-layer guitar introduction "Procession", while Mercury wrote "The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke" based on the painting of the same name by Richard Dadd. The group spent the remainder of the year touring the UK, supporting Mott The Hoople, and began to attract an audience. The tour ended with two shows at the Hammersmith Odeon on 14 December, playing to 7,000 people.


title: Queen (band)

text: In January 1974, Queen played the Sunbury Pop Festival in Australia. They arrived late, and were jeered and taunted by the audience who expected to see home grown acts. Before leaving, Mercury announced, "when we come back to Australia, Queen will be the biggest band in the world!" "Queen II" was released in March, and features Mick Rock's iconic Dietrich-inspired image of the band on the cover. This image would later be used as the basis for "Bohemian Rhapsody" music video production. The album reached number five on the British album chart and became the first Queen album to chart in the UK. The Mercury-written lead single "Seven Seas of Rhye" reached number 10 in the UK, giving the band their first hit. The album featured a 'layered' sound which would become their signature, and features long complex instrumental passages, fantasy-themed lyrics, and instrumental virtuosity. Aside from its only single, the album also included the song "The March of the Black Queen", a six-minute epic which lacks a chorus. Critical reaction was mixed; the "Winnipeg Free Press", while praising the band's debut album, described "Queen II" as an "over-produced monstrosity". AllMusic has described the album as a favourite among the band's hardcore fans, and it is the first of three Queen albums to feature in the book "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". The group ended their early 1974 UK tour with a show at the Rainbow Theatre on 31 March. Mercury chose to a wear a Zandra Rhodes-designed tunic for the gig, changing into a slashed black top midway through the show.


title: Queen (band)

text: In May 1974, a month into the band's first US tour opening for Mott the Hoople, May collapsed and was diagnosed with hepatitis, forcing the cancellation of their remaining dates. While recuperating, May was initially absent when the band started work on their third album, but he returned midway through the recording process. Released in 1974, "Sheer Heart Attack" reached number two in the UK, sold well throughout Europe, and went gold in the US. It gave the band their first real experience of international success, and was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic. The album experimented with a variety of musical genres, including British music hall, heavy metal, ballads, ragtime, and Caribbean. May's "Now I'm Here" documented the group's curtailed American tour, and "Brighton Rock" served as a vehicle for his regular on-stage solo guitar spot. Deacon wrote his first song for the group, "Misfire", while the live favourite "Stone Cold Crazy" was credited to the whole band. Mercury wrote the closing number, "In the Lap of the Gods", with the intention that the audience could sing along to the chorus when played live. This would be repeated later on, more successfully, in songs such as "We Are the Champions.


title: Queen (band)

text: The single "Killer Queen" was written by Mercury about a high-class prostitute. It reached number two on the British charts, and became their first US hit, reaching number 12 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. The song was partly recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales. With Mercury playing the grand piano, it combines camp, vaudeville, and British music hall with May's guitar. "Now I'm Here" was released as the second single, reached number eleven. In 2006, "Classic Rock" ranked "Sheer Heart Attack" number 28 in "The 100 Greatest British Rock Albums Ever", and in 2007, "Mojo" ranked it No.88 in "The 100 Records That Changed the World". It is also the second of three Queen albums to feature in the book "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".


title: Queen (band)

text: In January 1975, Queen left for a world tour with an upgraded light show. They toured the US as headliners, and played in Canada for the first time. Several dates were cancelled after Mercury contracted laryngitis. The band then toured Japan from mid-April to the beginning of May. They were greeted by thousands of screaming fans, and played eight times in seven cities. Despite the success, Queen were still tied to the original Trident deal and wages. They were all living in relative poverty in bedsits, while Deacon was refused money for a deposit on a house. EMI contacted lawyer Jim Beach, who tried to find a way of extracting them from their contract. Trident complained that they had invested £200,000 in Queen and wanted their money back first. In August, after an acrimonious split with Trident, the band negotiated themselves out of their contract and searched for new management. One of the options they considered was an offer from Led Zeppelin's manager, Peter Grant, who wanted them to sign with Led Zeppelin's own production company, Swan Song Records. The band were concerned about being a lower priority than Zeppelin and Bad Company (also signed to Swan Song) and instead contacted Elton John's manager, John Reid, who accepted the position. Reid's first instruction to the band was "I'll take care of the business; you make the best record you can".


title: Queen (band)

text: Queen started work on their fourth album "A Night at the Opera", taking its name from the popular Marx Brothers movie. At the time, it was the most expensive album ever produced, costing £40,000 and using three different studios. Like its predecessor, the album features diverse musical styles and experimentation with stereo sound. Mercury wrote the opening song "Death on Two Legs", a savage dig at perceived wrongdoers (and later dedicated to Trident in concert) and the camp vaudeville "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon" and "Seaside Rendezvous". May's "The Prophet's Song" was an eight-minute epic; the middle section is a canon, with simple phrases layered to create a full-choral sound. The Mercury penned ballad, "Love of My Life", featured a harp and overdubbed vocal harmonies.


title: Queen (band)

text: The best-known song on the album, "Bohemian Rhapsody", originated from pieces of music that Mercury had written at Ealing College. Mercury played a run-through of the track on piano in his flat to Baker, stopping suddenly to announce, "This is where the opera section comes in". When the rest of the band started recording the song they were unsure as to how it would be pieced together. After recording the backing track, Baker left a 30-second section of tape to add the operatic vocals. Reportedly, 180 overdubs were used, to the extent that the original tape wore thin. EMI initially refused to release the single, thinking it too long, and demanded a radio edit which Queen refused. Mercury's close friend and advisor, Capital London radio DJ Kenny Everett, played a pivotal role in giving the single exposure. He was given a promotional copy on the condition he didn't play it, but ended up doing so fourteen times over a single weekend. Capital's switchboard was overwhelmed with callers inquiring when the song would be released. With EMI forced to release "Bohemian Rhapsody" due to public demand, the single reached number one in the UK for nine weeks. It is the third-best-selling single of all time in the UK, surpassed only by Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" and Elton John's "Candle in the Wind 1997", and is the best-selling commercial single (i.e. "not" for-charity) in the UK. It also reached number nine in the US (a 1992 re-release reached number two on the "Billboard" Hot 100 for five weeks). It is the only single ever to sell a million copies on two separate occasions, and became the Christmas number one twice in the UK, the only single ever to do so. It has also been voted the greatest song of all time in three different polls.


title: Queen (band)

text: "Bohemian Rhapsody" was promoted with a music video directed by Bruce Gowers, who had already shot several of Queen's live concerts. The group wanted a video so they could avoid appearing on the BBC's "Top of the Pops", which would clash with tour dates, and it would have looked strange miming to such a complex song. Filmed at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, the video cost £3,500, five times the typical promotional budget, and was shot in three hours. The operatic section featured a reprise of the "Queen II" cover, with the band member's heads animated. On the impact of the "Bohemian Rhapsody" promotional video, "Rolling Stone" states: "Its influence cannot be overstated, practically inventing the music video seven years before MTV went on the air." Ranking it number 31 on their list of the 50 key events in rock music history, "The Guardian" stated it "ensured videos would henceforth be a mandatory tool in the marketing of music". Radio broadcaster Tommy Vance states, "It became the first record to be pushed into the forefront by virtue of a video. Queen were certainly the first band to create a ‘concept’ video. The video captured the musical imagery perfectly. You cannot hear that music without seeing the visuals in your mind's eye."


title: Queen (band)

text: "A Night at the Opera" was very successful in the UK, and went triple platinum in the United States. The British public voted it the 13th-greatest album of all time in a 2004 Channel 4 poll. It has also ranked highly in international polls; in a worldwide Guinness poll, it was voted the 19th-greatest of all time, while an ABC poll saw the Australian public vote it the 28th-greatest of all time. "A Night at the Opera" has frequently appeared in "greatest albums" lists reflecting the opinions of critics. Among other accolades, it was ranked number 16 in "Q" magazine's "The 50 Best British Albums Ever" in 2004, and number 11 in "Rolling Stone's" "The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time" as featured in their Mexican edition in 2004. It was also placed at number 230 on "Rolling Stone" magazine's list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" in 2003. "A Night at the Opera" is the third and final Queen album to be featured in the book "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". The second single from the album was Deacon's "You're My Best Friend", which peaked at number sixteen on the US "Billboard" Hot 100, and went on to become a worldwide top-ten hit. The band's A Night at the Opera Tour began in November 1975, and covered Europe, the United States, Japan, and Australia. On 24 December, Queen played a special concert at the Hammersmith Odeon which was broadcast live on the BBC show "The Old Grey Whistle Test", with the audio being later broadcast on BBC Radio 1. It became one of the band's most popular bootleg recordings for decades before being officially released in 2015.


title: Queen (band)

text: By 1976, Queen were back in the studio recording "A Day at the Races", which is often regarded as a sequel album to "A Night at the Opera". It again borrowed the name of a Marx Brothers movie, and its cover was similar to that of "A Night at the Opera", a variation on the same Queen logo. The most recognisable of the Marx Brothers, Groucho Marx, invited Queen to visit him in his Los Angeles home in March 1977; there the band thanked him in person, and performed "'39" "a cappella". Baker did not return to produce the album; instead the band self-produced with assistance from Mike Stone, who performed several of the backing vocals. The major hit on the album was "Somebody to Love", a gospel-inspired song in which Mercury, May, and Taylor multi-tracked their voices to create a gospel choir. The song went to number two in the UK, and number thirteen in the US. The album also featured one of the band's heaviest songs, May's "Tie Your Mother Down", which became a staple of their live shows. Musically, "A Day at the Races" was by both fans' and critics' standards a strong effort, reaching number one in the UK and Japan, and number five in the US.


title: Queen (band)

text: Queen played a landmark gig on 18 September 1976, a free concert in Hyde Park, London, organised by the entrepreneur Richard Branson. It set an attendance record at the park, with 150,000 people confirmed in the audience. Queen were late arriving onstage and ran out of time to play an encore; the police informed Mercury that he would be arrested if he attempted to go on stage again. May enjoyed the gig particularly, as he had been to see previous concerts at the park, such as the first one organised by Blackhill Enterprises in 1968, featuring Pink Floyd.


title: Queen (band)

text: On 1 December 1976, Queen were the intended guests on London's early evening "Today" programme, but they pulled out at the last-minute, which saw their late replacement on the show, EMI labelmate the Sex Pistols, give their infamous expletive-strewn interview with Bill Grundy. During the A Day at the Races Tour in 1977, Queen performed sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden, New York, in February, supported by Thin Lizzy, and Mercury and Taylor socialised with that group's leader Phil Lynott. They then performed a series of concerts at Earls Court, London, in June. The concerts commemorated the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, and saw the band use a lighting rig in the shape of a crown for the first time, which cost the group £50,000.


title: Queen (band)

text: The band's sixth studio album "News of the World" was released in 1977, which has gone four times platinum in the United States, and twice in the UK. The album contained many songs tailor-made for live performance, including two of rock's most recognisable anthems, "We Will Rock You" and the rock ballad "We Are the Champions", both of which became enduring international sports anthems, and the latter reached number four in the US. Queen commenced the News of the World Tour in November 1977, and Robert Hilburn of the "Los Angeles Times" called this concert tour the band's "most spectacularly staged and finely honed show". During the tour they sold out another two shows at MSG, and in 1978 they received the Madison Square Garden Gold Ticket Award for passing more than 100,000 unit ticket sales at the venue.


title: Queen (band)

text: In 1978, Queen toured the US and Canada, and spent much of 1979 touring in Europe and Japan. They released their first live album, "Live Killers", in 1979; it went platinum twice in the US. Queen also released the very successful single "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", a rockabilly inspired song done in the style of Elvis Presley. The song made the top 10 in many countries, topped the Australian ARIA Charts for seven consecutive weeks, and was the band's first number one single in the United States where it topped the "Billboard" Hot 100 for four weeks. Having written the song on guitar and played rhythm on the record, Mercury played rhythm guitar while performing the song live, which was the first time he ever played guitar in concert. On 26 December 1979, Queen played the opening night at the Concert for the People of Kampuchea in London, having accepted a request by the event's organiser, Paul McCartney. The concert was the last date of their Crazy Tour of London.


title: Queen (band)

text: Queen began their 1980s career with "The Game". It featured the singles "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "Another One Bites the Dust", both of which reached number one in the US. After attending a Queen concert in Los Angeles, Michael Jackson suggested to Mercury backstage that "Another One Bites the Dust" be released as a single, and in October 1980 it spent three weeks at number one. The album topped the "Billboard" 200 for five weeks, and sold over four million copies in the US. It was also the first appearance of a synthesiser on a Queen album. Heretofore, their albums featured a distinctive "No Synthesisers!" sleeve note. The note is widely assumed to reflect an anti-synth, pro-"hard"-rock stance by the band, but was later revealed by producer Roy Thomas Baker to be an attempt to clarify that those albums' multi-layered solos were created with guitars, not synths, as record company executives kept assuming at the time. In September 1980, Queen performed three sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden. In 1980, Queen also released the soundtrack they had recorded for "Flash Gordon". At the 1981 American Music Awards in January, "Another One Bites the Dust" won the award for Favorite Pop/Rock Single, and Queen were nominated for Favorite Pop/Rock Band, Duo, or Group.


title: Queen (band)

text: In February 1981, Queen travelled to South America as part of The Game Tour, and became the first major rock band to play significant shows in Latin America. Tom Pinnock in the March 1981 issue of "Melody Maker" wrote, The tour included five shows in Argentina, one of which drew the largest single concert crowd in Argentine history with an audience of 300,000 in Buenos Aires and two concerts at the Morumbi Stadium in São Paulo, Brazil, where they played to more than 131,000 people in the first night (then the largest paying audience for a single band anywhere in the world) and more than 120,000 people the following night. A region then largely ruled by military dictatorships, the band were greeted with scenes of fan-fever, and the promoter of their first shows at the Vélez Sarsfield Stadium in Buenos Aires was moved to say: "For music in Argentina, this has been a case of before the war and after the war. Queen have liberated this country, musically speaking." The group's second show at the Vélez Sarsfield Stadium was broadcast on national television and watched by over 30 million. Backstage, the group were introduced to footballer Diego Maradona.


title: Queen (band)

text: Topping the charts in Brazil and Argentina, the ballad "Love of My Life" stole the show in South American concerts. Mercury would stop singing and would then conduct the audience as they took over, with Lesley-Ann Jones writing "the fans knew the song by heart. Their English was word-perfect." Later that year Queen performed for more than 150,000 fans on 9 October at Monterrey (Estadio Universitario) and 17 and 18 at Puebla (Estadio Zaragoza), Mexico. Though the gigs were successful, they were marred by a lack of planning and suitable facilities, with audiences throwing projectiles on stage. Mercury finished the final gig saying, "Adios, amigos, you motherfuckers!" On 24 and 25 November. Queen played two sell out nights at the Montreal Forum, Quebec, Canada. One of Mercury's most notable performances of "The Game" final track, "Save Me", took place in Montreal, and the concert is recorded in the live album, "Queen Rock Montreal".