History AbortedArc / DCExtendedUniverse

* ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'' established that [[Characters/DCEUWonderWoman Wonder Woman]] had disappeared for a century after UsefulNotes/WorldWar1, with Diana saying that she turned her back on mankind in disgust due to what she experienced. It was expected that this would be explored in the solo ''Film/WonderWoman2017'' {{Prequel}} film, only for that plot point to be completely ignored. While the movie does end with Diana being less of a WideEyedIdealist, her faith in humanity is never shattered, and nothing in the film suggests that she plans on giving up her career as a superhero. This is taken even further in the sequel, ''Film/WonderWoman1984'', which reaffirms that Diana was absolutely still fighting evil during the decades between the first movie and ''BVS'', albeit while keeping a low profile.

** The entire "Knightmare Sequence" from the previous film goes unaddressed, and [[spoiler:Batman on meeting [[Characters/DCEUTheFlash Barry Allen]] doesn't {{lampshade|Hanging}} that he looks familiar from seeing the surveillance footage in the previous film or Barry's face, nor does he mention the similarities of the Parademons from his nightmares to Diana, nor is there any mention of it having influenced his decision to bring Lois Lane as [[Characters/DCEUSuperman Superman's]] LivingEmotionalCrutch as a backup to Superman's ResurrectionSickness.]]
** [[Characters/DCEULexLuthor Lex Luthor's]] connection to [[Characters/DCEUSteppenwolf Steppenwolf]], and his involvement in helping the Apokoliptan invasion, and how exactly he came to learn about the other metahumans and unearth their SecretIdentity is left unaddressed. In the film, Batman mentions reading up "Luthor's notes" indicating research of a mysterious event in the past tied to Mother Boxes, and Steppenwolf mentions offhand that "the Kryptonian's" death plunged the world into despair and fear, and allowed him and his parademons to return to earth, but it's not made clear if this was a deliberate conspiracy between him and Luthor or not.

* ''Film/SHAZAM2019'' had Mr. Mind appear in two scenes, the latter of which showed him offering an allegiance with [[Characters/DCEUDoctorSivana Dr. Sivana]]. While it seemed like this might pave the way for the Monster Society of Evil, Creator/DavidFSandberg pushed that plot aside in favour of creating some original villains in [[Film/SHAZAMFuryOfTheGods the sequel]].

** Back when ''Justice League'' was first announced in 2014, it was originally titled ''Justice League: Part I,'' with plans for ''[[Script/JusticeLeague2 Part II]]'' to be released in 2019, and a hypothetical third installment following some time after that. As such, ''Zack Snyder's Justice League'' contains multiple direct lead-ins to the next installments: Comicbook/{{Darkseid}} shares a brief but ominous staredown with the heroes, Batman begins turning the ruins of Wayne Manor into a headquarters for the Justice League, both Bruce and [[Characters/DCEUCyborg Cyborg]] experience premonitions of the post-apocalyptic "Knightmare" future with an evil Superman, and the final scene has Comicbook/MartianManhunter arrive with a warning about another invasion from Apokolips. All of these were meant to be explored in the two sequels, but were instead LeftHanging. The cancellation of Creator/AvaDuvernay's planned ''Comicbook/NewGods'' film also stymied any chance at expanding upon the rest of the Fourth World, while Intergang's connection to Apokolips was completely ignored in ''Film/BlackAdam2022''.

* ''Film/BlackAdam2022'' ends with [[Characters/DCEUBlackAdam Adam]] being confronted by Creator/HenryCavill's Superman, directly teasing a future battle between the two characters. However, due to a combination of ''Black Adam'''s underperformance at the box office and Creator/JamesGunn and Peter Safran rebooting the character of Superman, this plot thread was abandoned, with Cavill later confirming on social media that he would no longer be playing Superman going forward.

* Similarly, TheStinger of ''Film/ShazamFuryOfTheGods'' had [[Characters/DCEUBillyBatson Billy Batson]] being recruited into the JSA, another plot thread that will most likely go nowhere.

* ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'' established that Comicbook/WonderWoman had disappeared for a century after UsefulNotes/WorldWar1, with Diana saying that she turned her back on mankind in disgust due to what she experienced. It was expected that this would be explored in the solo ''Film/WonderWoman2017'' {{Prequel}} film, only for that plot point to be completely ignored. While the movie does end with Diana being less of a WideEyedIdealist, her faith in humanity is never shattered, and nothing in the film suggests that she plans on giving up her career as a superhero. This is taken even further in the sequel, ''Film/WonderWoman1984'', which reaffirms that Diana was absolutely still fighting evil during the decades between the first movie and ''BVS'', albeit while keeping a low profile.
* ''Film/SuicideSquad2016'''s post-credits scene shows Bruce Wayne confronting Amanda Waller (who it's implied knows he's really Batman), and warning her to shut down the Squad before he and his new friends do it for her. Nothing further ever came from this, as Waller's team was still operating [[Film/TheSuicideSquad several years later]] without any interference from the Justice League, and if she did know Bruce's secret, Ben Affleck's departure from the role rendered that plot point moot anyway.

** The entire "Knightmare Sequence" from the previous film goes unaddressed, and [[spoiler:Batman on meeting Barry Allen doesn't {{lampshade|Hanging}} that he looks familiar from seeing the surveillance footage in the previous film or Barry's face, nor does he mention the similarities of the Parademons from his nightmares to Diana, nor is there any mention of it having influenced his decision to bring Lois Lane as Superman's LivingEmotionalCrutch as a backup to Superman's ResurrectionSickness.]]
** Lex Luthor's connection to Steppenwolf, and his involvement in helping the Apokoliptan invasion, and how exactly he came to learn about the other metahumans and unearth their SecretIdentity is left unaddressed. In the film, Batman mentions reading up "Luthor's notes" indicating research of a mysterious event in the past tied to Mother Boxes, and Steppenwolf mentions offhand that "the Kryptonian's" death plunged the world into despair and fear, and allowed him and his parademons to return to earth, but it's not made clear if this was a deliberate conspiracy between him and Luthor or not.

* ''Film/SHAZAM2019'' had Mr. Mind appear in two scenes, the latter of which showed him offering an allegiance with Dr. Sivana. While it seemed like this might pave the way for the Monster Society of Evil, Creator/DavidFSandberg pushed that plot aside in favour of creating some original villains in [[Film/SHAZAMFuryOfTheGods the sequel]].

** Back when ''Justice League'' was first announced in 2014, it was originally titled ''Justice League: Part I,'' with plans for ''[[Script/JusticeLeague2 Part II]]'' to be released in 2019, and a hypothetical third installment following some time after that. As such, ''Zack Snyder's Justice League'' contains multiple direct lead-ins to the next installments: Comicbook/{{Darkseid}} shares a brief but ominous staredown with the heroes, Batman begins turning the ruins of Wayne Manor into a headquarters for the Justice League, both Bruce and Comicbook/{{Cyborg}} experience premonitions of the post-apocalyptic "Knightmare" future with an evil Superman, and the final scene has Comicbook/MartianManhunter arrive with a warning about another invasion from Apokolips. All of these were meant to be explored in the two sequels, but were instead LeftHanging. The cancellation of Creator/AvaDuvernay's planned ''Comicbook/NewGods'' film also stymied any chance at expanding upon the rest of the Fourth World, while Intergang's connection to Apokolips was completely ignored in ''Film/BlackAdam2022''.

* ''Film/BlackAdam2022'' ends with Adam being confronted by Creator/HenryCavill's Superman, directly teasing a future battle between the two characters. However, due to a combination of ''Black Adam'''s underperformance at the box office and Creator/JamesGunn and Peter Safran rebooting the character of Superman, this plot thread was abandoned, with Cavill later confirming on social media that he would no longer be playing Superman going forward.

* Similarly, TheStinger of ''Film/ShazamFuryOfTheGods'' had Billy being recruited into the JSA, another plot thread that will most likely go nowhere.

* As much of ''Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague'' was originally written and shot before the drastic shakeup of the franchise that occurred after ''Batman v Superman'' and the outright failure of the 2017 theatrical ''Justice League'' cut, the movie contains a number of {{Sequel Hook}}s for projects that never came to fruition. Due to WB subsequently confirming that their 2021 release of ''Zack Snyder's Justice League'' was intended to be the end of Snyder's story arc rather than the start of a Justice League trilogy, as well as Creator/JamesGunn and Peter Safran subsequently taking over as the heads of Creator/DCStudios in late 2022 and immediately rebooting multiple key characters, these plot threads most likely won’t be resolved:

* As much of ''Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague'' was originally written and shot before the drastic shakeup of the franchise that occurred after the underperformance of ''Batman v Superman'' and the outright failure of the 2017 theatrical ''Justice League'' cut, the movie contains a number of {{Sequel Hook}}s for projects that never came to fruition. Due to WB subsequently confirming that their 2021 release of ''Zack Snyder's Justice League'' was intended to be the end of Snyder's story arc rather than the start of a Justice League trilogy, as well as Creator/JamesGunn and Peter Safran subsequently taking over as the heads of Creator/DCStudios in late 2022 and immediately rebooting multiple key characters, these plot threads most likely won’t be resolved:

** Related to this, while the aforementioned scene in the theatrical cut where Lex mentions forming a team to take down the Justice League was a Whedon reshoot, the idea was based on Snyder's original plan for the sequel, which would have seen the Injustice League as the main antagonists, with Luthor as the group's leader. Even though ''Film/Aquaman2018'' ended with Black Manta and Ocean Master (both planned to return as part of Snyder's Injustice League) defeated but alive, additional members Captain Cold and the Riddler were originally going to be introduced in ''The Batman'' and ''Film/TheFlash2023'', respectively, before being recruited by Lex. However, as mentioned, ''The Batman'' was reconfigured into a completely unrelated project with a radically different version of the Riddler after Affleck's departure, while ''The Flash'' was heavily delayed and extensively rewritten into an adaptation of ''ComicBook/{{Flashpoint}}'', removing Captain Cold as the villain in the process.

AbortedArc in this series.

** Back when ''Justice League'' was first announced in 2014, it was originally titled ''Justice League: Part I,'' with plans for ''[[Script/JusticeLeague2 Part II]]'' to be released in 2019, and a hypothetical third installment following some time after that. As such, ''Zack Snyder's Justice League'' contains multiple direct lead-ins to the next installments: Darkseid shares a brief but ominous staredown with the heroes, Batman begins turning the ruins of Wayne Manor into a headquarters for the Justice League, both Bruce and Comicbook/{{Cyborg}} experience premonitions of the post-apocalyptic "Knightmare" future with an evil Superman, and the final scene has Comicbook/MartianManhunter arrive with a warning about another invasion from Apokolips. All of these were meant to be explored in the two sequels, but were instead LeftHanging. The cancellation of Creator/AvaDuvernay's planned ''Comicbook/NewGods'' film also stymied any chance at expanding upon the rest of the Fourth World, while Intergang's connection to Apokolips was completely ignored in ''Film/BlackAdam2022''.