DC Movies in Order: Every Film and the One to Start With

DC movies in order, for anyone who wants to be ready for the next one rather than audit fifteen years of archive, is three films: Superman (2025), then Supergirl (2026), then Clayface (2026). Five hours 46 minutes of viewing, and none of it requires having seen what came before.

Release order is the one to use for a first watch, in the new DC Universe and in the old one. Story order exists in both, moves two films in one and a single film in the other, and changes nothing about where to begin.

Start Here: The DCU in Three Films

1. Superman (2025). James Gunn writes and directs, David Corenswet plays Clark Kent, Rachel Brosnahan is Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult is Lex Luthor. Two hours 10 minutes, PG-13, and a $122 million opening weekend on the way to $618 million worldwide, the third-biggest opening of 2025.
2. Supergirl (2026). Craig Gillespie directs, Milly Alcock plays Kara Zor-El and Jason Momoa is Lobo. One hour 48 minutes, PG-13. It cost about $170 million to produce, and a $186 million net cost returned $126.4 million worldwide.
3. Clayface (2026). James Watkins directs Tom Rhys Harries as Matt Hagen and Naomi Ackie as Dr. Caitlyn Corr. R-rated, one hour 48 minutes, in U.S. theaters since Oct. 23. A $44 million net cost bought a film that topped the worldwide chart for two weeks and has grossed $109 million. Variety’s Guy Lodge called it “an enjoyable, unpretentious one-off” in his review.

Man of Tomorrow is next and has a date: July 9, 2027, written and directed by Gunn and in post-production. Corenswet and Hoult return, Lars Eidinger is cast as Brainiac, and Milly Alcock and Aaron Pierre appear as well.

The studio line above it moved after that date was locked. Gunn and Safran left their DC Studios posts on Nov. 9, and former Marvel executive Jeremy Latcham becomes president and chief creative officer on Dec. 1. Both men keep producing DC projects, and the job itself changed shape: DC Studios now answers to Skydance Motion Picture Group co-chairs Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein rather than straight to the CEO.

The TV That Matters to the Films

Three HBO Max series touch the movies, and only one of them sits close to required viewing.

• Creature Commandos, seven episodes, premiered Dec. 5, 2024 as the first DCU project, months before Superman reached theaters.
• Peacemaker season 2, eight episodes, premiered Aug. 21, 2025. Frank Grillo’s Rick Flag Sr. turns up in Man of Tomorrow, and Gunn has said Flag’s actions in season 2 will reverberate into the films.
• Lanterns, eight episodes, premiered Aug. 16, 2026, with Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre as John Stewart, the same John Stewart listed for Man of Tomorrow.

Peacemaker season 1 belongs to the old universe and season 2 to the new one, because the DCU is a soft reboot that kept a handful of DCEU actors.

Every DC Movie in Release Order

1. Man of Steel (2013)
2. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
3. Suicide Squad (2016)
4. Wonder Woman (2017)
5. Justice League (2017)
6. Aquaman (2018)
7. Shazam! (2019)
8. Birds of Prey (2020)
9. Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
10. The Suicide Squad (2021)
11. Black Adam (2022)
12. Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)
13. The Flash (2023)
14. Blue Beetle (2023)
15. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023)
16. Superman (2025)
17. Supergirl (2026)
18. Clayface (2026)

The first fifteen are the DCEU, which ran from Man of Steel in 2013 to Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom in 2023: fifteen films and more than $7 billion worldwide. Zack Snyder’s Justice League, the four-hour alternate cut, arrived in 2021 and sits alongside the 2017 version rather than replacing it.

Outside the shared universe, and watchable at any point: Joker (2019), The Batman (2022), Joker: Folie a Deux (2024) and The Batman II, dated Feb. 18, 2028, with Robert Pattinson back and Matt Reeves directing.

The DCEU in Story Order

Two films move. Wonder Woman is set in 1918 and Wonder Woman 1984 in 1984, so both go to the front; the rest follow release order.

1. Wonder Woman (2017)
2. Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
3. Man of Steel (2013)
4. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
5. Suicide Squad (2016)
6. Justice League (2017)
7. Aquaman (2018)
8. Shazam! (2019)
9. Birds of Prey (2020)
10. The Suicide Squad (2021)
11. Black Adam (2022)
12. Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)
13. The Flash (2023)
14. Blue Beetle (2023)
15. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023)

Peacemaker season 1 falls after The Suicide Squad in this chronology. Swap Zack Snyder’s Justice League in at No. 6 for the longer cut, which Rotten Tomatoes treats as non-canon.

Which Order to Watch First

Release order, in both universes. The DCEU misplaces only the two Wonder Woman films, and meeting Diana in 1918 before Clark lands in 2013 front-loads the one story the franchise later builds a film around.

The DCU misplaces one film, and that film was built to stand alone: Lodge’s review notes it needs no franchise homework at all. Starting over also raises the question a third Thomas Crown Affair asks, which is how much a new version owes the old one. The DCU’s answer is a few actors and none of the plot.

Story order is a second pass. The DCU version of it sits below the spoiler heading, because explaining it gives away how the pieces fit.

Where to Watch the DC Movies in the U.S.

Availability checked Nov. 11, 2026.

• Superman: HBO Max, also listed on Amazon Prime Video.
• Supergirl: HBO Max.
• Clayface: theaters only, with no U.S. streaming offer listed. That makes it the opposite of the day-and-date model that put Madden in theaters and on Prime Video the same night.
• Man of Steel, The Batman and Joker: HBO Max. Man of Steel is confirmed at the same service.
• Creature Commandos, Peacemaker and Lanterns: HBO Max.

The rest of the DCEU rotates between services and was not checked title by title. What is confirmed at the check is above.

Spoiler Warning

This section spoils Clayface’s place in the DCU timeline, Supergirl’s setup and the handoff from the old universe to the new one.

Clayface happens before Superman. Gunn confirmed it on Threads, writing that “It’s the first DCU film out of chronological order,” and the timeline placement makes it the first DCU film released out of sequence. The movie leaves Matt Hagen fully transformed, and Peter Safran has said the Clayface in Creature Commandos is the same character.

Supergirl is a revenge story. Kara hunts the people responsible for a brutal murder, with Krypto the Superdog alongside her, per the film’s synopsis.

The old universe is done. The DCEU closed with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom in 2023, and the reboot carried over John Cena as Peacemaker, Viola Davis as Amanda Waller and the Blue Beetle cast, recasting the rest.

So the DCU in story order runs: 1. Clayface (2026). 2. Superman (2025). 3. Peacemaker season 2 (2025). 4. Supergirl (2026). 5. Lanterns (2026).

Three films and five hours 46 minutes get a viewer current today, and the fourth arrives July 9, 2027. Lodge’s description of the DCU as branding that “so far doesn’t appear to have cut through to any but the most devoted of nerds” explains why the short list works: most people will meet this franchise at Superman anyway, and that is exactly where the order above sends them.