"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," said DC Entertainment president Diane Nelson. She added: "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."

Indeed, Warner Bros. has a lineup of big names helming upcoming projects, including James Wan (Aquaman), Joss Whedon (Batgirl) and Wonder Woman's Patty Jenkins (the filmmaker responsible for the universe's biggest success yet is now readying Wonder Woman 2).

DC and Warner Bros. achieved big success with this summer's Wonder Woman, which was largely disconnected from the shared universe, and chief creative officer Geoff Johns noted that was part of why it worked so well.

“The movie’s not about another movie,” said Johns. “Some of the movies do connect the characters together, like Justice League. But, like with [2018's] Aquaman … our goal is not to connect Aquaman to every movie.”

Johns also confirmed that a Joker stand-alone movie, to be directed by The Hangover's Todd Phillips, will be the first on the docket for DC's new label of stand-alones and that the label's name will be revealed "soon-ish."

Vulture's Riesman also unearthed an interesting tidbit, which he did not put in the story but instead shared on Twitter on Friday. Apparently the DC Extended Universe — the name popularly used online by journalists and fans for DC's shared universe — is not actually used internally at Warner Bros. It actually began as a joke inserted into a 2015 Entertainment Weekly article by a writer. It stuck, even if it wasn't intentional.

Read the full story here for a lot more.