The term "DC Extended Universe" first appeared in a July 2015 article in Entertainment Weekly. But you rarely heard anyone involved in these movies use it, because as it turns out, it was just one big sarcastic joke and never a phrase that Warner Bros. told EW to use. Here's how it all came to be...
Abraham Riesman just wrote a big piece on DC movies over at Vulture, which included interviews with DC Films president Geoff Johns and DC Entertainment president Diane Nelson. Early on while he was writing his story, Riesman said that Warner Bros. told him no one at the company uses the term "DC Extended Universe" and that it's not official.
So Riesman did some digging on the DC Extended Universe's origin, and discovered the 2015 Entertainment Weekly article that was written by Keith Staskiewicz. Staskiewicz was hard to track down, he didn't have a website or Twitter account, but Riesman was finally able to get a hold of him on Facebook.
“It was my own phrasing when I used it in the story. Just seemed like the kind of thing they'd call it!," Staskiewicz said. "I just looked back on the piece now and noticed the (in-my-mind) sardonic little trademark symbol I gave it. Whoops.”
So there you have it! That's how the term "DC Extended Universe" came to be, and it has certainly stuck. However, Warner Bros. does have an official brand called "DC Films" (they even have a Facebook page for it). Going forward, I think I will refer to these movies as the DC Films Universe (yes, I realize the acronym is DCFU... ha!), at least until Warner Bros. gives their universe an official name.
SOURCE: Abraham Riesman (Twitter)
