Timothy Glaraton
In a press event held Tuesday, James Gunn gave us our first look at his and co-CEO Peter Safran’s vision for a long-anticipated reboot of the DC cinematic universe, announcing no fewer than ten planned films and television shows for what is just part of the first chapter of the new DCU, known as “Gods and Monsters.”
Some nitty gritty details: going forward, just about everything non-comics for DC is going to be consolidated into one timeline/universe/overarching story, with characters being played by the same actor across film, television, games and animation. There will be some exceptions, notably that Matt Reeves’ Batverse will be designated as DC Elseworlds to separate them from the main DCU timeline. And in perhaps the most disappointing piece of news, Gunn specifically mentions Teen Titans Go! so it looks like that show will regrettably continue. Secondly, there are still four previously planned films to get through before we get to the new stuff: Shazam: Fury of the Gods, The Flash, Blue Beetle, and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, with The Flash being specifically noted as a “complete reset” for the DC universe.
First, a pair of television shows: an animated show known as Creature Commandos and a Peacemaker spinoff called Waller. Not much is known about Creature Commandos, apart from looking like an even zanier Suicide Squad, while Waller looks to find Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller teaming up with members of team Peacemaker, likely set between seasons one and two of Peacemaker.
Next up is what Gunn describes as “the big one” and “the true start of the DCU”: Superman: Legacy, a new Superman film written by Gunn himself and focusing on a new version of Superman struggling with balancing his Kryptonian heritage with his upbringing on Earth, with a tentative release date of July 11th, 2025. This unfortunately means that we’ll never get to see Henry Cavill in what I would consider to be a proper Superman movie—Man of Steel basically tried to make the character into Diet Batman, and the less said about Batman vs. Superman and Justice League the better. While we don’t yet know what tone this new Superman film will go for, the image chosen to accompany this announcement is none other than the first issue of All-Star Superman, Grant Morrison’s throwback to Silver Age Superman and one of the finest Superman tales of the last twenty years or so, so I’m cautiously optimistic that Gunn and company will finally get Superman right.
Then, there’s a trio of slightly more unorthodox works: Lanterns, described by Gunn as a True Detective style show centered around two of the most iconic Green Lanterns in DC history—Hal Jordan (likely not played by Ryan Reynolds this time) and John Stewart—as they discover a terrifying mystery while patrolling Precinct Earth, The Authority, a film integrating heroes from the old Wildstorm imprint founded by Jim Lee into the official DC universe, and Paradise Lost, which Gunn describes as Game of Thrones set on Paradise Island, the birthplace of Wonder Woman. I’m not particularly familiar with The Authority, but it sounds like the show will be one of those grittier/morally ambiguous superhero outings in the vein of Watchmen or possibly The Boys, and all three works sound refreshingly new in contrast to DC’s previous film philosophy of “what would Zach Snyder do?”
The next big film will be The Brave and the Bold, an introduction to both the DCU’s version of Batman and its version of Robin—not to be confused with Batman: The Brave and the Bold, a surprisingly good late 2000s Batman cartoon that felt like if Batman: The Animated Series had been made in the mindset of Adam West-era Batman. The Robin in question is the fourth one, Bruce’s son Damian Wayne, and Gunn directly cites Grant Morrison’s excellent run on Batman (starting with the aptly named Batman and Son arc) as inspiration for the film. Anything Grant Morrison or Grant Morrison-inspired is a good start in my book, although Matt Reeves’ The Batman will be a tough act to follow.
Closing out the announcement is Booster Gold, a TV show about one of DC’s most popular cult heroes, a loser from the future who travels back to the present day to try and be a superhero using future technology; Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, based on Tom King’s recent Supergirl run of the same name; and most intriguingly, a Swamp Thing film that Gunn explicitly describes as a horror film exploring the monster’s dark origins. Little to nothing is known about Swamp Thing, but the image used looks like Alan Moore-era Swamp Thing and even the idea of a horror film that can do justice to at least part of Moore’s character-defining run would be a dream come true (and possibly include another chance for Matt Ryan to make his case for an honest to god Hellblazer film or series).
There’s a lot to unpack in this announcement, but my overall impression is one of cautious optimism. DC actually looks to actually have a plan for their film and television universe to look going forward, one that will give some cohesion to their storytelling while also embracing wildly different styles and tones instead of the attempted homogeny of the Snyder era. Plus, DC is finally embracing some of the wilder elements and characters of their universe instead of trying to pin everything on the big three of Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman. Obviously, we’ll have to wait and see how it all plays out, but for the moment DC looks to at least have a game plan to build a DCU to rival the MCU, and the foundation for an exciting future for comics fans.
