James Gunn, this morning released a video on Twitter laying out the plan for DC films. It is called Part I: Gods and Monsters, which is great that we have an overall theme to the movies which is like Crisis on Infinite Earths. There was a 2015 Justice League animated movie with the same name that had an alternate universe. Gunn stated, "One of our strategies is to take our diamond characters, which is Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and we use them to prop up other characters that people don’t know." This makes sense, Superman and Batman were the major DC films since the 80's. Using the Trinity (Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman) as a base to introduce other heroes into the universe makes sense. Not discussed was Superman & Lois, reported to have "one or two more seasons" by Safran and Gunn, and also the new Gotham Knights series. We will have to see how this DC Universe turns out three years from now.
The new DC universe approach is outlined by Gunn, “So as many of you know the DC has been disconnected in film and television for a long time. Our jobs, mine and Peter’s, is to come in and make sure the DCU is connected in film, television, gaming, and animation. That the characters are consistent played by the same actors and it works within one story. And if something is outside of that like Matt Reeves’ Batman or Todd Phillips’ Joker or Teen Titans Go! that it is clearly labeled as DC Elseworlds outside of the mainstream DC continuity.” Elseworlds, started with the graphic novel, Gotham by Gaslight (1989). DC also had an imprint called Black Label which had mature content starting with Batman: Damned (2018). I think all audiences should go with Elseworlds like Teen Titans Go! and more adult titles like The Joker (2019) should be under Black Label.
James Gunn discussed the movies to be released this year, three specifically have bearing with the new DC univese, “First, we have Shazam: Fury of the Gods, Shazam has always been off kind of in his own part of the DCU so he connects very well. That moves directly into the Flash. A fantastic movie that I really love that resets the entire DC universe.” March 17th is the opening date for Shazam: Fury of the Gods. It looks like Shazam will have a potential future with the DC universe. The Flash has a release date of June 16th of this year. I think this is DC film is th one where we can see how this basically creates the Gunnverse. Gunn mentioned Blue Beetle, August 18th, and then Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, December 25th, which Gunn said, “leads directly into our next few projects.”
The DC universe slate was explained by Gunn, “The first project is Creature Commandos. Creature Commandos is an animated series, I’ve written all of the episodes, something we’re going to do that’s a little bit different at DC is we’re gonna have characters move into animation, out of animation, usually having the same actor play their voice as who plays them in live action.” I hope voice actors have a chance and not just live action actors. The team features Lt. Matthew Shrieve, human, leader?, looks like the beard guy, Pvt. Elliot Taylor, the Frankenstein-type, the vampire, Sgt. Vincent Velcro, a gender change, later, the robot, J.A.K.E.1, the G.I. Robot was introduced, the modern version introduced Bogman, like Creature from the Black Lagoon, another gender change, but good balance. Lastly, it looks like they added Doctor Phosphorous, a Batman villain, and the Weasel from The Suicide Squad movie. A modern version would be Hellboy.
Gunn continued, “The next project up is Waller. This is the story of Amanda Waller played by Viola Davis. Viola Davis (Amanda Waller) is going to team up with members of Team Peacemaker.” So this looks like another series that Gunn may write and direct. “Next up is a big one, the true beginning of the DCU, this is called Superman: Legacy. This is being written by me, I’m in the middle of it, I’m having a great time doing it and Superman will be released in theaters in July 11, 2026.” Peter Safran gave more details about the film, “It focuses on Superman balancing his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing. He is the embodiment of truth, justice and the American way. He is kindness in a world that thinks of kindness as old-fashioned.” Interesting that brings up the classic motto when it was changed in 2021 to “Truth, Justice and a Better Tomorrow.”
The upcoming DC projects were revealed by Gunn, “The next thing is a big premiere HBO premiere television series called Lanterns. This is a story of a couple of Green Lanterns, John Stewart and Hal Jordan, and we have a few other Lanterns peppered in there, but this is really a terrestial based tv show which is almost like True Detective with a couple of Green Lanterns who are space cops watching over precinct Earth. In it, they discover a terrifying mystery that ties into our larger story of the DCU.” The Precinct Earth is really known as Sector 2814. A grounded approach to the GL mythos in contrast to the overly CGI’d 2011 movie. Gunn discussed the next movie, ”The Authority is a passion project of mine, its based on the marvellous Wildstorm characters we are now bringing into the DCU and will interact with all of our primary DCU characters.” Apollo and Midnighter are similar to Superman and Batman so I don’t know if they will be featured or the movie may focus on other team members.
The world of Wonder Woman is explored in a television series. “Paradise Lost is a story of Paradise Island usually known as Themysicra which is the birthplace of Wonder Woman. It is almost like Game of Thrones with Westeros…”, Gunn explained. The title refers to John Milton's poem. There are different factions that emerged from the current comic books. The Amazons of Themysicra, the Amazons of Bana-Mighdall featuring Nubia, and the Amazon River tribe that had the latest Wonder Girl, Yara Flor. This seems to break up the DC Trinity with a later introduction of Wonder Woman. Gunn spoke about Batman DC universe film, “The introduction of the DCU’s Batman is the Brave and the Bold. The Brave and the Bold is the story of Batman and his actual son, Damian Wayne. This is based on Grant Morrison’s great comic book run. Damian Wayne is my favorite Robin. He’s a little assassin who Batman tries to get in line. So this is the story of the two of them and the beginning of the sort of Bat family in the DCU.” This explains why Batman would train Robin, but the question remains if Dick Grayson is out as the original Robin.
The rest of the DC universe projects include a Booster Gold television series, Gunn describes the hero, “He’s a fascinating guy, he’s a loser from the future, who uses future technology to come back to present day and become a super hero so that people will love him. It is basically the superhero story of imposter syndrome on a HBO Max series.” Booster Gold was part of a duo, Blue and Gold, with the earlier Ted Kord, Blue Beetle. The next film is based on a recent comic book as Gunn detailed the take on the movie based on Tom King’s Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, “Supergirl in this story, she is a character who was raised on a chunk of Krypton. She watched everybody around her perish in some terrible way so she’s a much more jaded character.” Lastly, is the Swamp Thing movie, described by Gunn as “a very dark horror story in the origins of the monster who is Swamp Thing, and although it’s totally outside of the rest of the DCU, it will still feed into the rest of the stories.” It appears that the goal is to have two movies and two HBO Max shows per year. This template seems to be just the vision of Gunn and Safran, little room for directors to bring their own projects, but there is potential in this DC Universe!
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