It’s hard to believe that it’s only been three months since DC Studios bosses James Gunn and Peter Safran took up their posts. But now we finally have our first look at what the two have been cooking up as the first announcements for the brand new DC Universe on film (and TV) have been confirmed.
During their short tenure to date, the pair has made waves. We’re not going to dwell on the past here but with plenty of tweets, rebuttals and rumours in the rearview mirror, it’s finally time to look ahead to a bright future.
Today the pair has announced a number of theatrical projects including:
“Superman: Legacy”
Set to open on July 11, 2025, “Superman: Legacy” will mark “the start of the DCU,” as Safran put it, but it will not be an origin story of the proverbial Man of Steel.
“It focuses on Superman balancing his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing,” Safran said. “He is the embodiment of truth, justice and the American way. He is kindness in a world that thinks of kindness as old-fashioned.”
Gunn is writing the project, and Safran said he hopes Gunn “can be persuaded, perhaps, to direct it as well.” (Gunn, sitting right next to Safran, remained uncharacteristically poker faced in response.)
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav made no secret that rebooting Superman was a top priority for the company as he spent much of 2022 searching for the right leaders for DC Studios. So it’s little surprise Gunn and Safran are turning to the most recognizable superhero in the world to lead the charge for the DCU.
“‘Superman’ is for everyone,” Gunn said. “That’s a four quadrant film that should speak to everyone in the world.”
(A separate Superman movie produced by J.J. Abrams through Bad Robot, and written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, remains in development and would exist outside the DCU.)
“The Authority”
From global fame to relative obscurity, “Superman: Legacy” will lead directly into “The Authority,” an ensemble movie about superhumans who have a less-than-idealistic approach to saving the world.
Gunn spoke at some length about “The Authority,” a project he said he’s “really excited” to bring to life. The characters come from Wildstorm, which was launched in 1992 as an independent entity under current DC Comics chief Jim Lee and ultimately made an imprint of DC. The Wildstorm characters were later folded into the main DC comics universe when the company rebooted its continuity with the New 52 initiative in 2011. Gunn said he and Safran intend to do the same with Wildstorm characters in the DCU.
As a comic, “The Authority” was created by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch as an ends-justify-the-means superhero team, an approach that appealed to Gunn and Safran’s desire to diversify the storytelling within the DCU.
“It isn’t just a story of heroes and villains, and not every movie and TV show is going to be about good guy versus bad guy,” Gunn said. “There are people that are very questionable, like the Authority, who basically believe that you can’t fix the world in an easy manner, and they take things into their own hands.”
Added Safran, “They’re kind of like Jack Nicholson in ‘A Few Good Men.’ They know that you want them on the wall, or at least they believe that.”
Gunn said the film “is being written now,” but he declined to say who was the screenwriter.
“The Brave and the Bold”
Along with introducing the DCU’s version of Batman — who will exist separately from the version played by Robert Pattinson in “The Batman” movies — “The Brave and the Bold” will introduce “the Bat family,” Gunn said. First among them is Robin, who is returning fully to live-action movies for the first time since 1997’s ill-fated feature “Batman and Robin.”
This version of Robin is Damian Wayne; Gunn described him as “our favorite Robin,” “a little son of a bitch,” an “assassin” and a “murderer.”
Damian is Bruce Wayne’s biological son, a fact unknown to Wayne for the first eight to 10 years of Damian’s life. “It’s a very strange sort of father-son story about the two of them,” Gunn said.
The project is based on the run of Batman comics authored by Grant Morrison, who Gunn said was “exceptionally influential” on the DCU. The other comics writer Gunn mentioned by name was Tom King — who participated in the DCU writers room and leads right into the next feature project.
“Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow”
Based on King’s comics run of the same title from 2021 and 2022, “Woman of Tomorrow” features Superman’s cousin, Kara Zor-El, who, as Gunn explained, “is a very different type of Supergirl.”
“We see the difference between Superman, who was sent to Earth and raised by loving parents from the time he’s an infant, versus Supergirl, who was raised on a rock chip off of Krypton, and watched everyone around her die and be killed in terrible ways for the first 14 years of her life.”
Gunn called this Supergirl “much more hardcore” — though King’s series also involves Krypto, the superdog.
“Swamp Thing”
Easily the most extreme example of Gunn and Safran’s conviction to diversify the DCU, “Swamp Thing” will “investigate the dark origins of Swamp Thing,” Safran said, through the prism of horror.
By way of explaining further, Gunn referenced the initial reactions to the Guardians of the Galaxy joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe and initial questions about how Rocket Raccoon would work standing next to Thor. “That mashup quality” wound up being one of the highlights of “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers: Endgame,” Gunn argued.
Gunn said they’re “one-upping” that approach with “Swamp Thing.”
“This is a much more horrific film, but we’ll still have Swamp Thing interact with the other characters,” he added.
They have also confirmed work on a number of small screen projects:
“Creature Commandos”
This animated series for HBO Max is the very first project greenlit by Safran and Gunn, who has written every episode. The show is already in production.
The Creature Commando characters were first launched in 1980. The premise features Frankenstein’s monster teaming up with a werewolf, a vampire and a gorgon to fight Nazis in World War II. It doesn’t appear that Gunn’s version takes quite the same approach — Weasel, one of the characters from Gunn’s 2021 film “The Suicide Squad,” is one of the Commandos, along with Rick Flag’s father, Rick Flag Sr.
Animation, Gunn said, allows their creative collaborators to “tell stories that are gigantic, but without spending, you now, $50 million an episode.”
Crucially, Gunn said that the actors cast to voice the characters on the show will also play the roles in live action later on in the DCU.
“Waller”
With Gunn focused on “Superman: Legacy” for the foreseeable future, Season 2 of “Peacemaker” has been put on hold. Instead, “team ‘Peacemaker’” will appear alongside Davis as a “continuation” of that show, Gunn said — which (spoiler alert for Season 1 of “Peacemaker”) ended with Waller’s daughter Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) outing Task Force X (a.k.a. the Suicide Squad) and Waller’s role running it to the world.
Along with Christal Henry, who was part of the DCU writers room, “Waller” will be executive produced by Jeremy Carver, who created the beloved DC series “Doom Patrol,” which was recently canceled by HBO Max.
“They are crushing it,” Safran said of Henry and Carver’s work on “Waller.”
“It’s just the greatest show ever,” Gunn added.
Both “Creature Commandos” and “Waller” are expected to debut before “Superman: Legacy”; Safran called them the “aperitif” for the DCU.
“Lanterns”
Of all the TV series, Safran and Gunn seemed most excited for “Lanterns,” which Safran described as “a huge HBO-quality event” that is “very much in the vein of ‘True Detective.’”
The show will focus on two of the best known members of the Green Lantern corps.: Hal Jordan (the test pilot first played on screen by Ryan Reynolds in 2011’s “Green Lantern”) and John Stewart (an ex-marine and one of DC’s first Black superheroes), who investigate a mystery that Safran said “plays a really big role leading us into the main story that we’re telling across our film and television.”
“So this is a very important show for us,” Safran continued.
This project is separate from a Green Lantern series that was being developed by Greg Berlanti for HBO Max, which is now no longer moving forward.
“Greg’s vision was more of a space opera,” Safran said. “Our vision is much more ‘True Detective,’ terrestrial-based investigation story.”
“Paradise Lost”
This “‘Game of Thrones’-ish story,” Safran said, is set on the island of Themyscira before the birth of Diana (a.k.a. Wonder Woman).
“It’s really about the political intrigue behind a society of all women,” Safran said.
Added Gunn, “How did that come about? What’s the origin of an island of all women? What are the beautiful truths and the ugly truths behind all of that? And what’s the scheming like between the different power players in that society?”
The provocative title recalls the “Paradise Island Lost” comics series authored by Phil Jimenez and George Pérez, which followed a civil war on Themyscira; however, that run directly involved Wonder Woman.
“Booster Gold”
Finally, there’s “Booster Gold,” which allows the DCU to fully stretch into outright comedy. While he may not be familiar to casual fans of DC, the character, also known as Mike Carter, is a fan favorite among devoted readers. Safran called Booster “a loser from the future who uses basic future technology to come back to today and pretend to be a superhero.”
In the 25th century, Mike is a disgraced former football star who uses a time machine on display in the Metropolis Space Museum.
Added Gunn, “Basically, ‘Booster Gold’ is imposter syndrome as a superhero.”
We’ll be bringing you our in-depth thoughts on the new slate later today. Until then, let us know in the comments below what you’re looking forward to most!
