Superman is spearheading the charge in the new direction James Gunn and Peter Safran has chosen for the DC Studios franchise. Superman: Legacy, The Brave and the Bold, Swamp Thing, and The Authority are just a few of the upcoming films that the filmmakers announced. HBO Max will also feature TV series, such as Waller, Paradise Lost, Booster Gold, Lanterns, and Creature Commandos. Another Supergirl project is in development, though it is unknown if it will feature the same version of the character as in The Flash. Is it safe to conclude that DC Studios has a bright future after Gunn and Safran took over as Co-CEOs of the company last year?
Superman: Legacy, which Gunn is writing and for which Peter Safran is hoping Gunn will also serve as director, will draw largely on the iconic comic of All-Star Superman. The plans for The Batman Part 2 or Joker: Folie à Deux won't be affected by The Brave and the Bold, which is reported to be a new take on Batman and will star a new actor in the role. Instead, it will be a movie that stars the complete Bat-Family and centers on the partnership between Bruce Wayne and Damian Wayne, Bruce's biological son. The Authority will introduce brand-new superheroes to the genre, and Swamp Thing is rumored to be a relaunch different from the HBO Max series that debuted in recent years.
In terms of TV shows, Lanterns is a revised version of the Green Lantern Corps series that will not feature Greg Berlanti and will instead center on Hal Jordan and John Stewart in a show that has been compared to DC's True Detective. Unsurprisingly, Amanda Waller will play the main character in Waller, which will be Gunn's follow-up to The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker. Themyscira, Wonder Woman's ancestral home, will be highlighted in Paradise Lost, a Game of Thrones-inspired prequel. Booster Gold is focused on a time-traveling superhero. The only confirmed animated series is Creature Commandos, which has seven episodes already created by Gunn himself. Gunn has promised that the voice cast's leading actors will also participate in live-action versions of the animation series' characters.
This first slate of titles is being dubbed Chapter 1: Gods & Monster. This is the first of two chapters that will tell a story over the next 8 to 10 years. "A lot of people think it's going to be Marvel 2.0, and definitely I learned a lot of stuff at Marvel. I think that we have a lot of differences," Gunn explained. "We are telling a big, huge, central story that is like Marvel, except for, I think that we're a lot more planned out than Marvel from the beginning because we've gotten a group of writers together to work that story out completely. But we're also creating a universe that is like Star Wars, where there's different times, different places, different things, or Game of Thrones, where characters are a little bit more morally complex."
There are several known writers among that group, which Gunn refers to as "architects". Gunn is working behind the scenes with Tom King, Drew Goddard, Christina Hodson, Christal Henry, and Jeremy Slater to plot out the entire storyline. The movie Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, which is based on King's comic book of the same name, is the only project on which King is currently engaged. Daredevil, a Netflix original series from Marvel, was previously created by Drew Goddard. Birds of Prey, the canceled Batgirl movie, and the upcoming The Flash were all written by Hodson. The Watchmen series was written by Henry. Recently, Slater contributed, to Marvel's Moon Knight series. The "architects" of the DC Universe, except for Drew Doddard, have a background that is undoubtedly unimpressive.
Despite James Gunn's claim that DCU will not be Marvel 2.0, it is hard not to assume that it will be. James Gunn himself has directed 2 movies, holiday specials, and has an upcoming movie with Marvel, all featuring the tiresome “MCU Comedy”. MCU’s Moon Knight written by Jeremy Slater and other similar titles proved to fans, Marvel won’t do a dark and gritty story like Drew Doddard’s Daredevil, which the Disney Plus reboot is said to be much lighter tone. Tom King and Christal Henry's projects may have been seen as acclaimed from the media but not so much from fans. Christina Hodson’s Birds of Prey was not well received and hardly made back the film budget at the box office. The Batgirl movie was deemed so brand damaging WBD canceled it, even though Velma the animated series is one of the worst reviewed in history was greenlit.
Then there is the controversy surrounding the firing of Henry Cavill’s Superman. Gunn said Cavill was too old and didn’t fit his Superman. All-Star Superman, a story created by Grant Morrison, is about an already established and slightly older Superman, a role that seems to fit perfectly with Henry Cavill. Even fans, who didn’t care for Zack Snyder’s darker take on the superhero, still thought Cavill was a perfect cast for the role. Henry Cavill’s announcement of his return on Instagram gained more views than the trailer of one of Marvel’s biggest movies. James Gunn has yet to give a valid reason for firing Henry Cavill.
The official launch date for this new DC Universe is set for July 11, 2025, with Superman: Legacy, however the animated Creature Commandos series, and Waller may come before it.
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