Movies
Superman: Legacy
Safran: (This) is really the launch of the DCU. The first two projects are an amuse-bouche for what’s coming up with Superman: Legacy. James is currently writing it. We’re hoping that he will direct it. It’s not an origin story. It focuses on Superman balancing his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing. Superman represents truth, justice and the American way. He is kindness in a world that thinks of kindness as old fashioned.
Gunn: With our stories, we want to take it away from good guy vs. bad guy. There are really good—almost saintly—people and Superman is among them. There are really terrible villains like Gorilla Grodd or the Joker. And then there’s everybody in between them, so there are all these shades of gray which allow us to tell complex stories.
Safran: And we have a release date for this—July 11, 2025.
(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”
Gunn: This is one of my real passion projects. I’ve been working really hard on it with the writers and we’re starting to put together the entire story. This is a big movie. I don’t know how many of you are familiar with the Authority. They’re WildStorm characters. WildStorm was a comics imprint that was bought by DC that I really love. We’re moving a lot of these WildStorm characters into the DCU.
The Authority’s a very different kind of superhero story. They are basically good-intentioned, but they think that the world is completely broken and the only way to fix it is to take things into their own hands, whether that means killing people, destroying heads of state, changing governments—basically, whatever they want to do to make the world better. We’ll see how that journey goes for them.
There are morally gray characters (in our DCU), of which these are.
PS: We love that they think the ends justify the means and they’re the ones that decide what the right ends are.
“The Brave and the Bold”
Gunn: This is the introduction of the DCU’s Batman. It is not Robert Pattinson. It is not Ben Affleck. We’re working with Robert on The Batman – Part II with Matt Reeves, and we’re working with Ben Affleck, who has been a part of our team trying to bring things together and he really wants to direct one of our projects. We’re excited for him to do that.
This is a story of Damian Wayne, who’s Batman’s actual son that he didn’t know existed for the first eight to ten years of his life. He was raised as a little murderer and assassin. He’s my favorite Robin. It’s based on the Grant Morrison comic run, which is one of my favorite Batman runs. We’re putting it all together right now.
Safran: This is going to feature other members of the extended Bat-Family. Just because we feel like they’ve been left out of the Batman stories in the theater for far too long.
The Robert Pattinson’s Batman return is set. Matt Reeves’ “The Batman Part II” will open in theaters on Oct. 3, 2025.
“Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow”
Gunn: This is based on Tom King (and Bilquis Evely)’s wonderful comic. Tom has been one of the architects of this entire situation. He’s been one of the guys in the room with us, along with four or five other writers. I love his take on these characters. He just turns them slightly to be something very unique.
In our story, we have Superman who was sent to Earth and raised by incredibly loving parents. Kara was on Krypton. She was on a piece of Krypton that drifted away from the planet and she lived there for the first fourteen years of her life in a horrible situation where she watched everyone around her die. So, she’s a much harsher and more f*cked up Supergirl than you’ve been used to thus far.
“Swamp Thing”
Safran: The final film we wanted to talk about is Swamp Thing. We bring it up because it’s important to point out that in these stories, although they’re interconnected, they’re not all tonally the same. Each set of filmmakers bring their own aesthetic to these films, and the fun is seeing how these tonally different works mash up in the future.
This is a film that will investigate the dark origins of Swamp Thing.
Television
“Creature Commandos”
James Gunn: The first series that we’re doing, and I’ve already written the entire series, is Creature Commandos. This is an animated TV series and this is art from the animation company that’s doing it. Creature Commandos is based on the great team from DC.
What we’re doing with the DCU is we’re having animation tied directly into live action. Television, movies and games all intertwine within the same universe. We’re going to cast actors that are going to be able to play the characters in this, as well as in other things, some of which we’ve already cast. I’ve written all seven episodes of this show and it’s in production now.
In the image (going from left to right), that's Rick Flag, Sr. He's going to show up in other stuff. Then Nina Mazursky. Doctor Phosphorus, a Batman villain. Frankenstein—Eric Frankenstein, specifically. The Bride of Frankenstein, who's the lead. Finally, G.I. Robot and Weasel.
“Waller”
Gunn: Viola Davis is coming back as her character, Amanda Waller. This is also going to have some of the Peacemaker team in it as regulars on the show. This basically follows up Peacemaker. We have two great creatives working on it: Christal Henry, who was a writer on Watchmen, and Jeremy Carver who created Doom Patrol. They have this incredibly marvelous story worked out that I think is really fantastic.
Peter Safran: This series will sit between Peacemaker season one and season two.
“Lanterns”
Safran: Our next project is another television series. We call it Lanterns and it is starring two of our favorite Green Lanterns—Hal Jordan and John Stewart. It’s going to be with HBO Max, as all of our series are that we’re going to talk about today. It is more of a True Detective-type mystery with our two Lanterns. A terrestrial-based mystery—
Gunn: —that leads into the overall story that we’re telling throughout the different movies and television shows. We find this ancient horror on Earth, and these guys are basically supercops on “Precinct Earth.”
Safran: The story is going to weave back and forth between the films and the television shows. Peacemaker is a good example of how that works, and that’s what we’re going to do with this big overarching story that we’re telling.
“Paradise Lost”
Safran: This is a Game of Thrones-type story about Themyscira/Paradise Island, home of the Amazons and the birthplace of Wonder Woman. This involves all of the darkness, drama and political intrigue behind this society of only women.
Gunn: It’s an origin story of how this society of women came about. What does it mean? What are their politics like? What are their rules? Who’s in charge? What are the games that they play with each other to get to the top? I think it’s really exciting.
Safran: The events really take place before Diana’s birth.
“Booster Gold”
Safran: A total fan favorite, as you know. A loser from the future who uses his basic future technology to come back to today to pretend to be a superhero.
Gunn: I think of it as basically the story of a superhero’s imposter syndrome. How do you deal with that? (It’s about) how he tries to use this future technology to be loved by the people of today and what is really at the base of that. It’s a character story that’s going to be a very different type of show, and we’re talking to an actor about it now.
Gunn: We are actually developing a few other things as well, but for one reason or another, we can’t say them. This is the first batch of stuff, but there may be a couple of surprises to come.
While it seems odd they're starting off this shared universe with at least some of the characters being established, I really don't want to see Superman or Batman's origin story again so maybe it's just as well. A middle aged Batman and a young Superman also seems like an unusual choice. I enjoyed Gunn's Suicide Squad and Peacemaker so I will definitely be giving the new movies and shows a shot. How bad could they be?
This kind of inconsistency is well above the general chaotic DC movements, so I'm really looking forward to all the ups and downs the new heads of the creative team is about to endure.
All I care about is that they do these movies right, I don't care what they are, just make good movies, Swamp Thing is my personal favorite thing on this list, and would have been cooler if Creature Commandos was live action, but whateves, just put out good films I;ll be there.
Never cared for the authority. But I don't have time or money right now so.... It's a weird line up I'll have to wait and see
Damien Wayne 'unhinged'??? I do not think he is unhinged. Maybe the Deadline writers are unfamiliar with that character.Ezra needs to be fired it is prison not "recovery"
48 minutes ago, JayC said:See I disagree because that's not how these movies are made these days. They are made to be 1 piece of an overall story. So when you start getting invested in that story and they pull the rug out from under you it very much becomes frustrating to watch.
I think I already established that you and I disagree, Jay, but I understand your point of view.
New DC Co-Chairmen and CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran have said that the door is still open for previous actors to return to the DC roles, including Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), Shazam (Zachary Levi) and more.
QuoteTheres no reasons why all the people you mentioned, couldnt be part of the DCU, we just havent decided what the story is that we want to tell that incorporates Shazam or Aquaman, said Safran.
Robert Pattinson will be returning to play Batman, but he will not be starring in the new DC Universe Batman & Robin movie The Brave and the Bold as Gunn and Safran will want a new face for that edgy tale about the Dark Knight and the unhinged, spitfire son he never knew about, Damien Wayne. Pattison will continue to play Batman in Matt Reeves sequel, Batman II, which is currently being penned and scheduled for October 3rd, 2025.
Gunn and Safran pressed the issue about The Flash and it's still up in the air if Ezra Miller continues to play the role in the future.
QuoteSaid Safran, Ezra is completely committed to their recovery. Were fully supportive of that journey that theyre on right now.
When the time is right, when they feel they are ready to have the discussion, well all figure out what the best way forward is, added the DC co-boss. But right now, they are completely focused on their recovery.
Gunn explained when asked about the Cavill issue, exclaiming that We didnt fire Henry. Henry was never cast. He was in a cameo, and that was the end of his story.
QuoteA lot of people made assumptions which werent true, said Gunn, But for me, its about who do I want to cast as Superman and who do the filmmakers want to cast.
The duo mentioned that Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is being finished up for its Christmas release and they can see Jason Momoa returning as Aquaman.
QuoteJason always saw Aquaman as a trilogy, said Safran.
Source: Deadline
2 hours ago, Goldbug said:UGH!!! THEY HAD A SWAMP THING!!! It was actually pretty good.
The movies do not sound promising at all!
Supergirl sounds like a Captain Marvel clone
Lanterns sounds very good.Not much to go on Booster Gold but optimistic about it.I see he has stuck with some of his Suicide Squad characters (which I just don't care about anymore)
To be fair it's not James Gunns fault that dc execs prematurely cancelled the last swamp thing series. I'm interested to see if they can capture the spirit of the character and am looking forward to seeing a swamp thing with a movie quality effects budget behind him
Waller, the spinoff of their Suicide Squad HBO Max series Peacemaker is one of many new live-action HBO Max series that DC co-Chairmen and CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran have confirmed under their new DC universe, Chapter One, Gods and Monsters.
The series centers on the mercurial and political Amanda Waller (Oscar winner Viola Davis), a senior civil servant and director of ARGUS. She established the Suicide Squad, in her quest to assemble a team of expendable metahumans who would be used to execute covert operations against dangerous threats.
Christal Henry would be writing and executive producing, along with Doom Patrol creator Jeremy Carver.
QuoteWere using the same actors, this is a continuation of Peacemaker. Im working on Superman, so we cant do Peacemaker season 2. Were working on Waller in between, Gunn commented.
Source: Deadline
19 minutes ago, Satam said:I just want to see good movies. If any of these are, I don't care how and where they fit into the new lore. If they're good and don't continue, I may be disappointed, but I'd still rather see a good movie about a character or characters I like than not see it. I wouldn't call any of these movies pointless, unless they turn out to be s***.
See I disagree because that's not how these movies are made these days. They are made to be 1 piece of an overall story. So when you start getting invested in that story and they pull the rug out from under you it very much becomes frustrating to watch.
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