It was two years ago that James Gunn addressed fans everywhere with his now-legendary video laying out the first phase of his and Peter Safran’s regime change for DC Studios. We in the geek culture world are used to big studio announcements (*cough* Kevin Feige *cough cough*) but this one seemed special somehow. It was a grand mix of heavy hitters and more obscure titles, and a specific edge toward beloved comic writers’ best work. As we sit here now, the first of those projects—the unexpectedly delightful Creature Commandos animated series—has aired, with a second season on the way. And, oh, yeah, there’s a movie about a guy with a cape coming this summer.
Safran and Gunn invited a handful of outlets, one of which was Nerdist, to a small screening room on the Warner Bros. lot to give a kind of “State of the Studio” address. The studio heads updated us on the state of production or development on the various features and television shows in the pipeline. Gunn has been very up front about which projects have been reshuffled to later, stating the script has to be solid before anything else happens.
How Many Projects Can We Expect?
Gunn and Safran have what sounds like a very lofty goal. Each year, they plan for two live-action films, one animated film, two live-action TV series, and two animated series. Not all of these will be within the proper DC Universe, so this counts ongoing animated series like Harley Quinn. Even so, that number has us really excited.
State of the Original Announced Titles
Superman
Ever heard of it? Well Superman is in heavy post-production. Gunn is overseeing the editing and special effects work on the movie, as well as the productions of Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow and Lanterns. Dude’s a busy guy.
Gunn said, “We are really deep into post and it’s amazing that I’m even here because my mind is so focused on just these minor cuts and these changes and little things that we’re doing to make the movie better, but I’m all the way inside of it. It’s going well. Effects are coming along great.”
He continues, “It’s been a really rare privilege for us to tell stories about these characters that we both grew up loving. It’s been a really cool experience to help to make these classic characters keep their legacy going. Batman and Superman, Wonder Woman in the future. And also at the same time to bring these smaller characters. Peacemaker, the Suicide Squad, the Creature Commandos to the forefront so that people know them.”
Superman hits theaters July 11 of this year.
Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow
While not necessarily intended to be the second film out the gate, Ana Nogueira’s script was nearly perfect from the get-go. The movie, starring Milly Alcock and directed by Craig Gillespie, is in production now.
“We’ve always viewed this transformative story as one of the cornerstones of our vision for the future of the DCU,” said Safran. “As soon as we saw Ana Nogueira’s just really stunning adaptation of Tom King and Bilquis Everly’s comic book series, we knew that that was going to be the next in our [ongoing] story.”
“The script was one of the first things that we greenlit when we got here,” Gunn added. “Ana turned in a marvelous first script that just kept getting better. She’s been a blessing. Craig Gillespie was a dream for me. He has been everything that I would hope for for a director on a big project like this, what it would be like working with him as a studio head—which is weird to say, but I love working with him.”
One other big character we’ll see in the Supergirl is intergalactic bounty hunter Lobo. And despite having already played Aquaman (and currently playing Aquaman when Gunn and Safran took over), Jason Momoa was ready to play Lobo.
Gunn shared, “Jason was literally the first text I got after this was announced and his text was, lemme see if I can remember. It was very, very quick. I think it was ‘Lobo Baby’ all in capital letters with 10 billion exclamation points. And so essentially I was like, I think that’s a pretty good idea. So it was always part of the plan and I had no problems whatsoever with him having played Aquaman before.”
Peacemaker Season Two
This show already aired a first season (to rave reviews and stellar ratings) before Gunn and Safran officially took over. But a second season was never not going to be in the works.
Gunn: “Peacemaker‘s all done. I am deep in editing with that at the same time I’m doing Superman. It’s been really fun. John Cena is, I think he surprised people a lot in the first season with what he was able to do performance wise. And the guy grew exponentially in season two and he’s really incredible as is the whole cast.”
Lanterns
The first big new TV announcement to go into production is Damon Lindelof, Chris Mundy, and Tom King’s True Detective-esque take on Green Lanterns, called Lanterns. We’re incredibly excited to see Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre take on the roles of Hal Jordan and John Stewart, respectively. We already know quite a bit about the series, but the updates have us even more stoked.
Gunn says they’ve put together “another really marvelous team of Tom King, Damon Lindelof and Chris Mundy. And they have been doing marvelous work. I’ve been watching the dailies with that. Really? It’s so cool because it is connected to Superman because we’ve got Guy Gardner in that and then we’ve got these green lanterns over here and it’s just such a different tone from what Superman is. And it’s exactly what I want to bring to the DCU is being able to have these very different films and television series that are still part of an overall connected world, but have completely different feels to ’em.”
Batman: The Brave and the Bold…or The Batman 2, whichever comes first
The issue of Batman and the movies starring him has been an interesting one. Neither Matt Reeves’ sequel to The Batman as part of the Epic Crime Saga nor the script for the DCU-set Batman: The Brave and the Bold are ready to go into production yet.
As of right now, The Batman Part II has a tentative release date of October 2027. But Safran assures us that date will be met, whether it’s with Reeves’ movie or not. “October, 2027 there will be a Batman movie is all we can tell you right now.”
And when asked if Robert Pattinson’s version of Batman will ever jump from the Reeves-verse into the proper DCU, Gunn simply says that “is not the plan. We love him, but we’ve got to introduce a Batman to the DCU. It’s imperative. And so that’s the plan with The Brave and the Bold.”
Swamp Thing
I personally was very excited by the announcement of a Swamp Thing movie from writer-director James Mangold. Unfortunately, that project is entirely Mangold-dependent, so no clear path is ahead for it at the moment.
“Our writer-director went off to make another little movie, A Complete Unknown,” Gunn said. “We hope that he’ll come back to Swamp Thing when he’s ready, because again, that was one of those ones that we love him as a filmmaker, so we’re happy to wait for him. It’s not integral to the larger story that we’re telling.” Bummer.
Waller
A spinoff from Peacemaker which would see Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller head her own series is still in development but has hit a few snags. No further updates on that at the moment.
The Authority
One of the more out-there choices for big screen outings from Gunn’s announcement was The Authority, a cynical, violent take on superheroes. While Gunn says he still loves the title and wants it to come out, he says it has been perhaps the most difficult of the projects to get right.
“Honestly, The Authority‘s been the one that’s been the hardest,” Gunn said, “both because of the shifting overall story and because of getting it right in a world with The Boys and all the things that The Authority [comic] influenced that came out after it. Not to mention, we also have a lot of characters that we’ve fallen in love with that we’ve already filmed and want to continue their stories and see them meet each other. So, I will admittedly say [The Authority] is little bit more on the back burner right now.”
Booster Gold
A Booster Gold TV series about the fame-starved hero from the future was among Gunn’s initial announcement and has not had much movement. “Booster Gold is going pretty strong” was all we got.
Paradise Lost
A TV series focusing on Themyscira pre-Wonder Woman was a very intriguing proposition. Safran says the project is in the heavy scripting and pilot-writing phase at the moment. Gunn does assure us that “Paradise Lost is totally still important, and we’re working heavily on it.”
Titles That Jumped the Line
Gunn and Safran’s policy to put finished scripts into production first, no matter what the are or what has been announced, is one of the ways their DCU has me most excited. We’ve already spoken about Ana Nogueira’s Supergirl script, but third in production is a title no one even had on their radar.
Clayface
Safran spoke glowingly about Mike Flanagan’s script for an origin of one of Batman’s most tragic villains.
“This summer, cameras are going to roll on Clayface, an incredible body horror film that reveals a compelling origin of a classic Batman villain. And this is another title that we added to the slate on the strength of an exceptional screenplay by Mike Flanagan. I think some of you are probably aware that we’re in negotiations with James Watkins now to direct and we will start casting this as soon as we have the director deal done. And we’ll shoot this summer, it’s slated for a fall 2026 release. Clayface might not be as widely known as the Penguin or the Joker, but we really feel that his story is equally resonant, compelling, and in many ways more terrifying those I think than any of those.”
The pair were very excited that a dark body horror movie could fit nicely in the DCU alongside Superman and Peacemaker, diversifying the types of tones the universe could offer. It’s also a much smaller budget than something like Superman, which will help.
We’re really just so stoked for this whole universe, and if it continues to impress as Peacemaker and Creature Commandos has, we’re in for a very special thing.
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.