DC Studios co-CEOs and co-chairs James Gunn and Peter Safran have unveiled the first wave of DC Universe films and television series.
“Here at DC, we have Metropolis, Gotham, Themyscira, Atlantis, Bialya… This is the world that we’re creating,” Gunn shared with DC.com. “We’re coming into a world where superheroes exist and have existed for some time in one form or another, and that’s the universe. We are telling a big, huge central story that is like Marvel, except that I think we’re a lot more planned out than Marvel from the beginning because we’ve gotten a group of writers together to work the story out completely.”
Gunn and Safran’s 10-year plan for the DCU will be split into two chapters, with Chapter 1 called Gods and Monsters. The films and series below make up the first half of the first chapter. “Many of the following projects are already being worked on, but we’re remaining flexible and we’re going to adjust because we’re never going to put a project into production before the script is right,” Safran said. “This is a general timeline, but there will be flexibility within it.”
Gunn shared the upcoming DCU film and TV slate on his personal Twitter account with a video message you can watch below.
Here are just a few of our plans. Up, up, and away! #DCStudios #DCU @DCComics pic.twitter.com/8XNDNLUEPq
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) January 31, 2023
Okay, let’s run down each individual title announced today (click the links for more information on each project):
- Creature Commandos: An animated seven-episode series, written by Gunn, that is already in production. No voice actors have been cast yet, but Gunn and Safran are looking to hire actors who can both voice the animated characters and also portray them in live-action.
- Waller: A spin-off of The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker. Viola Davis will return as Amanda Waller, the ruthless and morally ambiguous head of Task Force X. The HBO Max series is being written by Christal Henry (Watchmen) and Jeremy Carver, the creator of the Doom Patrol TV series. Waller will be set between the first and second seasons of Peacemaker.
- Superman: Legacy: The previously announced movie now has a title and an official release date (July 11, 2025). Gunn is currently writing the script, which will not be an origin story. He may also direct, but that’s not 100% locked down just yet. Casting will commence once Gunn has completed the script.
- Lanterns: Greg Berlanti’s Green Lantern series has been scrapped. Instead, Gunn and Safran will oversee a new take on the space cops with power rings that Safran describes as “much in the vein of True Detective.” The HBO Max series will feature prominent Lantern heroes Hal Jordan and John Stewart.
- The Authority: a movie based on a team of superheroes with rather extreme methods of protecting the planet that first originated in the late 1990s under an influential imprint known as Wildstorm. Safran has described the team as “kinda like Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men. They know that you want them on the wall. Or at least they believe that.”
- Paradise Lost: A Game of Thrones-style drama set on Themyscira, the all-female island that is Wonder Woman’s birthplace. The series will take place before the events of Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman films.
- The Brave and the Bold: The first DCU Batman film, which will be inspired by Grant Morrison’s now-classic Batman run from the comics. Damian Wayne is coming to the DCU, with other members of the Batman Family. “It’s a very strange father-and-son story,” teased Gunn and Safran.
- Booster Gold: an HBO Max series “about a loser from the future who uses basic future technology to come back to today and pretend to be a superhero,” said Safran. Gunn described the project as “imposter syndrome as [a] superhero.”
- Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow: An upcoming film that will explore the differences between Superman and Supergirl. “We will see the difference between Superman, who was sent to Earth and raised by loving parents from the time he was an infant, versus Supergirl, raised on a rock, a chip off of Krypton, and who watched everyone around her die and be killed in terrible ways for the first 14 years of her life and then come to Earth. She is much more hardcore and not the Supergirl we’re used to.”
- Swamp Thing: a horror film that promises to close out the first part of the first chapter. “This is a film that will investigate the dark origins of Swamp Thing,” Safran teased.
Matt Reeves’ The Batman sequel has also been titled The Batman Part II, with Pattinson back as the Dark Knight. The film will open in theaters on October 3, 2025, and is considered part of the DC Elseworlds franchise.
What are your first impressions of the DC Universe: Chapter One – Gods and Monsters?
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