Everybody has been waiting in the wings to hear how James Gunn and Peter Saffron would potentially reboot the DC Universe concerning films and television. That day is here, with both partners announcing their ten project plan. This includes a new Superman film focusing on his younger years, a separate Batman and Robin project, and even a Swamp Thing horror film.
“DC Studios is unprecedented,” Safran said. “It is a standalone production entity and studio. It is the first time ever that everything DC related — film, television, live-action, animation, gaming — is all centralized under one creative vision, that of James and myself.”
The reported slate is as follows
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’s not an origin story,” Safran said. “It focuses on Superman balancing his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing. He is the embodiment of truth, justice, and the American way. He is kindness in a world that thinks that kindness as old-fashioned.”
Waller: This will be a spin-off of Gunn’s own HBO Max Peacemaker series with Viola Davis returning. The show will be written by Christal Henry (Watchmen) and Jeremy Carver, the creator of the Doom Patrol TV series.
Creature Commandos: This will be an animated seven-episode series, written by Gunn himself that is supposed to be a modern take on the series premise of a team of monsters tasked to fight Nazis.
Lanterns: The Green Lantern television series from Greg Berlanti was scrapped in favor of a new take.
“Our vision for this is very much in the vein of True Detective,” Safran described. “It’s terrestrial-based.” It will feature prominent Lantern heroes Hal Jordan and John Stewart and is one of the most important shows they have in development. “This plays a really big role in leading into the main story we are telling across film and TV.”
The Authority: There will be a movie based on a team of superheroes with rather extreme methods of protecting the planet that first originated in the late 1990s. This sounds familiar to the Suicide Squad property Gunn previously directed in 2020.
“One of the things of the DCU is that it’s not just a story of heroes and villains,” said Gunn. “Not every film and TV show is going to be about good guy vs. bad guy, giant things from the sky comes and good guy wins. There are white hats, black hats and grey hats.” Added Safran: “They are 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: Gunn and Saffron describe this HBO Max series as a Game of Thrones-style drama set on the all-female island that is Wonder Woman’s birthplace, Themyscira, filled with political intrigue and scheming between power players. It takes place before the events of the Wonder Woman films.
The Brave and the Bold: “This is the introduction of the DCU Batman,” said Gunn. “Of Bruce Wayne and also introduces our favorite Robin, Damian Wayne, who is a little son of a bitch.” The movie will take inspiration from the now-classic Batman run written by Grant Morrison that introduced Batman to a son he never knew existed: a murderous tween raised by assassins. “It’s a very strange father-and-son story.”
This iteration of Batman will be recast separately from the Pattinson-verse.
The Batman sequel: Pattinson will pick up the cowl again in a movie directed by Matt Reeves. That movie, the executives revealed, will be released on Oct. 3, 2025, and is being titled The Batman Part II.
“2025 is going to be a very big year for DC,” crowed Safran. “Superman and Batman within the same year.”
Booster Gold: an HBO Max series based on a unique and lower-tiered hero created in 1986.
Safran said of the series, “It’s about a loser from the future who uses basic future technology to come back to today and pretend to be a superhero.” Gunn described it as “imposter syndrome as a superhero.”
Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow: Taking its cues from the recent Tom King-written mini-series, this movie project promises to have a different take than what most think of when the idea of Superman’s cousin comes to mind. “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. Justice for the phenomenal series that was cancelled way too soon.
Don’t just take it from us. Listen to James Gunn himself speak about the slate.
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