Less than a year into its existence, the all-new, all-different DCU has already gone and developed a particularly bad case of canon-itis. While it should be simple given only Creature Commandos, Superman and Season 2 of Peacemaker have been produced as part of the DC Studios’ slate, references in those projects have canonized projects made prior to the DCU’s inception.
In a 2024 interview, DC Studios’ co-chair James Gunn–who created each of the DCU’s first three projects–muddied the timeline waters of the all-new DCU by explaining that the events of a pair of projects he created as part of the now defunct DCEU would be considered canon to the new connected universe…kind of.
“Now in Creature Commandos, you’ll hear them talk about things that happened in The Suicide Squad or Peacemaker. Well then, those things automatically become canon,” said Gunn, before explaining that his previous statement was only mostly true.”The truth is almost all of Peacemaker is canon with the exception of Justice League… which we will kind of deal with in the next season of Peacemaker.”
The appearance of the Justice League was indeed dealt with in the next season of Peacemaker, or rather before it ever began. During a “Previously in the DCU” opening ahead of Peacemaker‘s Season 2 premiere, the Justice League was replaced with the Justice Gang plus two (Superman and Supergirl). Without further explanation, Gunn added that the events of Peacemaker Season 1 took place before the events of Superman and that while Superman and Supergirl were not part of the Gang, the Man of Steel and his Kryptonian cousin has been able to “team up with them a lot like they did in Superman.” And in light of a recent timeline cue, that is interesting indeed.
Only CC forward is pure canon; Peacemaker is almost entirely consistent with that canon other than the Justice League; The Suicide Squad has a lot of consistencies but I think of it as an imperfect memory.
-James Gunn
The truth is that canon doesn’t matter…until, of course, it does..and at some point, it might. And so while the entirety of The Suicide Squad is not canon, parts of it certainly are. In both Creature Commandos and Season 2 of Peacemaker, the death of Rick Flag Jr. at the hands of Christopher Smith during the mission to Corto Maltese has been addressed, meeting Gunn’s admittedly arbitrary and amorphous canon guidelines.
“For instance, Rick Flag Jr was killed because we heard Rick Flag Sr talking about it in Creature Commandos, not because we saw it in The Suicide Squad,” Gunn explained. And now, it’s clear why Jr.’s death has to mentioned: it had to matter.
The latest episode of Peacemaker, “Another Rick Up My Sleeve,” saw Joel Kinnaman back in the role of Flag Jr., kind of. As part of Peacemaker’s dimension hopping adventure, the character has found himself in an alternate timeline where a romance with Emilia Harcourt could be in the cards should she chose to leave an established relationship with a very different Flag. That’s all very interesting and will certainly matter eventually, but it was Kinnaman’s brief appearance as the OTHER Flag that set an important point on the DCU’s developing timeline.
In a flashback scene featuring Harcourt and the now-dead Flag, it was established that the mission to Corto Maltese took place three years ago. And because canon only matters when it matters, that matters because it coincides with Kal-El announced himself as Superman…and may well have put a target on his back.
In The Suicide Squad–which is, of course, not canon except for the parts that are–it is established that Idris Elba‘s Robert DuBois, aka Bloodsport, finds himself in Belle Reve after having taking his shot at Superman with a Kryptonite bullet.
Gunn has claimed that he’s “always looking for a place to put Bloodsport,” and the timeline tidbit in the latest episode of Peacemaker might have made that possible. Fans had previously expressed uncertainty about how Bloodsport’s attack on Superman could be reconciled within the DCU and Gunn looks to have addressed that by setting The Suicide Squad and Superman in the same year.
Superman reveals that Lex Luthor was well aware of Kryptonite and its effects on Kryptonians but Rick Flag Sr. also mentions that “there’s none left on the planet.” Without thinking too hard, it certainly does not mean there was none three years earlier, meaning–if Gunn chooses to make it so–Bloodsport’s attempted hit on Superman could become one of those things we hear talked about in Peacemaker, thus canonizing it into the DCU and allowing Elba to step back into the role.
With Gunn having written both Peacemaker and Superman, it seems highly unlikely that the three year span since Superman became active coincidentally intersects so neatly with the time since the mission on Corto Maltese. Indeed, given that Gunn was working on both projects simultaneously, it seems rather intentional. Perhaps Elba will be one of the big surprises Gunn has been hyping; perhaps he’s not involved at all. However, the tiny timeline tidbit has provided all the opportunity necessary to get Elba‘s Bloodsport, a character who first appeared in a Superman comic, back in the game.
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