Even as James Gunn and Peter Safran set out to build the DCU, the DC Studios’ co-chairs have made it clear that creatives will have freedom to tell stories through different mediums, genres and aesthetics. And so while Gunn’sSuperman looks to be a bright, pulpy take on the Man of Steel, it takes place in the same continuity as Mike Flannigan‘s body horror flick, Clayface, and James Mangold‘s Swamp Thing, described as a “simple gothic horror movie.”
The idea is, of course, in line with the long publishing history of DC Comics and should have a similar impact at DC Studios in that it will allow for original ideas to evolve into (hopefully) great superhero stories. One of the earliest test cases for the premise may well be Lanterns, a streaming series that continues to sound a lot like an HBO prestige series. And if one cast member is to be believed, fans may not quite be ready for what DC Studios is about to do with Hal Jordan and John Stewart’s “terrestrial-based investigation story.”
John Stewart and Hal Jordan are two of DC’s most compelling characters, and Lanterns brings them to life in an original detective story that is a foundational part of the unified DCU…
-James Gunn
In an interview with Collider, Poorna Jagannathan, who was cast in a supporting role in Lanterns, described it as “the best sci-fi script I’ve ever read.”
“This is the first script that I’ve read that I understand why there’s an NDA,” explained Jagannathan. “Everything is so insane. It is the best writing that I have ever read.” Created by Ozark writer Chris Mundy, DC Comics ace Tom King and TV legend Damon Lindelof, Lanterns will focus on two of the corps‘ most well-known members, John Stewart and Hal Jordan who will be working as “supercops on Precinct Earth.”
“I don’t know anything about sci-fi, and I don’t care, actually,” continued Jagannathan. “But this script makes sci-fi seem like my world. It makes it so accessible to me. I understand everything about this world even though I don’t understand this world.”
The series, with an impressive cast led by Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre, had already begun to generate some buzz online and Jagannathan’s comments won’t do anything to temper expectations. With cameras set to roll this week, it may only be a matter of time before DC Studios gives fans a first look at Lanterns which is expected to stream in mid-2026.
First introduced in ABC’s Challenge of the Superfriends in 1978, the Legion of Doom has since appeared across multiple mediums and become a staple of supervillainy for DC. Originally assembled by Lex Luthor, the Legion consisted of 13 baddies from the rogues galleries of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash and Green Lantern.
Over the years, different iterations of the team have added and subtracted members and grown the roster beyond the original 13. In any case, the group represents a sinister and serious threat to heroes of the DC Universe. And while it may be years down the road, there’s some chance that the all-new DCU might bring the characters together on the big screen for the first time.
With Nicholas Hoult already on board as Lex Luthor in Superman, a second key member of the Legion of Doom is now confirmed to be on the way as well. According to a trade report, Banshee and The Blacklist star Ulrich Thomsen has joined Lanterns as Sinestro.
In Lanterns, it seems Thomsen will be playing the charactsr as “a former Green Lantern who turned rogue and is described as ruthless yet undeniably charming. Sinestro’s manipulative nature drives his enduring obsession with his former mentee, Hal Jordan.” Traditionally, Sinestro has been Jordan’s mentor, making the DCU’s take a fresh one that could provide some unique narrative opportunities.
John Stewart and Hal Jordan are two of DC’s most compelling characters, and Lanterns brings them to life in an original detective story that is a foundational part of the unified DCU we’re launching next summer with Superman.
-James Gunn and Peter Safran
Lanterns will revolve around Green Lantern Corps members Hal Jordan and John Stewart finding an “ancient horror on Earth.” Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre were cast as Jordan and Stewart, respectively. Word is that Jordan will be a grizzled vet–which makes Chandler a great choice–and that Stewart, played by the up-and-coming Pierre, will be a new member of the Corps working with him as “supercops on Precinct Earth.” Nathan Fillion‘s Guy Gardner, who will debut in Superman, is also reportedly set to play a role in the series.
We have a few other Lanterns peppered in there but this is really a terrestrial based TV show which is almost like True Detective with a couple of Green Lanterns who are space cops watching over Precinct Earth in it they discover a terrifying mystery that ties into our largest story of the DCU.
Beginning in 2024, James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC Studios will launch the DC Universe. In an effort to make more cohesive shared universe, the DCU will connect streaming series, video games and films through narrative threads. Though Gunn and Safran are building a new, interconnected continuity, there will still be DC projects produced outside of this continuity (such as Matt Reeves Batman Epic Crime Saga) under the Elseworlds banner.
What’s next for DC Studios? Who’s recently joined the cast of your most anticipated series or film? Where can you find the teasers and trailers? Look no further, true believers. Everything you need to know about the future of the DCU has been collected for you here. Click on each logo to learn what we currently know about the upcoming DCU projects.
Chapter One: Gods and Monsters
Elseworlds
Projects set outside of the main DCU continuity, the Elseworld projects allow artists to tell stories without attempting to weave them into the DCU’s narrative tapestry.
DC Studios’ Creature Commandos opened with two strong, action-packed episodes that introduced Task Force M and an all-new DCU rich with history and the sort of lived-in vibe that allows for other stories to exist in just about any corner. By setting stories in a universe where Eric Frankenstein has been stalking The Bride for a century, James Gunn has provided room for other character’s stories to have existed as well. And in Episode 3, “Cheers to the Tin Man”, Gunn took advantage of another long-lived character’s story to potentially set the stage for the DCU’s first super team.
Used to convey the history of G.I. Robot, the third episode of Creature Commandos introduced Doctor Will Magnus into the DCU continuity. Twenty years after the end of World War II, G. I. Robot finds himself in the possession of Magnus, a self-described AI specialist who hopes to study the robot in an effort to build the next wave of automatons. As the flashback to this time period comes to a close, Magnus is shown looking at a chalkboard that includes a set of symbols familiar to fans of DC Comics: the Metal Men.
Created in 1962 by writer Robert Kanigher and artist Ross Andru, DC’s Metal Men first appeared in 1962’s Showcase #37 and have evolved and survived throughout all the publishing houses new initiatives. Named after the metals from which they were built, Gold, Iron, Lead, Mercury, Platinum, and Tin also embodied the properties of the elements from which they were created. The team has served as heroes since the Silver Age of DC Comics and now can exist as such in the all-new DC Universe.
Though there’s been no indication from DC Studios’ co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran that a Metal Men project is in the works, one doesn’t necessarily have to be in order for the team to play a role in the DCU. While there’s no need for Magnus to have survived into the present day, his automatons could have and could show up in any number of upcoming projects.
As set photos from Superman have established, the DCU is already full of heroes who h whom the public is familiar. In a world where Hawkgirl, Metamorpho and a Guy Gardner are already active, it wouldn’t be shocking to learn that in-universe inhabitants are already familiar with the Metal Men. Of course, given their own rich comic book history, should someone present Gunn and Safran with a solid pitch, a Metal Men project could easily be used to flesh out the history of any number of years between the 1960s and 2020s. And therin lies the power of Gunn’s decree to tell stories for the sake of stories rather than for an overarching shared narrative. Given the success of Creature Commandos, an animated Metal Men streaming series would most likely be greeted warmly by fans.
The first three episodes of Creature Commandos are now streaming on Max.
While it certainly would not be fair to pigeonhole James Gunn, it is reasonable to say the DC Studios’ co-CEO finds comfort in a certain creative wheelhouse. Though the projects that make up his filmography span multiple genres, Gunn has unabashedly declared his love for superheroes and defended the prolific rise of their place in Hollywood’s pecking order against those who disdainfully regard them as unimaginative pop culture sedatives. From Scooby-Doo, to Guardians of the Galaxy to The Suicide Squad, Gunn has demonstrated an adroit understanding of how to curate the interpersonal dynamics of a team of characters in a way that allows for each member to be integral to the team while also having an individual arc.
Gunn was indubitably firmly within his creative wheelhouse while crafting the DC Studios’ animated streaming series Creature Commandos and the result is a frenzied and brilliant opening act for the all-new DC Universe.
Before encumbering himself with the unbearable weight of the responsibility of introducing the next iteration of Superman to the world, Gunn chose to dive down a very particular and peculiar rabbit hole with Creature Commandos. Intended as an opportunity “for people to just take a little nibble [of the all-new DCU] and see what it tastes like,” the seven-episode animated series assuredly accomplishes its goal. To introduce a brand new interconnected universe through the lens of monstrous outcasts is quite a bold statement on Gunn‘s part made even more outlandish by delivering it via animation. However, Creature Commandos, scaffolded by Gunn’s credibility in the superhero genre, arouses such powerful feelings of pity and sympathy for the members of Task Force M that despite teasing and referencing the inceptive DCU, fans will find themselves so entirely entranced by its cast of rejects that they’ll almost certainly be asking for more adventures…for the characters that survive.
Set two years after the events of The Suicide Squad, Creature Commandos leads off DC Studios’ lineup with gratuitous sanguination and fornication while delivering soul-crushing suffering to each member of the team. Led by sublime voice performances by Frank Grillo, Indira Varma, Zoe Chao and Alan Tudyk, the series lands firmly in the Goldilocks zone between obscene and acceptable, quite honestly giving everyone watching it what they want and everyone starring in it what they deserve…almost. There are no innocents, spare one, and somehow Gunn makes these monsters more human than human.
Screenshot
Rather than bludgeon the audience with obscenely overt cameos, Easter eggs and other references, Gunn tacitly adopted an almost Tolkien-esque approach to world-building his burgeoning DCU in Creature Commandos. Through the use of Lost-like flashbacks, each commando gets his or her own story, revealing a rich and robust world already fully developed and lived in. Outside of the members of Task Force M, plenty of other characters, such as Pokolistan’s Alexi, might make for interesting main characters in their own stories. References to larger lore are subtly sprinkled into the story, allowing the audience to understand that Batman has been active for at least 15 years, there are some strange goings on in Themyscira and there are plenty of other key locations and characters that could be explored down the road, though those stories could be set in the past, present or future of the DCU.
While concerns that the series would ultimately be derivative of Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy or The Suicide Squad are understandable and not entirely unfounded, Creature Commandos stands firmly apart from his other works. To boot, Creature Commandos may be Gunn‘s most mature and evolved creation to date; it’s comedic and tragic and bolder than anything Gunn has done. While fans may be holding out hope for the return of Harley Quinn, they may find that Gunn, who has continued to strengthen the female leads in his projects, has crafted his most complete and compelling female yet in The Bride. In fact, the character may be a metaphor for the tumultuous road Gunn‘s career has traveled. If Gunn, as the overseer of the all-new DCU, can continue to curate stories that convey the same passion, maturity and appreciation for the source material as Creature Commandos, the auspicious start that it provides for the DCU will certainly grow into something deserving of the incredible and lasting influence of DC Comics.
About Creature Commandos
Creature Commandos, produced by DC Studios and Warner Bros. Animation, tracks a secret team of incarcerated monsters recruited for missions deemed too dangerous for humans. When all else fails… they’re your last, worst option.
The seven-episode series stars Indira Varma as The Bride, Zoe Chao as Nina Mazursky, Frank Grillo as Rick Flag Sr., Alan Tudyk as Dr. Phosphorus, Maria Bakalova as Princess Ilana, Anya Chalotra as Circe, Sean Gunn as GI Robot & Weasel, David Harbour as Frankenstein and Viola Davis as Amanda Waller.
Creature Commandos is written and executive-produced by James Gunn. Based on DC characters and produced by DC Studios and Warner Bros. Animation; additional executive producers include Peter Safran, Dean Lorey, and Sam Register; Rick Morales serves as a supervising producer.
The first two episodes of Creature Commandos will debut Max on December 5th with new episodes streaming every Thursday through January 9th.
Over the past several weeks, DC Studios co-chair James Gunn has made it clear that the relatively newly formed production company has one very important guiding principle: no DCU project is given the green light until a finished script has been turned in. As a result, some projects that were not part of the studio’s original list of upcoming projects have moved ahead of those that were. For example, Luca Guadagnino‘s Sgt. Rock film seems to have far more momentum at the moment than the studio’s first Batman and Robin story, The Brave and the Bold.
Whether it’s a lesson learned from his time at Marvel Studios, one he’s learned since announcing a slate of 10 DCU projects that has already seen it’s order rearranged or a combination of the two, it’s something that’s clearly important to Gunn and will ultimately cause less consternation and confusion among fans.
Like Peacemaker, the idea of Waller, a spinoff of Gunn’s 2021 film The Suicide Squad, predates the existence of the all-new DCU. In development since 2022, Waller is being written by Christal Henry (Watchmen) and Jeremy Carver (Supernatural, Doom Patrol). Gunn has said the series “won’t be as much a comedy as Peacemaker” while adding that it is “really fantastic and HBO loves it.”
While the series obviously hasn’t been completely cast with no firm production start innsight, a few key characters will make their returns beside Davis’ Amanda Waller. One of those will be Steve Agee‘s A.R.G.U.S. agent John Economos, who played a key role in Season 1 of Peacemaker and will make an appearance in Creature Commandos. While promoting the latter in an interview with Screen Rant, Agee updated the progress on Waller.
“I think they’re still doing scripts, so there’s no set time yet, and James won’t start something until he’s absolutely happy with the scripts and they’re they’re ready to go,” explained Agee. “So once they’re ready, I’m sure he’ll announce a start time – as an actor who loves to work, it can’t happen soon enough, though, for me!“
And so a project once on track for a 2025 release date is currently undated and, as of now, still being written. While there’s no doubt that Waller will eventually make its way to HBO, it stands as a great example of why, moving forward, Gunn has decided to keep projects under wraps, at least officially, until they’re ready to roll.
The first season of Peacemaker certainly caught audiences off guard, becoming an instant hit with its irreverent comedy and offbeat sense of family. As James Gunn, who created the series, stepped into a new and larger role as the co-chair of DC Studios, a second season of the series was already well into development leaving fans wondering how, if at all, it could fit into the new continuity. While there’s still no answer to that question, we do at least know when the sophomore season of the hit HBO series will stream.
As part of a series of announcements made by HBO and Max Content CEO and Chairman Casey Bloys, it was revealed that Season 2 of Peacemaker will hit HBO in August 2025.
Gunn has made it clear that the new season of Peacemaker will be set in the new DCU and there’s been some rumors that there will be some crossover between the series and Gunn’s Superman, set to hit theaters in July 2025, with many wondering if Superman will indeed appear in the new season. Frank Grillo‘s Rick Flag Sr., who will first appear in the animated Creature Commandos, is set to appear in both Superman and Peacemaker Season 2, confirming an overlap in the continuity of the two projects. Now all that’s left is to see how they execute it on screen.
John Stewart and Hal Jordan are two of DC’s most compelling characters, and Lanterns brings them to life in an original detective story that is a foundational part of the unified DCU we’re launching next summer with Superman.
-DC Studios’ co-chairs James Gunn and Peter Safran on Lanterns
Via social media, Max revealed that Rebel Ridge breakout star Aaron Pierre and Primetime Emmy Award-winning actor Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights) have been cast as John Stewart and Hal Jordan, respectively.
Meet your #Lanterns. Aaron Pierre is John Stewart and Kyle Chandler is Hal Jordan in the new HBO Original Series from DC Studios coming soon to Max. pic.twitter.com/bXbU9l4Pjs
Previously described as a “terrestrial-based investigation story” that “plays a really big role leading us into the main story” in the DCU’s first chapter of stories, Lanterns will revolve around the central characters finding an “ancient horror on Earth.” Word is that Jordan will be a grizzled vet–which makes Chandler a great choice–and that Stewart, played by the up-and-coming Pierre, will be a new member of the Corps working with him as “supercops on Precinct Earth.”
We have a few other Lanterns peppered in there but this is really a terrestrial based TV show which is almost like True Detective with a couple of Green Lanterns who are space cops watching over Precinct Earth in it they discover a terrifying mystery that ties into our largest story of the DCU.
After years of being remembered as one of the most maligned comic book movies of all time, DC’s Green Lantern IP is getting another shot at stardom…and so far it’s shaping up to be one hell of a comeback.
According to Nexus Point News, DC Studios’ has extended an offer to Josh Brolin to fill the role of DC’s most well-known Lantern, Hal Jordan.
Brolin, who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the 2009 film Milk, is one of Hollywood’s most recognizable stars and would bring even more credibility to Lanterns already impressive roster of talent. No stranger to superhero fare, having portrayed Thanos in the MCU and Cable in Deadpool 2, Brolin also has a successful streaming series under his belt in Prime’s Outer Range.
John Stewart and Hal Jordan are two of DC’s most compelling characters, and Lanterns brings them to life in an original detective story that is a foundational part of the unified DCU we’re launching next summer with Superman.
-James Gunn and Peter Safran on Lanterns
Previously described as a “terrestrial-based investigation story” that “plays a really big role leading us into the main story” in the DCU’s first chapter of stories, Lanterns will revolve around the central characters finding an “ancient horror on Earth.” Word is that Jordan will be a grizzled vet–which makes Brolin a great choice–and that Stewart will be a new member of the Corps working with him as “supercops on Precinct Earth.”
A year and a half after James Gunn and Peter Safran gave fans the first glimpse of DC Studios’ upcoming slate, most of the projects on the list have begun to take shape. Superman will complete production this summer and cameras are set to roll on Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow this Fall, giving fans a double dose of El to bring the all-new, all-different DCU to theaters in 2025 and 2026.
Plenty of stories will be told through streaming series, as well, beginning this December when the animted Creature Commandos launches DC Studios’ Chapter One: Gods and Monsters. Damon Lindelof, Chris Mindy and Tom King are working on putting together a pilot script for Lanterns, a terrestrial-based investigation story featuring Hal Jordan and John Stewart. And now, another the creative team behind another streaming series may be assembling.
According to a report from Nexus Point News, the studio has brought in a team headlined by Danny McBride to write the Max series Booster Gold.
According to the reports, McBride will team up with John Carcieri and Jeff Fradley for the gig. The trio have not only a long history of working together but also with HBO, having collaborated with the studio on the hit series Vice Principals and The Righteous Gemstones. Should the report prove true, the only question remaining will be what role they write for Walton Goggins.
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