“What a bunch of a-holes.” A great line from the first trailer that hooked fans on the little-known Guardians of the Galaxy. Nearly a decade later, those same a-holes have become household names and are about to go on their last mission together in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. The film will be the last MCU project for director James Gunn (and at least one of the Guardians) as he transitions to his new role as the co-chair of DC Studios; however, according to Gunn, it won’t be the last time he teams up with some of the talented cast members.
In an interview with Empire, Gunn expressed his love for the cast of the Guardians and his interest to work with (some of) them again. “This cast are like my family,” explained Gunn. “I cannot tell you how close I am to Chris Pratt and Pom [Klementieff] and Dave [Bautista] and Zoe [Saldaña] and Karen [Gillan]. But I also know I will work again with all those people individually again. Probably at my other job.” Unfortunately, it looks like Gunn’s brother, Sean, will have to look elsewhere for work.
In reality, there’s not a major studio in operation that wouldn’t want to work with any and all of the actors Gunn listed. Pratt and Saldaña are already A-listers with their own franchises outside of Guardians, Gillan’s star continues to climb, Bautista has sought out more and more serious roles and Klementieff will be featured in the nextMission: Impossible film. Outside of Saldaña, the actors have Gunn and the success of the Guardians franchise to thank for their bountiful opportunities. With Gunn preparing to unveil at least a portion of the new DCU slate, it’ll be worth watching to see if he’s already carved out any roles for the talented Guardians.
James Gunn has responded to the rumor by indicating nobody has been cast as Superman and that casting won’t happen until the script is complete.
My thoughts are no one has been cast as Superman yet. Casting, as is almost always the case with me, will happen after the script is finished or close to finished, and it isn’t. We’ll announce a few things in not too long, but the casting of Superman won’t be one of them. 🧜♂️ https://t.co/2SGWV2RSI7
As the new year marches on, fans are still eagerly awaiting word from James Gunn and Peter Safran on the first wave of films forthcoming from the newly formed DC Studios. With Gunn currently writing a script for a new Superman film–one that will not feature Henry Cavill returning to the role–it’s likely that project will be among that anticipated first wave and a new rumor indicates it might be happening sooner than you’d think.
Rumor mill generator deuxmoi has shared some info on Gunn’s Superman project that’s sure to get people talking. According to the individual, Gunn is targeting a Summer 2025 release date for the new film, which he will direct. Additionally, the rumor indicates that a frontrunner may have emerged for the role of Kal-El; though deuxmoi didn’t explicitly name an actor, the hints given (Australian…Netflix romcom trilogy…HBO Max teen show) would seem to point at Jacob Elordi. Elordi, who starred in the Kissing Booth and Euphoria, has been a somewhat popular choice for the role on social media and fits the bill for Gunn’s vision of a younger Superman.
Given Gunn’s track record with addressing rumors associated with his projects, fans may know a lot more about the veracity of this one soon.
James Gunn has a big job ahead of him in creating a shared cinematic universe out of the ashes after nuking the old guard. While he’ll smartly focus on Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the Justice League, he’ll also have to keep it fresh by bringing some new blood to the DCU. With that in mind, we have a handful of suggestions for Mr. Gunn as he gets things moving ahead in 2023.
Joao Roque Pinto on Mister Terrific
Dream casting: John Boyega, John David Washington, Scarlett Johansson
When thinking of a character that will allow for interesting storylines (be it through solo outings or as part of a team), with interesting powers without them being too out there, someone who big screen audiences have little to no knowledge of who it is and its back story, and that will be able to play well with the biggest names in the DC catalog, Mister Terrific (Michael Holt) came immediately to mind.
Gunn usually thrives when defining characters within team dynamics and Mister Terrific can be integrated into several teams the character has been a part of over the years. From the Justice League to the Justice Society of America, from Task Force X’s subdivision Checkmate to The Terrifics. His Genius-level intellect, “a natural aptitude for having natural aptitudes”, can also allow for a more plot-driven type of story, moving away from the spectacle that most team-up movies tend to be.
Not discounting his use of T-Spheres, he remains a character that can easily be combined with almost any sort of comic book movie approach, from the more grounded to the most fantastical, all while also bringing to the table a representation factor into the larger DC Universe that should never be dismissed.
Jeffrey Peterson on Clayface
Dream casting: Denzel Washington, Josh Brolin, or Brad Pitt.
An origin story that starts in the 60s, maybe 70s, but definitely after the ‘golden age’ of cinema. Automatic buy-in through casting a respected Hollywood star that’s on the older side, but the film also gains the benefit of really only effects of makeup or CGI when really necessary. The film can still use noir and thriller elements of The Batman while leaning into a more physiological terror space. The movie has the opportunity to discuss body dysmorphia and alteration, self-help, generational trauma, and the arts, specifically film, without doing any of it too directly. The other golden opportunity is that Clayface’s abilities only have to be hinted at since those actors are good character actors anyway. The more monstrous reveal once the powers get out of hand can naturally happen in the third act or the first, depending on the classic film a director (Jordan Peele or Alex Garland) wants to reference.
Dalbin Osorio
I know there’s going to be a consensus for all sorts of Green Lanterns to show up, so I’m going to get in front of that and say that Simon Baz is the Lantern we need to see. As a hero who ends up wielding a fusion of Sinestro and Hal Jordan’s power ring, and as the Corps’s first Arab-American member, Simon has the chance to bring some much-needed diversity to a DC Slate that is predominantly cis hetero white men. Showing Simon’s street racing, and racial persecution following a subsequent car accident, would make some amazing TV.
Now, who to play him, you ask? How about 40-year-old Lee Majdoub, who played Agent Stone in Sonic The Hedgehog? You’ll next see him playing the villain in Assassin’s Creed: Mirage, and he’s still young enough to where he could theoretically play this Lantern for 10 years.
Jared Kirschenbaum
Bat-Mite, as John Economos puts it in Peacemaker, is “a two-foot-tall interdimensional imp who stans Batman.” There are many interesting things DC Studios could do for a Bat-Mite project or an appearance elsewhere. Bat-Mite is similar to the Superman villain Mister Mxyzptlk, with a very different characterization. He is a being from the Fifth Dimension, which means Bat-Mite has access to phenomenal cosmic powers. And while Mister Mxyzptlk uses his powers to toy with Superman, Bat-Mite uses his powers to “help” Batman, because Bat-Mite is at his core, not a bad guy. His biggest problem is just that he is irritating. Basically, Bat-Mite is the fan from hell. He critiques Batman, makes things more difficult, and ruins Batman’s plans. The closest thing to Bat-Mite is probably Syndrome from The Incredibles. And in the wrong situation, Bat-Mite is dangerous. Sure, he likes Batman and wants Batman to succeed, but if Bat-Mite gets angry at Batman or wants to make a task more difficult for him to make it more fun to watch, there really are not many limits to what Bat-Mite can do. He is a nerd who just cannot help himself. Sometimes he is more bad than good, but a lot of the time, in his heart, he does just want to help.
To be fair, since he is not showing up in a Batman movie anytime soon, James Gunn could totally make a Bat-Mite movie and it would probably be a lot of fun. However, this is not really where he would be the most useful in the DCU, especially since Bat-Mite has already come up in Peacemaker. And since a second season of Peacemaker will probably factor into whatever Gunn is cooking as Co-chairman and CEO of DC Studios and is more of a lock than the majority of other DCU projects, Bat-Mite should 100% show up as part of season 2. Imagine, Bat-Mite shows up floating next to Peacemaker. Only the audience and Peacemaker can see or hear Bat-Mite as he spends most of the show telling Peacemaker that he is not as cool as Batman. Is Bat-Mite real or is he a figment of Peacemaker’s imagination or some subconscious manifestation of his inadequacy? Who knows? But a stylized cartoon or weird CGI-man thingy floating around Peacemaker in season 2, telling him how he needs to do a better job of being a hero like Batman is the totally out-of-left-field choice that Gunn would absolutely make. When season 1 started, nobody thought that Peacemaker would be fighting aliens. So, why not throw in a being from the Fifth Dimension, especially one who would not really work in many other movies or shows? Bat-Mite as the angel and devil on Peacemaker’s shoulder in Peacemaker season 2 would be so much fun.
MTF III
Who better to be an entry point character for the present state of the Batman Family and all of its tentacles than Bruce Wayne’s son, raised by Ra’s Al Ghul in the world of assassins, then introduced into the world of vigilantes as the next to carry on the legacy of Robin? Through him, we can meet all of Bruce’s surrogate sons and daughters and explore a different dynamic with Bruce, as he needs to find his softer side to connect with an offspring who might be more intense than even him.
My #2 choice would be Nubia. While the idea of a “Black Wonder Woman” might seem at first glance to be one note, through her we can learn about the secret history of the lost Amazon tribe of Bana-Mighdall, who left Themyscira’s magical protection and gave up their immortality to create a society of warrior women in the Amazon way, but amidst the tumult of Northern Africa. Through interactions with Diana, Nubia could be a doorway into juxtaposing a more militant vision of the Amazons against the utopian one we were exposed to in some of the previous Wonder Woman outings. Nubia’s heroic journey can be about her learning to inspire hope in Man’s World rather than instilling fear.
Charles Murphy on The Spectre
As Marvel Studios’ fans wait for Ghost Rider to make his way into the MCU, DC’s own Spirit of Vengeance could serve an important role in James Gunn‘s new DCU. The being known as Aztar is as old as the universe and serves as the hand of divine vengeance for DC’s One Above All. There have been a whole lot of different iterations of the character over the years and Aztar has been bound to a few different human hosts, but a combo of the New 52’s modern version of Gotham PD officer Jim Corrigan mixed with the brilliant work done by John Ostrander in the 1990s offers the perfect mix of a character tied into the connected universe Gunn is building while also being able to do his own thing. Is this the right superhero role for Gunn’s bestie Nathan Fillion?
We are nearing the reveal of some of the first wave of films in the new DCU headed up by James Gunn. This reveal should provide us with some idea of what we might get when this new era of DC Comics adaptations hits our big and slightly smaller screens. The Rock’s ego tried to highjack, and then derail, what Gunn had planned, but we are in for some shakiness while they release the last four movies in this era and simultaneously prepare for what’s next. What we do know definitively is that we are getting a new Superman movie and though Gunn plans to skip the origin, a strong argument could still be made for the new film to be an adaptation of Superman: Year One.
Superman: Year One is a 3-issue mini-series by Frank Miller and John Romita Jr. that attempted to kind of modernize Superman’s origin while adding some more depth to a character that had been around for 80+ years. It provided some more information about Superman’s time on Krypton, and it provides a subtle shift to Kal-El’s mission to earth; instead of the destruction of Krypton being what propels him to be Earth’s savior, Miller and Romita Jr. make this future essentially pre-ordained. Kal-El will need to save Earth, and his parents need to prepare him for that on Krypton before he goes to fulfill his destiny. It’s a much weightier origin than Krypton’s destruction spurring Supes to save Earth because it means that there are more opportunities to show Superman learning how to use his powers in his environment and as a child. What does it mean for a child to be granted god-like abilities? How does that impact him growing up? And what kind of pressure does this child put on himself due to the knowledge that he will be responsible for saving a planet? These are all questions that Superman: Year One tackles really strongly, and this would give the fans a chance to see a new origin for Superman that would feel fresh.
Another change that is made to Clark’s origin is that he enlists in the United States Navy upon graduating from high school. Think about that: after spending his early childhood on Krypton knowing he was meant to save Earth, his first adult decision after being on this planet is to become a soldier. You have the traditional farmboy origin mixed in with some “of course a small-town kid would want to see the world”, and Superman at boot camp gives you the potential to really build up the hopefulness and love for his fellow man that Superman embodies since he’d be in literal fox holes with them. It would, also, make him remaining hopeful about Earth despite seeing the tragedies of war even more impactful. Zack Snyder made Superman this moody and angry and morose hero, and that’s just not who he is at all. In Year One, Miller and Romita, Jr. find a way to still show his power but to modernize his origin in a way that really keeps the essence of the character.
Year One, also, introduces Lori Lemaris, and this could be a way to start to build out the DCU in a subtle way. Lori Lemaris is a mermaid from Atlantis, home of Aquaman, who actually falls in love with Clark. In the comics, they meet while they’re both attending Metropolis University, where Lori is hiding her being a mermaid by appearing as a differently-abled person. The potential to show a Clark who had to go through all the things kids do before becoming a full-fledged Superman down the road would work so well on the screen; in Year One, he falls for Lori and actually asks her to marry him, which leads to her breaking his heart. She, also, dies during Crisis On Infinite Earths, in case James Gunn wants to plant the seeds for that from here. It could, also, lead to the beginning of the friendship between Arthur Curry and Clark Kent, and is the kind of minor character/big world-building approach that the DCU would benefit from.
This adaptation would be the perfect time to introduce Parasite, a S.T.A.R. Labs janitor who interacts with some chemicals and becomes one of Superman’s biggest threats. This accomplishes the approach we mention above, where it’s a smaller character introducing S.T.A.R. Labs and building out this world, but you also have Parasite taking Lori’s energy act as the catalyst for her breaking Clark’s heart and for Aquaman not trusting the surface world. Superman versus Parasite would look visually different than every Superman fight we have seen and would give us a fresh adversary versus some of the other ones we’ve seen multiple times.
Cut the check and make it out to Murphy’s Multiverse, James Gunn!
With the continued expansion of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and DC properties, more and more superhero movie and television content is being pumped into screens almost non-stop. New genres and formats are being explored and countless characters are being brought into live-action. So, we should be at the peak of the age of superhero movies, right? Unfortunately, it seems we have sailed right on through the Golden Age of Superhero Movies that took place in the 2010s.
This feature could not function without describing the massive and crucial impact that Marvel Studios and the MCU had on the superhero genre. However, other films began paving a path before 2008’s Iron Man. DC had been producing films, particularly based on Batman and Superman properties, for decades that had a clear cultural impact. Marvel, through Sony or Fox, had major hits like the Spider-Man and X-Men franchises. While the superhero movie genre had been present for some time, the MCU was the undeniable spark that caused the concept of the superhero movie to explode.
While Iron Man was the first of now many films in what became the MCU, the whole franchise did not pick up an insane amount of steam for several years. The early Phase One movies were—overall—OK. They existed as origin stories, but the superhero origin story had already been done nearly 3,333 times before. Everything changed when Avengers was released in 2012.
The crossover aspect is undeniably one of the key (if not the key) components that changed the way audiences engaged with the genre. While other superhero movies still trickled out around this time, no other franchise was combining four other franchises into one mega-franchise. The MCU was surely not the first to invoke the crossover strategy, but it certainly was the first to employ it on such a large scale. And luckily, Avengers was a smash hit and will remain one of the most culturally significant films of the early 21st century. Movies stopped becoming just movies—they were entire events and spectacles that transcended just a single film. At this point, “franchise” became the business term while “universe” because the one fans experienced.
The Infinity Saga experience, frankly, cannot be surpassed. The post-Avengers excitement leading the Avengers: Endgame was the definitive Golden Age of Superhero Movies. During this time, millions and millions of fans waited feverishly for the one or two movies the MCU dropped each year. Easter eggs and cameos felt like invaluable treasures as people started to stitch together this rich, magical fictional universe that entertained them like no other. The promise of some ultimate “finale” to the saga being lived through buoyed even some of the weaker installments. And, boy, was that finale spectacular.
At this point, there is no reason to overanalyze Avengers: Infinity Waror Endgame anymore. Regardless of contemporary or retrospective reviews or criticisms, virtually everyone who was a fan during that time can tell you those films were the hype of all hype. The iconic moments from those films we still conjure up frequently were the fruition of 11 years of storytelling, and every bit of the event was stylized as the definitive and ultimate moment of the unprecedented sensation that was the MCU.
Of course, the MCU did not stop. In fact, it is producing content at a rate that would even a 2018 fan would never believe. More characters that comic book fans never thought would ever make it to live-action are now here, living amongst the universe we feel we grew up or grew old in. There is something to be said, though, about the onslaught of content. The ever-warned-of “superhero fatigue” that some spoke of a decade ago may actually be creeping in. With often little to no chance to take a breath between MCU projects, each one has the potential to feel less and less special. The anticipation for the next project has weaned. Now, it is difficult to take in the entire MCU given how many hours of content exist. A casual fan may very well be overwhelmed, and new fans may have no idea how to actually get involved. Old fans may have had to abandon their annual MCU rewatch.
But Phase Four—and beyond—content has also produced some phenomenal projects. Many would agree that Spider-Man: No Way Home, Werewolf By Night, and She-Hulk are all gifts in their respective formats. But even with quality new projects, the expectations are clearly higher than they once were. Part of it is the high of Infinity Saga that so many keep chasing. However, the toxic online culture surrounding film discourse—particularly in the comic book genre—has felt out of hand since Phase Four began. Surely the Golden Age would not include thousands of people trash-talking every frame of a film, leading robust campaigns centered around hating women, and whining, complaining, and arguing about rumored post-credits scenes for much more important films that have not been released yet.
And while the MCU can now tell bigger and more fantastic stories with an increasing range of characters, it is almost inevitable that the overarching plot will be Marvel Studios’ answer to: “How do we go bigger and better than Endgame?” The infinite possibilities, cameos, and combinations of Avengers: Secret Wars will almost certainly be a proper answer to that question and the payoff will almost certainly be astronomical. But it will not be able to live up to the Infinity Saga finale. While the story is presumably unique and the cheer-worthy moments will be plenty, at the end of the day the MCU has already taken us through that journey. The build-up and surprises are expected, and the energy will never match that of 2018 and 2019.
This article focuses on the MCU for obvious reasons, but DC and the DCEU shot their own shots, though it was generally fumbled. So far in the post-Endgame time period, we have seen a DC that is fractured, confused, disorganized, chaotic, repetitive, and often mediocre. There are no doubt some standouts, including The Suicide Squad, Joker, and The Batman. But the fact that they remain as separate isolated incidents keep the DC Universe from thriving in the way that it could. Black Adam’s insistence that this is all set to change is empty until it happens. To be fair, the recent news that James Gunn and Peter Safran will lead a new “DC Studios” is something to keep an eye on. But either way, DC really missed the Golden Age boat at this point, unless they can turn it around and do something extraordinarily special.
Announced in October 2024, Dynamic Duo is an animated film that will tell the story of “the early days of Dick Grayson and Jason Todd aka the Robins. The duo call themselves the Dynamic Duo. They’re orphan thieves, best friends who share dreams of a better life, but their friendship will be tested by competing visions of a future out of which will come a new Dynamic Duo.“
Based on a script from modern horror meister Mike Flanagan, DC Studios’ Clayface will feature the classic Batman villain in his own solo film. The creator behind Netflix’s horror series The Haunting of Hill House and its subsequent follow-ups, Flanagan reportedly pitched a Clayface solo film to DC Studios co-chair James Gunn in 2023. In December 2024, Gunn officially announced the film and slated it for a September 11, 2026 premiere date.
The GCDP thing, that story has story has kinda evolved. We’ve actually now [moved] more into the realm of exactly what would happen in the world of Arkham as it relates coming off of our movie, and some of the characters… almost leaning into the idea of… it’s like a horror movie or a haunted house that is Arkham.
–Matt Reeves on the evolution of his Arkham project
Originally believed to be an Elseworlds project set in Reeves’ Batman universe, DC co-chair James Gunn revealed that Arkham was developed to be set within the main DCU continuity. “Right now Matt is producing Arkham as a DCU series,” said Gunn on Threads in January 2024, adding that”It was one of the first pitches we bought when Peter [Safran] and I came onboard.” Gunn went on to clarify Reeves’ status with DC Studios, saying “We love Matt as a director and producer so he’ll be producing stories both within his The Batman universe and within the DCU.“
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