With Warner Bros. Discovery up for sale, an inch of uncertainty about the future of the studio’s major brands has turned into a mile of bullshit. Paramount has long been seen as the front-runner to seal a deal to acquire WBD and all the companies under its umbrella, including Cartoon Network, CNN, DC Studios and HBO and a recent article claimed that if the deal were to go through, Paramount CEO David Ellison would seek to oust James Gunn, head of the still-new DC Studios.
According to Bloomberg, should Paramount complete the purchase, Ellison “plans to keep much of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. intact.” More relevant to the rumors of Gunn’s departure, Ellison is said to want to “keep the creative teams of the two studios,” which would include, one might assume, Gunn and DC Studios’ co-chair Peter Safran.
That’s all putting the cart before the horse, however, as WBD has thrice denied Paramount’s bids to buy the company and there is plenty of opposition in Hollywood. Outside of that sphere of influence, concerns about a potential monopoly have been raised as well.
Should it all go down, however, Gunn recently confirmed that his plans for the all-new, all-different DCU “definitely go significantly further than Man of Tomorrow,”which is scheduled for a 2027 release. Certainly aware of the impact of a potential change at the top, however, Gunn recently cast doubt on whether or not he’d be able to bring all his plans to fruition. “So whether or not that’ll be me that’s able to fulfil that promise depends on a lot of things in life,” he recently told Boba Talks. It now looks like at least one of those things should no longer be a concern.
DC Studios co-chair James Gunn has big plans for the Green Lantern Corps; however, with the potential sale of Warner Bros. Discovery creating uncertainty around the future of the new DCU, it remains to be seen how much of those plans will come to fruition. Those concerns don’t look to be halting the release of the HBO Max streaming series Lanterns, set to debut in 2026.
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 a wide-ranging interview with Men’s Health, Pierre and Mundy set the stage for the series, which the latter calls “as much of a buddy cop show as a superhero show.”
From the sounds of it, Lanterns will see Pierre‘s Stewart, who the actor says “radiates strength and fortitude,” being prepped as a replacement for Hal Jordan which, as one might expect, will cause some friction between the two.
“Our show is in a lot of ways about replacement—when should someone step aside and when is it time for the next person to take the reins? That push and pull between those two characters is really important,” Mundy explained.
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.
-James Gunn
Pierre describes Stewart as a man who has “That hunger to be the best version of yourself, which also holds you accountable when you’re not.”According to Mundy, that resolve will be challenged by what sounds like a pretty abrasive Jordan.
“So much of the power that John has is by not taking the bait, understanding that you lose your power if you’re yelling and screaming,” said Mundy. “That’s what we’re trying to convey: He knows he belongs, so he doesn’t have to overcompensate. There’s a real balance there that’s just innately inside of Aaron. He’s big. He’s an intimidating presence just physically. But there’s a softness to him too. There’s a thoughtfulness. You can’t teach that.”
Should Stewart’s story continue beyond Lanterns, it sounds as though he’ll come out of the streaming series truly tested by Jordan, making him more than worthy as his successor.
Following a successful theatrical launch in 2025 with Superman, another Kryptonian will headline DC Studios return to cinemas in 2026. Directed by Craig Gillespie, Supergirl stars Milly Alcock as Kara Zor-El–the cousin of David Corenswet‘s Kal-El–who made a brief appearance in Superman.
Kara was on Krypton. She was on a piece of Krypton that drifted away from the planet and she lived there for the first fourteen years of her life in a horrible situation where she watched everyone around her die. So, she’s a much harsher and more fucked up Supergirl than you’ve been used to thus far.
-James Gunn on Supergirl
Based on DC Comics Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, the film has been described by DC Studios’ co-chair James Gunn as a “little more rock and roll” than Superman…and maybe as rock and roll as one of Marvel Studios’ most beloved and successful franchises.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Gunn compared the upcoming DC Studios’ project to Marvel Studios Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy.
While discussing the past and future of the DCU, Gunn said “Supergirl especially is a space adventure,” adding, “It’s like Guardians [of the Galaxy].”
Setting Supergirl in space not only allows for the film to hold true to writer Tom King‘s comic but also to expand the DCU into corners of the universe that have rarely been explored in live-action.
Supergirl is scheduled to hit theaters on June 26, 2026.
According to James Gunn, the events of last night’s Peacemaker Season 2 finale will have major repercussions for the DCU’s ongoing narrative…just not for the next season of Peacemaker.
The finale ended Rick Flag Sr. getting uns revenge for for the death of his son at the hands of Peacemaker. After starting a new organization, Checkmate, with the 11th Street Kids and a couple of new friends, John Cena‘s Chris Smith was stranded by Flag on a planet called “Salvation.” In an interview with Deadline, Gunn explained that while both Checkmate and Salvation are “two important aspects” of the DCU’s future even though they won’t be explored in a third season of Peacemaker.
“Well, those are the two things that were always a part of this season,” said Gunn of the intriguing new planet and the anti-A.R.G.U.S. startup. “So when we sat down, even before I sat down with the writers room in DC, I had sort of mapped out what I thought the general story was, and two important aspects to that were Checkmate and especially Salvation, so those were things that I had pitched to everybody before we ever came into DC and then after we came into DC and we met with the writers room and worked things out a little bit more. That was always pretty instrumental in the overall, overarching story that I’m telling in the DCU, but also connected to it as well.”
Despite being introduced in Peacemaker, the next steps for both Checkmate and Salvation won’t be explored in a third season of the streaming series because, according to Gunn, he has no current plans for additional seasons. “This is about the wider DCU and other stories in which this will play out right now,” said Gunn. “That doesn’t mean that there won’t be [a third season of Peacemaker]. I don’t want to never say never, but right now, no, this is about the future of the DCU. It’s an important character.”
Gunn maintains that Peacemaker will remain an important character in the DCU and indicated that Checkmate will be “a part of what’s going to happen” in the growing shared universe. Given that Gunn previously stated the streaming series serves as a prequel to his next project, the 2027 film Man of Tomorrow, it seems as though fans can count on the characters to return, though for now the DC Studios’ co-chair chose to remain quiet in that front, calling that information a “secret.”
With the second season of Peacemaker landing on HBO Max shortly after Superman flew into theaters, James Gunn–the creator of both DC Studios’ projects–has been a constant part of the CBM news cycle for several months. With an official Peacemaker podcast, a near-constant online presence and plenty of interviews, Gunn provides fans of the growing DCU plenty to chew on, even if he does beat the odd dead horse.
To some extent, much of what Gunn has had to say in the past few months has been related to the future of the young shared universe, which has begun to shape up very differently than the original version of the slate he and DC Studios’ co-chair Peter Safran shared in January 2023. The original version of the studio’s Chapter One: Gods and Monsters consisted of 10 projects (5 theatrical and 5 streaming) and as Gunn has frequently explained of late, some of those have not coalesced as well as he had hoped, while others have moved up in the queue. So while The Brave and the Bold, Waller, Swamp Thing, The Authority and Booster Gold wade through development hell, Clayface, Mister Miracle and, Man of Tomorrow and Wonder Woman have progressed a little more efficiently…but those may not be the only new projects on the horizon.
In a wide-ranging interview with GQ, Gunn addressed DC Studios’ future slate, teasing a trio of mystery projects.
“Right now, there’s actually two really cool film scripts that I’m hoping to take to the next level that we have general plans for, and I’m excited about both of those,” Gunn told GQ. “And then I’m excited about one TV project in particular. I don’t know why we’re not greenlighted on that already—it’s just figuring out the budget. So there’s a couple of things that are very present that I’m excited about.“
Without any further information, Gunn’s comments are left open to interpretation. On one hand, the “two really cool film scripts” Gunn mentions could very simply be Wonder Woman and The Brave and the Bold, both of which are known to be in development. On the other hand, given how projects such as Sgt. Rock and Clayface seemingly emerged from the ether, Gunn those two projects could be something he’s yet to address publicly. And the same goes for the TV project, where only Lanterns has moved forward among those projects from the original slate reveal.
Whatever the case, given how frequently Gunn finds himself in the headlines, it seems incredibly safe to assume that at least some bits of additional information about the three projects will make their way online soon.
“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 in a November 2024 interview with IGN.
And as additional DC Studios’ projects have been released, quite a few more things that happened in The Suicide Squad have been talked about and even seen on screen, leading to some speculation that Gunn’s admittedly arbitrary and amorphous canon guidelines may have been flexible enough to fully integrate his 2021 project into the DCU. Well…nope.
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
In a new interview with THR, Gunn explained that canonicity as it relates to The Suicide Squad “brings up more questions than answers,” and that is “not DCU.”
“People are always asking me about stuff from The Suicide Squad, and The Suicide Squad is a difficult thing because it is not DCU,” said Gunn. “But there aren’t too many things in it that aren’t [DCU]. Unlike Peacemaker season one–which is completely DCU, besides the ending and one or two mentions of different things–The Suicide Squad brings up more questions than answers.”
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, leading THR to wonder whether or not Smith’s Task Force X teammates might come after him upon learning he’s alive. According to Gunn, that’s not a story he’s interested in telling.
“Now, I’m not saying that those characters won’t reappear. I’m just saying that I am [already] dealing with Peacemaker’s guilt over killing Rick Flag Jr. and his repercussions for that,” explained Gunn. “And that story is being told through his relationship with Rick Flag Sr. To tell it through Bloodsport, who was friends with Rick Flag Jr., would be an emotionally diminished story compared to the one I’m telling now. So it doesn’t interest me at all.“
The mention of Idris Elba‘s Bloodsport is interesting given that Gunn has claimed that he’s “always looking for a place to put Bloodsport.” However, it sounds as though once he finds that place, it won’t include much in the way of dealing with Peacemaker killing Bloodsport’s “friend”…which would seem weird. Whatever the case, it’s likely that with Gunn looking to continue carving out a nice-sized role for Peacemaker in the DCU, we can all look forward to more canonical inconsistencies.
Despite the growing exasperation surrounding the interconnected nature of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, DC Studios’ co-chair James Gunn has gone balls-deep into a shared narrative in the first year of the all-new, all-different DC Universe.
While it’s becoming clear that last bit probably won’t hold 100% true, so far it hasn’t presented a problem because through three DC Studios projects, Gunn has not missed and the connectivity has been minimal…until the most recent chapter of Season 2 of Peacemaker.
In what was likely one of the heaviest cameos ever in the superhero genre, “Ignorance is Chris” featured an appearance by Nicholas Hoult‘s Lex Luthor. Fresh off his thrashing at the mouth of Krypto, Luthor, aided by a cane, limped his way to a meeting with Rick Flag Sr. at Belle Reve, where the former finds himself serving a 265-year sentence for all his naughty tricks. In the moment–and especially because Gunn has teased that this season of Peacemaker serves as a prequel to Man of Tomorrow–the cameo felt weighty; however, according to Gunn, it is nothing less than a pivotal moment for the young DCU.
While discussing the cameo–which was filmed during production in Superman–on Peacemaker: The Official Podcast, Gunn called the meeting between Luthor and Flag “a really important moment for ..the entire DCU.”
So, we have a really important moment, for not only Peacemaker but the entire DCU. Rick Flag, the Head of A.R.G.U.S., strikes a deal basically with Lex Luthor in exchange for [him] finding where Peacemaker’s portal might be. He is going to move him from a prison with metahumans to a prison with no metahumans. From Belle Reve, where they are now, to Van Kull, both prisons from the comics.
-James Gunn on Lex Luthor’s appearance in Peacemaker Season 2
And so, in the words of one of the only people in the world with an idea of where the DCU is headed, a cameo made in a streaming series is a fulcrum for what’s to come. Of course, pragmatically speaking, general audiences won’t know the difference between Belle Reve and Van Kull nor will they really remember Flag even appeared in Superman. In that sense, Gunn isn’t really playing with fire and is staying true to his promise not to include cameos for the hell of it. Still, it’s a bold move to include world-altering events in a TV-MA streaming series that’s not supposed to be necessary viewing.
With two episodes left in the current season of Peacemaker, ample time remains for a little more context to be added to just exactly what Flag’s deal with Luthor will mean but it’s hard to imagine Luthor being outmaneuvered by Flag, especially since the latter continued to devolve into a blunt instrument in each episode. Moving Luthor to Van Kull–which is located in Metropolis in DC Comics continuity–brings the evil genius right back to his home turf in time for whatever plans Gunn has for him next.
While Superman focused mainly on fleshing out the all-new, all-different DCU’s Metropolis and its cast of characters, the film’s opening text established a world in which metahumans have been a known quantity for 300 years. That allowed for plenty of room to introduce heroes and villains in the film without necessarily having to spend too much time on their origins, something director James Gunn took full advantage of in having the Engineer and Ultraman join Lex Luthor in taking on Superman.
Even though Maria Gabrielle de Faria’s Engineer didn’t land with audiences as much as Gunn had hoped, she was a key part of Luthor’s team, so with Superman’s arch enemy set to return in Man of Tomorrow, it shouldn’t be too surprising to learn that Gunn has plans for the Engineer as well.
As confirmed by Gunn from comments made in the Superman Director’s Commentary, de Faria will return in Man of Tomorrow where fans will learn what happened to the villain after she went toe-to-toe with Kal-El and lost.
“She’s out of the movie,” said Gunn of the character in reference to her not returning to the story after being knocked unconscious by Superman. “Where does she go? Well, you’re going to find that out in the next movie.”
That sounds a bit like PlanetWatch may end up getting involved in…watching the planet…when Brainiac attacks, which is a reasonable way of having Lex and Superman team up in Man of Tomorrow. However, the Engineer wasn’t the only other villain in Superman.
“We discover that Ultraman is a clone of Superman. [In the comics], Ultraman is from Earth-3, where he’s a part of The Crime Syndicate and an evil version of Superman. There are some similarities here,” said Gunn. “Also, you might ask yourself, ‘Where does Ultraman go at the end of the movie?’ He sends him up into the black hole. Is this the end of Ultraman? I don’t know.”
While obviously more opaque than the plans for the Engineer, it does sound as though while Ultraman’s fate might be unknown to the audience, it’s a little more defined in Gunn’s mind.
Could Gunn be hinting at a Crisis on Two Earths-type film as part of his Superman Saga? It’s certainly not one on many fans’ bingo cards and would be incredibly ambitious; however, if executed properly, it would also likely stand as a giant among comic-booky comic book films.
When James Gunn and Peter Safran pulled back the curtain on the first chapter of DC Studios’ planned slate, The Brave and the Bold…and nearly three years later, that’s proven to be the case as the project has struggled to gain any positive momentum.
Inspired by Grant Morrison‘s Batman and Son arc from his epic run on Batman that began in 2006, The Brave and the Bold was described by Gunn as “a very strange sort of father-son story” featuring Bruce Wayne and his son, Damian, who Gunn referred to as “a little son of a bitch.”
[The Brave and the Bold is] a story of Damian Wayne, who’s Batman’s actual son that he didn’t know existed for the first eight to ten years of his life. He was raised as a little murderer and assassin.-James Gunn
Originally set to be directed byIt and The Flash helmer Andy Muschetti, the film was also intended to introduce “other members of the extended Bat-Family” who Gunn explained had “been left out of the Batman stories in the theater for far too long.” With so many details available by mid-2023, it seemed likely that The Brave and the Bold would follow closely behind Superman and help build a solid foundation for the all-new DCU.
However, by late 2024, progess on the film had seemingly stalled leading to Gunn explaining that the studio had “no set timeline for anything,” and that production on The Brave and the Bold–and any other DC Studios project–would not get made “until we have a screenplay that I’m totally happy with.” And now, as 2025 winds down into its final quarter, Gunn has provided a bit of a discouraging update on that screenplay.
“The script isn’t done,” Gunn revealed in an interview with The Ringer-Verse. “I mean, we’ve got somebody writing a script, I think it’s really good,” he quickly clarified. And that wasn’t the only downer Gunn dropped.
With it recently becoming crystal clear that Matt Reeves‘ Batman Epic Crime Saga is set outside the DCU’s main continuity and that Robert Pattinson will not be the DCU Batman, Gunn was asked if he had found his Batman yet. The short answer is no.
“Do I have ideas about actors who could play Batman? Absolutely, I do. I have guys I like. I have guys that are top of the list for me, just like I had people that were at the top of the list for Superman,” Gunn said.
“People can guess and maybe they’ll be right about certain things. We’d have to screen test, we’d have to do the whole thing. Okay, I see what you’re doing. ‘1923’, it’s a really good TV show, like I can’t believe how good that show was,” said Gunn, likely referring to rumors that Brandon Sklenar was in the mix for the DCU’ Dark Knight.
Notably, Gunn’s comments about screen tests stand out as in the cases of both Superman and Supergirl, trades caught wind of the DC Studios’ short lists for Superman, Lois Lane, Lex Luthor and Supergirl. It’s safe to assume a role as big as Batman would catch the attention of the trades again. And while that means fans are no closer to finding out who will play Batman, Gunn does know someone who won’t… though he isn’t quite ready to share who that is.
“One actor in particular, a pretty big star, wants to be Batman,” teased Gunn before saying, “we’ve talked about it, but I don’t think that’s the case,” he said.
With so little seemingly working on the right direction and multiple other projects further along in development, it seems as though The Brave and the Bold won’t hit theaters until 2028 or later.
While Clayface is one of Batman’s most interesting rogues, few would list him as one of the Dark Knight’s greatest baddies. However, it’s starting to look as though DC Studios’ upcoming horror movie, Clayface, will set the stage for–if not introduce–at least a few of Batman’s biggest big bads in the DCU.
With production on Clayface continuing in Liverpool, new photos from the set tease the very real possibility that Batman villains The Joker and The Penguin are already active within the DCU.
In the case of The Joker, it seems as though there is both a singular entity referred to as The Joker, who is leading a march against the corrupt Gotham City Police Department, and a gang who calls themselves The Jokers. Theories are already flying that The Jokers will turn out to be the DCU’s version of the Red Hood Gang, though there’s no good explanation for why they aren’t just called the Red Hood Gang.
In the case of The Penguin, the reference comes in the form of a poster for the Gotham carnival known as Amusement Mile. The poster, which invites people to “Behold” the “Penguin Man,” shares a wall with a “Freakshow” poster, insinuating that the character is one of the attractions.
Photos of props from the Liverpool set had already revealed that The Penguin’s club, The Iceberg Lounge, was among the key locations shown on a Gotham map; however, it’s unclear when Clayface is set, if some of these photos are from flashbacks or if The Penguin is already an established crime boss in the present of the DCU. Whatever the case, it seems as though Clayface might do a lot of the heavy lifting in establishing Gotham in the all-new DCU.
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