Tag: dcu

  • What to Expect from the Future of the DCU and When To Expect It

    What to Expect from the Future of the DCU and When To Expect It

    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 Updates Its 2026 Theatrical Release Slate

    DC Studios Updates Its 2026 Theatrical Release Slate

    As the one-year anniversary of the announcement DC Studios’ initial slate draws near, it’s becoming increasingly clear that there’s much more to Chapter One: Gods and Monsters than initially revealed. With Creature Commandos making a solid first impression for the new studio and an enormous amount of attention being given to a discussion about when the first look at Superman may or may not arrive, other projects have quietly made progress behind the scenes.

    One such project, a solo film featuring the Batman villain Clayface was just reported by Deadline to be moving ahead with a script by Mike Flanagan having pleased DC Studios powers that be. Though the report indicated the studio was still searching for a director, the belief was that an official announcement was imminent. And indeed it was.

    After being officially announced by DC Studios’ co-CEO James Gunn, Clayface has been slated for theatrical release on September 11, 2026.

    Clayface will reportedly be a small-budget ($40M) horror-tragedy set within the all-new DCU and may take inspiration from Batman: The Animated Series version of the character.

    Also seemingly lost in Deadline’s report on Clayface’s release date is that DC Studios has a third theatrical release date scheduled for 2026. The trade reports that May 29, 2026 has been set aside by Warner Bros. for a currently unknown project. While it shouldn’t be taken as confirmation, a recent Production Weekly listing indicated that DC Studios’ Teen Titans, written by Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow scribe Ana Nogueira, may be ready to go into production next year.

    Taken in combination with the recent insider report that the studio had settled on the roster of heroes set to make up the Teen Titans, it’s worth monitoring the situation over thecnext few months. Whatever the mystery May project is, production on it would have to get underway in the next 5-6 months or so in order for it to make it to theaters on time.

    Should all dates hold, DC Studios 2026 theatrical release slate would be compromised of:

    May 29, 2026: Untitled DC Studios film

    June 26, 2026: Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow

    September 11, 2026: Clayface

    Source: Deadline

  • ‘Creature Commandos’ Episode 3 Teases the DCU’s First Superteam

    ‘Creature Commandos’ Episode 3 Teases the DCU’s First Superteam

    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.

  • DC Studios Set to Move Forward with First Horror Movie

    DC Studios Set to Move Forward with First Horror Movie

    In recent weeks, James Gunn made it clear that one fundamental difference between the all-new DCU and the MCU, in which he worked for nearly a decade, will be be an emphasis on world building over story building. Whereas Marvel Studios builds Phases and Sagas around “big bads” such as Thanos, Kang and Doctor Doom, and weaves those characters and their stories into multiple projects, one goal of his at DC Studios is to make sure that each new DCU project can be enjoyed on its own merits.

    These are interconnected stories but people are always going to be [saying], ‘Who’s the big bad?’,” Gunn explained to Josh Horowitz. “Are there big bads for connected films? Yes. But is this all about, ‘Hey, I’m telling this one story about this big bad’? No.”

    This is about a connected universe. We’re world building. We’re not story building. We’re not writing one story that has a beginning, middle, and end. We’re creating a universe in which people can go and join into this universe and experience it. It is much more like Star Wars than Marvel in that respect.

    -James Gunn on the narrative structure of the DCU

    What Gunn‘s goal helps DC Studios accomplish is to open additional avenues for talented creators who have ideas for original stories that wouldn’t necessarily mesh with larger, universe-defining narratives. Mike Flanagan, the creator behind Netflix’s horror series The Haunting of Hill House and its subsequent follow-ups, reportedly pitched one such project to Gunn in 2023: a Clayface solo film. Recent reports indicated that the project was among those the studio was preparing to move forward with soon. Now, a trade report has confirmed the project was given the green light.

    According to Deadline and Variety, production on Flanagan’s Clayface film will get underway in early 2025. Though Flanagan wrote the script for the project, he will not direct it.

    Though Clayface will be produced by Matt Reeves‘ 6th & Idaho Productions, it is expected to be part of the main DCU continuity rather than Reeves’ more grounded and practical Batman Epic Crime Saga. The character is set to make his DCU debut soon in Creature Commandos.

    Flanagan‘s history with horror projects could mean Clayface will mix and match elements from various iterations of the character that have appeared in DC Comics over last 80+ years. With an official announcement reportedly imminent, perhaps Gunn will shed some light on the direction of the project.

    Sources: Deadline, Variety, YouTube

  • James Gunn Reveals What Will Set His ‘Superman’ Apart from Prior Efforts

    James Gunn Reveals What Will Set His ‘Superman’ Apart from Prior Efforts

    With Creature Commandos having made its debut on Max, the all-new DCU is officially underway. As DC Studios’ co-CEO James Gunn has said, however, the animated series is designed to be an appetizer, a way “for people to just take a little nibble [of the all-new DCU] and see what it tastes like.” In that metaphor, the main course becomes Superman, written and directed by Gunn, which is set to hit theaters on July 11, 2025.

    To date, fans haven’t truly been able to get a good idea for the feel of the upcoming film but that’s all about to change with the debut of the film’s first teaser trailer expected before Christmas. Trailers for superhero films alwyas find themselves under intense scrutiny but it’s reasonable to assume that for a multitude of reasons, the first look at DC Studios’ Superman is facing a challenge worthy of the Man of Steel himself. With so many live-action iterations of the character already having made their way to screens big and small, everyone has a favorite Superman which means David Corenswet‘s version of Kal-El will be compared to all of them.

    To that end, Gunn, who has loved Superman since seeing Richard Donner‘s 1978 film in theaters, has smartly taken measures to set Corenswet’s Kal-El apart from those that came before him. In an interview with Josh Horowitz, Gunn has explained that the biggest difference is that his inspiration for the character came from DC Comics’ Silver Age, in which Superman was a nigh invulnerable powerhouse.

    I don’t think we’ve ever seen the big science fiction Silver Age Superman aspects that we have in our movie,” said Gunn. “We’ve never seen…you’ll see when the movie comes out, but we’ve never seen this specific part of Superman’s life.” It’s not entirely clear to what Gunn is referring in the second quote, however, the Silver Age Superman came to Earth as an older child complete with memories of Krypton and began a superhero career as Superboy during his time in Smallville making him a known quantity much earlier than Henry Cavill’s Snyderverse version.

    Whatever it is Gunn has planned for Superman, it’s clear that it will involve his comic book archenemy antagonizing him in a much different way than has been shown onscreen so far.

    I don’t think we’ve ever seen the Lex that [Nicolas Hoult] is,” explained Gunn.”Nic is imposing. You go, ‘Oh, fuck, poor Superman.’ That’s the thing we never see, not in film,” Gunn added. And, of course, he is not wrong. While Gene Hackman‘s Luthor may well be iconic, he was nowhere near as fully developed as many iterations of Lex have been in the comics, which seem to be serving as a waypoint for Hoult’s Luthor.

    “Sometimes in the comics you go, ‘Oh, Superman is fucked because Lex is so smart and so good at what he’s doing’,” said Gunn, ” but in the movies, you’re going, ‘Lex is about to get fucked.’” From what we’ve seen from set photos, it does indeed seem that Luthor will gain a significant advantage over Kal-El in Superman.

    Source: YouTube

  • REVIEW: ‘Creature Commandos’

    REVIEW: ‘Creature Commandos’

    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.

  • The Ultimate List of What to Watch Before ‘Creature Commandos’

    The Ultimate List of What to Watch Before ‘Creature Commandos’

    The all-new DCU kicks off on December 5th when DC Studios’ animated streaming series, Creature Commandos, debuts on Max with a two-episode premiere. Created by DC Studios’ co-chair James Gunn, the series tracks a secret team of incarcerated monsters recruited for missions deemed too dangerous for humans. 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. 

    Even though it’s the first project of the new DCU, recent comments by Gunn have made it clear that a pair of projects he created and directed prior to the birth of DC Studios are also canon to the new continuity…at least kind of.

    “I think of [The] Suicide Squad and Peacemaker as pretty unreliable memories of what happened in the DCU.”

    Well, it’s whatever we mention in anything,” said Gunn while explaining what events from his DCEU projects should be considered canon to the DCU. “Listen, Peacemaker is pretty easy. Peacemaker season 1 is basically canon outside of the appearance of the Justice League at the end, which you’ll see something about that in Peacemaker season 2. [The] Suicide Squad is probably a little bit looser. We know that Rick Flag Sr. is angry because his son was killed by Peacemaker, so we know that situation happened in the past, we have something to refer to to think of what it might be like that that happened, but that exists as canon because it was mentioned in Creature Commandos, not necessarily because it existed in [The] Suicide Squad.”

    Though it may be a bit confusing, certainly nobody has thought about it more than Gunn and we’re willing to roll with the looseness for now. To that end, it sounds as though there’s a little homework to do before jumping into Creature Commandos. Even though the two-episode premiere is just a week away, you still have time to prepare by checking out the projects included in THE ULTIMATE LIST OF WHAT TO WATCH BEFORE CREATURE COMMANDOS!

    Tier One

    Tier One projects are the bare minimum, non-negotiable prep you’ll need to do to fully enjoy the latest, greatest project you’re going to watch. In this case, there are none of those.

    Tier Two

    The Suicide Squad (2021)

    Gunn’s first project for Warner Bros. Discovery, The Suicide Squad was released simultaneously in theaters and on HBO in 2021 while theaters were still bouncing back from the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s unfortunate that more people didn’t see it in theaters, or at all, because it’s a damn good movie despite working with a roster of characters most people hadn’t heard of before the film came out and probably still don’t know.

    As Gunn pointed out, Frank Grillo‘s Rick Flag Sr. has a massive chip on his shoulder as a result of the events in this film. There are also plenty of other references to The Suicide Squad in Creature Commandos and at least one other member of the squad may make a surprise appearance at some point. However, there’s enough exposition in Creature Commandos to help catch up the uninitiated which means The Suicide Squad is not a must watch…just a should watch.

    Peacemaker, Season 1 (2022)

    Spinning out of the events of The Suicide Squad, Season 1 of Peacemaker picks up right where the film left off. Recovering from injuries that should have killed him, John Cena‘s Christopher Smith finds himself working against his will for Amanda Waller’s A.R.G.U.S.. While the series will be (mostly) canon to the DCU, it’s hardly required viewing to enjoy and understand Creature Commandos. Outside of a brief appearance by series regular John Economos, voiced by Steve Agee, and a reference or two to the events of Season 1, Peacemaker is really just going to help you understand Amanda Waller a bit more and why A.R.G.U.S. is in the position it’s in.

    Source: Collider

  • James Gunn Addresses DC Studios’ Delayed ‘The Brave and the Bold’

    James Gunn Addresses DC Studios’ Delayed ‘The Brave and the Bold’

    Leading off an ambitious effort to create an ongoing shared cinematic universe with an animated series about a group of monsters that are certainly not anyone’s favorite DC Comics characters proves that DC Studios will not be fully dependent on DC’s Trinity. However, as Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman go, so too, ultimately, will the DCU. And to that end, DC Studio’s co-CEOs, James Gunn and Peter Safran, also made sure to include projects featuring Superman and Batman and one that at the very least is adjacent to Wonder Woman when they revealed 10 of the projects that will be part of the first wave of DC Studio’s new era of storytelling.

    Nearly two years after rolling out a peek at Chapter One: Gods and Monsters, things seem to be moving along smoothly. Creature Commandos will debut on December 5th, Superman will hit theaters next summer and both Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow and the HBO streaming series Lanterns are set to kick off production in early 2025. However, despite reportedly having landed a director in Andy Muschetti, development on the studio’s Batman and Robin vehicle, The Brave and the Bold, remains static. Recently, Gunn has made it clear that the 10 projects he and Safran revealed were not necessarily the first 10 that fans would see, explaining that the slate is far more fluid and flexible and that projects that were not announced are far closer to beginning production than some of those that were. In an interview with Collider, Gunn took the time to give deeper insight into the studio’s process behind the scenes, explaining why cameras won’t be rolling on The Brave and the Bold any time soon.

    There’s no set timeline for anything,” said Gunn when asked when The Brave and the Bold might hit theaters. “The one thing that I’ve tried to make clear to people from the beginning, and the way that I hope we’re different, is that everything in DC is gonna be based on the writers. Until we have a screenplay that I’m totally happy with, that movie is not going to get made, no matter what it is.” One doesn’t have to be an expert at reading between the lines to understand why Bruce and Damian Wayne swinging into theaters together in 2025.

    Gunn went on to explain that a pair of projects, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow and Lanterns, were able to move ahead in the queue because their scripts, written by Ana Nogueira and the team of Tom King, Damon Lindelof and Chris Mundy, respectively, came together quickly and wowed him. “We have been really fortunate with some screenplays,” Gunn explained. “Supergirl came in, and just, wow, Ana did such an amazing job. The Lanterns pilot came in, and now the whole Lantern series came in, and it’s like, ‘Wow, that’s wonderful, wonderful work.’”

    While The Brave and the Bold was never given a release date, its inclusion in the initial slate reveal did give the impression that it would be making its way into theaters relatively quickly. As projects from the initial slate and others like Luca Guadagnino‘s Sgt. Rock, which DC Studios has not officially announced, start to move toward casting and production, the perception is that The Brave and the Bold might be in trouble; however, without naming any specific projects, Gunn reiterated that the reason some move ahead and other don’t is simply because the scripts aren’t where he believes they need to be to make a good film. “There are a couple of other things that people don’t know about. There are a couple of movies and TV shows that are green-lit or near-green-lit,” teased Gunn. “But it’s going to be based, always, on the story because, at the end of the day, if we’re happy with the story that we’re telling, that’s what matters most. And once Brave and the Bold gets to that point, then we’ll make the movie. That’s really all it is.

    Source: Collider

  • DC Studios Streaming Project Gets Frustrating Update

    DC Studios Streaming Project Gets Frustrating Update

    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.

    Perhaps the best example of how quickly even the best laid plans can change is the Viola Davis-led streaming series, Waller. Originally announced as the project set to follow Creature Commandos and planned to take place between Seasons 1 and 2 of Peacemaker, progress on Waller was slowed significantly in 2023 by a pair of protracted work stoppages in Hollywood. As a result, Season 2 of Peacemaker, which recently completed principal photography, jumped up in line while work continued on Waller.

    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.

    Source: Screen Rant

  • James Gunn Adds Two Previous DC Projects to the New DCU Timeline, Confusing Dozens

    James Gunn Adds Two Previous DC Projects to the New DCU Timeline, Confusing Dozens

    Before it even begins, the new DCU is causing confusion among fans. Set to kick off on December 5th with the animated Max streaming series Creature Commandos, DC Studios’ new attempt to bring the characters and stories of DC Comics to life already has quite a few projects lined up for fans over the next few years. However, according to DC Studios’ co-chair James Gunn, a pair of projects that were relased prior to the creation of the studio should be considered canon, too…kind of…for the most part.

    In an interview with IGN, Gunn muddied the timeline waters of the all-new DCU by explaining that the events of a pair of projects he created will be considered canon to the new connected universe.

    Now in Creature Commandos, you’ll hear them talk about things that happened in [The] Suicide Squad or Peacemaker,” shared Gunn. “Well then, those things automatically become canon.”

    Released in 2021, The Suicide Squad introduced John Cena‘s Peacemaker to fans as part of a second team of degenerates sent by Amanda Waller to Corto Maltese. The events of The Suicide Squad, including the death of Rick Flag at the hands of Peacemaker, serve as the set up for Season 1 of Peacemaker, an HBO streaming series that debuted in 2022 and saw Cena return as the offbeat character. With Amanda Waller, who was featured in both projects, and Rick Flag’s father both appearing in Creature Commandos, and again in Season 2 of Peacemaker, a clear line of continuity can be established from one project to the next. Until it can’t.

    As it turns out, not ALL of the events of Season 1 of Peacemaker are to be considered canon to the new DCU, which hasn’t started yet but did start in 2021 with The Suicide Squad. “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,” said Gunn of the shadowy appearance of the Snyderverse’s team of heroes.

    Given Gunn’s creativity and the time he’s had to solve the issue of decanonizing a scene he wrote, explaining away the Justice League shouldn’t be much of a problem…at least until it happens.

    Creature Commandos kicks off the all-new DCU–or does it?–on December 5th while Season 2 of Peacemaker will begin streaming in August 2025.

    Source: IGN