It’s James Gunn! It’s the DC slate! It’s a new Superman Movie!
The DC universe just got a whole lot bigger. On Monday January 30th, James Gunn and Peter Safran, who were named co-CEOs of of the newly created DC Studios within Warner Bros presented what they said was the first part of Chapter 1 of the DCU, which they are calling “Gods and Monsters” to the press.
The two revealed the first 10 projects in the first part of a two-chapter, 8-10 year overarching storyline which included both movies and shows, sequels and originals, which include include Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman as well as lesser known characters. “The DCU exists as a multiverse,” said Saffran, “DC Studios is unprecedented. It is a standalone production entity and studio. It is the first time ever that everything DC related — film, television, live-action, animation, gaming — is all centralized under one creative vision, that of James and myself.”
Although DC Studios is still in it’s very early stages the underlying story throughout the DCU would still be somewhat connected, Gunn brought together writers who have previously worked on DC and Marvel projects such as Drew Goddard (“The Martian”), Jeremy Slater (“Moon Knight”), Christina Hobson (“The Flash,” “Batgirl”), Christal Henry (“Watchmen”) and comics writer Tom King (“Batman,” “Mister Miracle”). “We sat down in a room for a few days and we started to bash out what the basic overall plan could be,” Gunn said. “Not so much that it ties your wrists, but enough that we know what the basic story is, where we’re going. And it’s something that we’ll continue to do.”
The plan is to release roughly two films and two TV series per year into the DCU, and it officially kicks off July 11, 2025 with Superman: Legacy. The movie will draw heavy inspiration from one of the most acclaimed Superman comic books of the character’s lengthy history: All-Star Superman from Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. The 12-issue maxi-series follows a dying Superman who has been overexposed to the Sun. As such, the character carries out whatever heroic feats he can before dying.
Courtesy of DC Studios
Now as Superman fans know, these past few months have been an emotional rollercoaster, with Henry Cavill returning to play Superman and then leaving the role after Gunn and Saffran revamped DC to DC Studios with the plans to take the Man of Steel in a different direction than the former team at Warner Brothers, and now with a new Superman movie coming up, James Gunn made it very clear that Henry Cavill would not be returning for this film. “Peter & I have a DC slate ready to go, which we couldn’t be more over-the-moon about; we’ll be able to share some exciting information about our first projects at the beginning of the new year,” Said Gunn. “Among those on the slate is Superman. In the initial stages, our story will be focusing on an earlier part of Superman’s life, so the character will not be played by Henry Cavill. But we just had a great meeting with Henry and we’re big fans and we talked about a number of exciting possibilities to work together in the future.”
Although “Commandos” and “Waller” will be out first, “Superman Legacy” will be considered the official start of the DCU, but it’s important to remember, this will not be an origin story. Superman is going to be a vital part of the new DCU moving forward. So what will the film be about? “It focuses on Superman balancing his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing. “Superman represents truth, justice and the American way.” Says Saffran “He is kindness in a world that thinks of kindness as old fashioned.”
“Our stories in general… we want to take it away from good guy versus bad guy,” Gunn added. “There’s really, really almost saintly people. Superman is among them. There are really terrible villains like, you know, Gorilla Grodd, Joker, and then there’s everybody in between. And so there are all these shades of gray of these different types of characters, which allows us to tell more complex stories.”
Though the cape has yet to be cast we do know that Gunn vowed to hire a younger actor for the part, and the studio will be launching a casting search for the next Clark Kent.
While it’s great to see that DC Studios does have a plan for Superman in the near future, it’s even more of a releif to know that Gunn is writing the movie’s script considering the sucess of his his films like “Guardians of The Galaxy” and his show “Peacemaker”. Gunn is writing the project, and Safran said he hopes Gunn “can be persuaded, perhaps, to direct it as well.” Gunn is sticking to his promise that Superman is a huge priority for DC Studios, if not the biggest.
Fangirl and Writer with a huge passion for entertainment.
