James Gunn is actively working on the development of Gods & Monster, the first phase of the new DCU, which will include the debut of a new Man of Steel in Superman: Legacy.
But the return of Clark Kent to the big screen will not be the only project in the franchise, which seeks to build a connected universe like Marvel Studios did. And it seems that the connections will be present from the very first moment.
As informed by The Hollywood Reporter, the members of The Authority, another of the films that Gunn is developing for the DCU, will be part of the new Superman movie.
In fact, when Gunn and Safran announced the first batch of projects that would be part of Gods & Monsters earlier this year, they detailed that Superman: Legacy would lead to The Authority, so it would make sense for them to be involved in some way in the story of the Last Son of Krypton.
The other confirmed movies for the first phase of the new DCU are Batman: The Brave and The Bold, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow and Swamp Thing. For the small screen, Gunn and his team are working on series center on Booster Gold, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman’s Amazons, Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller and Creature Commandos, which will be an animated show.
How Could Superman: Legacy and The Authority Connect?
First introduced in 1999, created by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch, The Authority comics were published under the Wildstorm imprint. It centers on a morally dubious group of heroes and anti-heroes who will do whatever it takes to maintain peace and order, even when it leads them to take extreme measures. An ethic that Superman does not share at all, and this could be an important point to unite them.
Just as it happened in Batman v Superman, the different ideologies of the protagonists lead them to confront each other, even when at the end of the day they were both looking for the same thing. Both The Authority and Kal-El want to keep the world safe, but their methods for doing it so are vastly different. So if they had a common enemy, a really big threat in front of them, it would be interesting to see how those different visions collide.
In fact, in 2021, the writer Grant Morrison and the artist Mikael Janin published Superman and The Authority, a four-part series that unites the Man of Steel with the team, although it was an alternate version of it.
For now, neither of the two projects, nor Superman: Legacy or The Authority have confirmed any member of their cast, but it is possible that some announcement related to the casting of the film written and directed by James Gunn will arrive in the next couple of months, since the new adventure of Superman is set to start shooting at the beginning of 2024.
Casting rumors related to Superman: Legacy are present everyday on social media, with names like David Corenswet or Nicholas Hoult as some of the favorite candidates to star in the movie.
