The original slate for James Gunn's DCU was released to the public in a video in January 2023. In that video, Gunn himself gave a very minimal synopsis on each of the announced projects, which told of a very expansive list of various movies and TV shows of varying genres and characters. However, a little over a month ago, Gunn and Peter Safran gave an update on the future state of the DCU, with little or no news on most of the projects announced in that initial video update.
So what's the deal? Is Gunn's DCU in trouble before it even begins? Let's find out!
1. What projects were in the original DCU slate?
James Gunn's initial announcement of his planned slate was titled Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters, which included 11 projects: 5 movies and 6 TV shows. The five movies were Superman, The Authority, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, The Brave and the Bold, and Swamp Thing. The remaining tv show projects are as follows: Creature Commandos, Paradise Lost, Peacemaker season 2, Booster Gold, Lanterns, and Waller.
Gunn himself said in that announcement video that there would be more projects revealed in the future than the ones shown in the video. So, which projects are still a go and which ones have been left behind?
2. Recent updates on state of DCU projects
Right off the bat, we all know that Gunn's Superman movie is coming at us this July, surrounded by both hype and trepidation from fans. Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow is currently shooting with a release date of next year, Lanterns is also being shot with a release window of early to mid-2026, and Peacemaker season 2 is coming at us in August of this year. That's all the projects from that 2023 announcement video that are still in active development or being released very soon, but what about the rest of the slate?
Unfortunately, the rest of the slate has received little to no new updates, with some possibly being shelved for the time being.
Booster Gold is still in active development, with Gunn stating that it's "going pretty strong," but again, no release has been disclosed for this show.
Now, on to the bad news. Waller has been seemingly stalled, with Gunn himself stating, "Waller has had a couple of, you know, setbacks, frankly".
The Authority movie has been in limbo for some time, with the script constantly changing from draft to draft without any of the higher-ups being satisfied with the story direction. There were even rumors stating that the film could go from live action to animated, but nothing has been confirmed or denied by Gunn or anyone else at DC Studios, so the fate of this project is still up in the air.
This bit of news, or lack thereof, has me especially disappointed, because the James Mangold Swamp Thing movie could be substantially delayed, due in large part to Mangold himself. The director focused his efforts on making the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, as well as being one of the directors making a Star Wars feature film in the near future, so his priorties were on and contine to be on other projects other than Swamp Thing. Out of all the original projects, this was the one I was looking forward to the most, and the delayed state of this film has made me very sad.
While many of the original announced projects have received little to no updates, there have been plenty of new projects that have been announced that have me and many fans excited.
On the animated side of things, three shows were unveiled as being that of Starfire (focusing on the iconic alien member of the Teen Titans before coming to Earth), Super Powers (centered around younger versions of various DC heroes under the tutelage of Martian Manhunter), and My Adventures with Green Lantern (a spin off of the show My Adventures with Superman). No release date for any of these shows has been announced.
There has been a lot of movie news, so buckle up everyone!
A Teen Titans movie is in the works, with a script by Ana Nogueira, the writer of the Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow film, but the film is in the very early stages with no release date set.
DC Studios is heading to the World War II era with Sgt. Rock confirmed as being in active development, with an unknown release date.
A stop motion animated feature titled Dynamic Duo is also in development, focusing on the budding relationship between Dick Grayson and Jason Todd.
The remaining two projects I've already covered on this site, and those are the Clayface and the Bane and Deathstroke films. Clayface is still set to premiere next fall, and the Bane and Deathstroke movie is still being developed with no release date.
Whew! That was a lot to get through!
3. What does this mean for future of the DCU?
When I initially heard all this news, I was both excited and very disappointed. I'm stoked for the new projects that were announced, but I'm still wary of the status of the original projects announced in the DCU, particularly Swamp Thing. I think it's way too early to hit the panic button, but I'd be wary of the next bits of news to come at us in the future. Hopefully, most of it is good news. Fingers crossed!