You can take a break from speculating about the future of DC Studios—at least for a little while. Today, new DC Studios heads James Gunn and Peter Safran announced the first lineup of projects they’ve got cooking, and it’s… a really mixed bag. Some big names (what they call “diamond characters”), some lesser-known folks from DC’s deep backlist, and some ideas that may leave you scratching your head.
According to Variety, Gunn built a writers room to design the overall narrative for this new take on the DCU, and it included Drew Goddard (Daredevil), Jeremy Slater (Moon Knight), Christina Hobson (The Flash), Christal Henry (Watchmen) and comics writer Tom King, whose Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow is one of the properties coming to a screen near you. No directors or actors are attached to these projects yet, with one exception that you’ll see below.
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This first chapter of the new DC is called Gods & Monsters, and here’s what it includes.
- An animated, Gunn-written Creature Commandos series that is in production but has not been cast.
- The Peacemaker (pictured above) spinoff Waller, starring Viola Davis, which was expected. Christal Henry (Watchmen) and Jeremy Carver (Doom Patrol) are writing the show.
- Superman: Legacy, the first flagship film of this chapter. This is the movie Gunn announced he was writing last month, and he may direct, but that isn’t definite. According to Safran, it is not another origin story, but “focuses on Superman balancing his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing.” This one has a release date: July 11, 2025.
- Lanterns, a series “in the vein of True Detective” which replaces the previously planned Greg Berlanti Green Lantern series. The Hollywood Reporter says, “the duo have parted ways with the longtime DC series steward,” which is a very short sentence that implies a pretty big change, given Berlanti’s role in DC’s TV success over the last decade. According to Safran, Lanterns “plays a really big role in leading into the main story we are telling across film and TV.”
- Paradise Lost: The “who asked for this” award might go to this HBO Max series, which is apparently (per THR) “a Game of Thrones-style drama” set on Themyscira. So much for Amazons working together in a loving and supportive community! Everyone knows women are catty and can’t get along! (I hope you read those last two sentences with the full layer of sarcasm with which they were written.)
- The Brave and the Bold, which will introduce both “the DCU Batman” (as opposed to the Pattinson Batman; more on him shortly) and the character Gunn refers to as “a little son of a bitch,” Damian Wayne. THR writes, “The movie will take inspiration from the now-classic Batman run written by Grant Morrison that introduced Batman to a son he never knew existed: a murderous tween raised by assassins.”
- Booster Gold, another HBO series based on a character from 1986, which Gunn called “imposter syndrome as superhero.”
- Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, from Tom King’s recent miniseries, will also be a movie.
- Swamp Thing, a horror film.
Lastly, a movie based on The Authority is in the works, a fact that would have thrilled me had it happened years ago, back when Jenny Sparks was still my Twitter header image. If you are not familiar with the ’90s superhero ensemble, Variety tactfully describes them as having “a less-than-idealistic approach to saving the world.” The series appeared on the Wildstorm imprint, and was created by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch.
But it’s an uncomfortable moment to be crowing about an adaptation of an Ellis property, given that for over two years, a group of people who describe themselves as having been “targeted and manipulated” by Ellis have been trying to work with him on “mediated transformative justice.” On January 19th, they wrote, “to the best of our knowledge, Warren Ellis took none of the steps we hoped he would. A mediated accountability process with Warren Ellis is not possible at present, and we do not anticipate our involvement in any progress he might make in the future.”
Along with announcing the new slate, Gunn and Safran spoke to journalists about the four coming-soon films in the DC lineup: Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Flash, Blue Beetle, and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Gunn called The Flash, “probably one of the greatest superhero movies ever made,” and Safran said that they are “fully supportive” of the film’s troubled star, Ezra Miller. Of a few other upcoming DC films, The Hollywood Reporter notes, “Though the duo are working in one DC Universe, some stories will stand apart. Reeves’ Batman movies and Todd Phillips’s sequel to the Joker will fall under a banner titled DC Elseworlds, which will, just as in the comics, fall outside the larger continuity of the DCU. The Black Superman project, being written by Ta-Nehisi Coates under the previous regime, remains in active development and would also fall under that category. ”
Reeves’ Batman sequel did get a release date and title: the creatively named The Batman Part II arrives Oct. 3, 2025.
