This morning, James Gunn, the new co-CEO of DC Studios, went to Twitter to lay out his plans for the DC Comics universe. He, with co-CEO Peter Safron, have been working together on ideas that will both reboot and unify the DCU over the next decade.
The Complete Transcript of James Gunn’s Announcement
Hey, everybody, I’m James Gunn. I’m the co-CEO of DC Studios.
So as many of you know, DC has been disconnected in film and television for a long time. Our jobs – mine and Peter’s – is to come in and make sure that DCU is connected in film, television, gaming and animation; that the characters are consistent, played by the same actors, and that it works in one story. And of something is outside of that, like Matt Reeve’s Batman, or Todd Phillips’ Joker, or Teen Titans Go, that it is clearly labeled as DC Elseworlds, outside of the mainstream DCU continuity.
Now, Peter and I have gotten pretty lucky in terms of the four projects that are coming out over the next year.
First we have Shazam: Fury of the Gods. Shazam has always been off kind of in his own part of the DCU, so he connects very well. That moves directly into The Flash, a fantastic movie that I really love, that resets the entire DC Universe.
Then, to move into Blue Beetle, a fantastic film about a kid who’s a marvelous part of the DCU, and then into Aquaman 2, which leads directly into our next few projects – which I’m going to tell you about now.
So Peter and I, along with a group of very talented writers, have started to map out an eight to ten year plan for what DC Studios will be in film, television and gaming.
This first chapter is called Gods and Monsters. Now this, what I’m about to tell you, is the part of the first chapter, it’s not the entire first chapter. The first project is Creature Commandos.
Creature Commandos is an animated series, I’ve written all the episodes, something we’re going to do that’s a little bit different in DC is we’re going to have characters move into animation, out of animation, usually having the same actor play their voice as who plays them in live action.
The next project up is Waller. This the story of Amanda Waller, played by Viola Davis. Viola Davis is going to team up with members Team Peacemaker, and this is a story created by Crystal Henry, who did Watchmen, and Jeremy Carver who created Doom Patrol. It is a fantastic story that is out of this world and I can’t wait for people to see it.
Okay, next up is the big one, the true beginning of the DCU. This is called Superman: Legacy. This is being written by me, I’m in the middle of it and I’m having a great time doing it, and Superman will be released in the theaters July 11, 2025.
Okay, the next thing is a big premiere HBO television series called Lanterns. This is the story of a couple of Green Lanterns, Jon Stewart and Hal Jordan, and we have a few other Lanterns peppered in there, but this is really a terrestrial based TV show which is almost like True Detective, with a couple of Green Lanterns who are space cops watching over Precinct Earth. In it, they discover a terrifying mystery that ties into our larger story of the DCU.
Next is a big movie called The Authority. The Authority is a passion project of mine. It’s based on the marvelous Wildstorm characters we are now bringing into the DCU, and will interact with all of our primary DCU characters. The Authority are a group of superheroes who think the world is broken and they want to fix it by any means necessary, and its a very different look at superheroes.
We’re doing a television series called Paradise Lost. Paradise Lost is the story of Paradise Island, usually known as Themascyra, which is the birthplace of Wonder Woman. It’s almost like Game of Thrones with Westeros, but with all the inhabitants of Paradise Island.
The introduction of the DCU’s Batman is The Brave and the Bold. The Brave and the Bold is the story of Batman and his actual son, Damien Wayne. This is based on Grant Morrison’s great comic book run. Damien Wayne is my favorite Robin. He’s a little assassin that Batman tries to get in line, so this is the story of the two of them, and the beginning of the Batman family story in the DCU.
Next up is a TV series called Booster Gold. Booster Gold is one of comics’ really popular cult heroes. He’s a fascinating guy. He’s a loser from the future who uses future technology to come back to the present day and become a superhero so that people will love him. It is basically the superhero story of imposter syndrome on an HBO Max series.
One of my favorite comic book series from last year was Tom King’s run on Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, so we’re going to turn that into a big science fiction epic film. Now, Superman is a guy who was sent to Earth and raised by loving parents, where Supergirl, in this story, she is a character that was raised on a chunk of Krypton. She has watched everybody around her perish in some terrible way, so she’s a much more jaded character.
That brings me to Swamp Thing. The last thing we’re going to talk about is a very dark horror story, the origins of the monster who is Swamp Thing. And though it’s totally outside of the rest of the DCU, it will still feed into the rest of the stories.
Anyway, those are the stories I can tell you about right now. I’v loved the DC characters since I was a child. They’re incredibly important to me. I knew that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do something very different. One of the things that’s very important for me in all of these movies and TV series is that the director’s vision, and the vision of the writers and all of the creators is unique and something special. Storytelling is always king; that’s all that matters to us. And I want to be true to those stories, and I want to be true to you guys, and really give you something different than you’ve never seen before.
Anyway, thank you everybody. I appreciate you watching. I hope this was exciting for you, because it’s really exciting for me, and I can’t wait to start to dive into these stories with you guys on this grand adventure. Thank you so much.
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