Well, DC Studios co-chief James Gunn promised that the new DC slate that he and his partner Peter Safran came up with would be announced before the end of January, and on the last day of the month, down to the wire, Gunn has made good on that promise. Today, Gunn, Safran, and Warner Bros. Discovery revealed the upcoming slate of DC Studios projects, and it’s a whopping ten projects total and very few, if any sequels from the current DC Universe. All of these projects will be set after the events of summer 2023’s “The Flash”—which is rumored to use time travel to reset most of the universe so Gunn and Safran can start from scratch and, from the looks of it, won’t be a full reboot of the main franchise, but a pretty substantial one.
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Instead of Marvel’s phases, DC is going to do chapters, and this first chapter is titled “Gods and Monsters.” All in all, it’s seven movies long and three series. The film side is led by the Gunn-penned Superman reboot film now called “Superman: Legacy.” What’s more, the film has been dated for July 11, 2025. Details on it are vague, but we know it will focus on a younger Superman and Clark Kent making his way through the Daily Planet (Henry Cavill was essentially let go as Superman in late 2023). The film will focus on Superman balancing his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing.
DC Studios will also be making a “Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow” film, but it’s unclear if Sasha Calle, who was cast as the character in the aforementioned ‘Flash’ film, will play the character. WB says this “science fiction adventure, which will be based on Tom King’s amazing, award-winning recent comics stories, presents a Supergirl viewers are not used to seeing.”
In a move that speaks to reboots, WB also announced “The Brave and the Bold,” a Batman film that will center on Batman and Damian Wayne, a version of Robin who is the son of Bruce Wayne and Talia al Ghul, and thus the grandson of Batman villain Ra’s al Ghul. This version of Batman would obviously not be the same one as Ben Affleck’s Batman, nor would it have much space for Michael Keaton’s Batman (yet another actor appearing in “The Flash,” which lends lots of credibility to the idea that both actors will be gone after that film, and Affleck had already said this was his character’s goodbye anyhow). WB confirms as much and says, “the DCU will introduce its Batman and Robin in this unusual father-son story inspired by Grant Morrison’s comic series.”
“Paradise Lost” will be a “Game of Thrones”-esque series set in Themyscira, the Amazonian land where Wonder Woman and all her warrior sisters come from. There’s no word if Gal Gadot will be involved, but a lot of rumors point to her exiting the role.
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“Booster Gold” will be another new film title. The character, Michael Jon Carter, is a member of the Justice League in certain incarnations, but it’s also one of the more interesting DC characters as he’s built on a lie and comes from disgrace. The original comic storyline features Carter as a shamed and discredited athlete from the future who lost games purposefully for money. He essentially steals items from a superhero museum and goes back to the present-day time in an attempt to start over and find personal redemption, but eventually, his secret is revealed.
“Creature Commandos” will be an animated DC Film that definitely falls under the Monsters side of “Gods and Monsters.” First appearing in “Weird War Tales” #93 in 1980, the team was composed of a human team leader, a werewolf, a vampire, a Frankenstein’s monster, and a gorgon.
Reported months ago, but finally confirmed Viola Davis will star in her own series based on her “The Suicide Squad” spin-off character Amanda Waller, the leader of the clandestine Task Force X, titled “Waller.” Davis as Waller is the only character from the current DCEU listed in the new DC slate. More on that in a second.
“Lanterns” is going forward as a series, but it won’t be the Greg Berlanti version of the “Green Lantern” series, he of The CW side of DC. Berlanti had been developing his own “Green Lantern” series, which even cast a couple of actors in the lead roles, but the super producer recently signed a big mega-deal at Warner Bros., that was rumored to be part of his compensation for being edged out of the DC Universe in favor of Gunn.
“The Authority” is another film that Gunn and Safran announced. Created by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch in 1999, “The Authority” is a team of superheroes who got the job done by any means necessary. The team was like a hardcore version of The Justice League, and or a Suicide Squad-esque team with Justice League-level powers. The team often faced real-world global threats instead of traditional villains and even had a bio-engineered Superman pastiche and a bio-engineered Batman pastiche who possessed the ability to foresee his opponents’ moves in combat. The Superman and Batman analog characters are also romantically linked, in a fun subversion of the archetypes.
Lastly, again in the monsters realm of things, Warner Bros announced a “Swamp Thing,” film, a humanoid/plant elemental creature character who had roots in both the supernatural and horror genre. Wes Craven directed the first “Swamp Thing” film in 1982, but it was mostly a campy, cheapo horror that did well on home video. There was also a recent “Swamp Thing” series on the now-defunct DC Universe streaming service. However, that was canceled when the streamer went away.
No other details were given, but again, your first real giveaway about it all is that this new DC slate does not include “Wonder Woman 3,” “The Flash 2,” “Aquaman 3,” another “Shazam!” or any of the characters from the current DC Universe other than Waller who is connected to “The Suicide Squad.” That’s not to say we may not see them again, but a 10-project slate like this one could go on for several years and really does suggest that “The Flash” film will do what many expect it to: act as an excuse to reset most of the current DC Universe and start anew.
Surprisingly not on the slate was a second season of Gunn’s successful “Peacemaker” series, and maybe that one will just have to wait a little bit. Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn is another question mark. She’s one of the most popular actresses on the planet, but it’s unclear if she’ll be staying in the role or not.
Safe from reboot status and still in the works is Matt Reeves’ ‘Batman’ universe—a sequel was dated, more details here—and Todd Phillips’ “Joker” franchise (a sequel arrives in the fall of 2024). When more details are released, we’ll have more stories.