James Gunn’s DCU Canceled

A popular online joke asks what James Gunn’s first three movies would have been if he had been in charge of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

One answer shared on Reddit four months ago captures what I see as the problem with Gunn’s vision for the DC Universe. The first movie is still Iron Man, a strong start like Gunn’s Superman. The second is Ironheart, a spinoff about a less popular character, like Supergirl. The third is Venom, a villain spinoff without a superhero, like Clayface. In hindsight, the joke gets at what went wrong with the DCU.

News broke on Monday, Nov. 9, that DC Studios co-CEOs Gunn and Peter Safran would be stepping down, with former Marvel executive Jeremy Latcham taking over as sole leader of the Skydance Media division. It remains unclear whether Latcham will reboot the DC movie franchise again. Gunn said on Threads that he still plans to complete and release his Superman follow-up, Man of Tomorrow, and teased another unannounced DCU film.

I’m still excited for Man of Tomorrow, but it’s hard to see a clear plan with momentum behind it. From Clayface and Supergirl to Peacemaker and Lanterns, Gunn seemed to be choosing whatever sounded exciting and different from Marvel. The DCU also needed to hold together, and it never really reached that point. Rest in peace, “Chapter 1: Gods & Monsters.”

Could putting the franchise in the hands of a Marvel business executive be any worse than letting Gunn continue without a clear direction?

James Gunn’s DCU track record so far

Aside from one solid hit with Superman, Gunn’s DCU has mostly struggled in theaters. Supergirl showed how difficult it can be to turn a lesser-known superhero into a box office hit. Director Craig Gillespie’s half-hearted attempt to imitate Gunn’s style also exposed a drawback of putting an auteur at the top of a film studio.

Clayface earned mixed reviews and showed how jumbled the franchise had already become. It raised more questions than it answered about whether characters like Batman and the Joker exist in the DCU. Gunn responded by announcing a podcast designed to explain which parts of his The Suicide Squad were canon, hardly a reassuring sign for a cinematic universe.

On television, it seems most people skipped Creature Commandos or quickly forgot about it. Peacemaker was great, but it always felt more like a passion project for Gunn than the future of the DCU. Lanterns may be the best live-action DC project since 2022’s The Batman. Still, Gunn’s limited involvement and the uncertainty around a second-season renewal make it look more like a fluke than a sign of things to come.

Even by a generous count, that leaves Gunn with two wins out of six projects. It’s a weak start for a major franchise.

James Gunn’s vision for the DCU’s future

The planned future of the DCU under Gunn and Safran, who appeared to handle more of the business side of their partnership, looked even shakier. Beyond Man of Tomorrow, the only confirmed movie in development was Dynamic Duo, an animated and puppet film about two Robins. It sounds like fun, though its comedic approach seems an odd fit for building a cinematic universe.

Other expected projects include a Mister Miracle animated series from Lanterns co-creator Tom King, a Jimmy Olsen spinoff series from the creators of Netflix’s American Vandal, and a second season of Creature Commandos. They’re appealing ideas, but they feel more like side projects than franchise builders.

Gunn and his colleagues also publicly floated other ideas in development, including the long-promised Batman: The Brave and the Bold, a Wonder Woman movie and a Bane and Deathstroke team-up movie. Those ideas seem more promising, but they appear far enough from reality that it’s hard to know whether they would ever have happened as Gunn described them. On the Suicide Squad podcast, Gunn said he was close to casting his version of Bruce Wayne. It’s now unclear whether audiences will ever see that version.

Greenlighting projects across genres based on personal taste could produce a fun slate. But it’s a different approach from building an interconnected cinematic universe that draws devoted fans to each movie. Marvel planned its first few arcs carefully, adding characters while building toward Thanos over almost a decade. That achievement may have depended on countless factors outside Marvel’s control, but even the MCU’s messy lead-up to Avengers: Doomsday feels meticulously plotted compared with Gunn’s DCU.

Maybe Gunn and Safran could have turned things around with more time. Or perhaps they were more interested in making a handful of movies and TV shows they liked. Either way, as a longtime fan of Gunn’s movies, I reluctantly think the end of his DCU is for the best.

At least we can still see what Gunn planned for Man of Tomorrow.

Source: Polygon