DC Studios projects always seem to be in a state of constant flux. It's like an on-and-off relationship that we're all a part of—watching Justice League and Suicide Squad get remade and repackaged as if we hadn't already experienced the same failures that led us here before. It's a shame! DC Comics possesses one of the most well-known rosters of superheroes outside of Marvel. Yet, it feels like they're just flinging their heroes at us like spaghetti to the wall, trying to see what sticks.
It seems like all of this could change, now that Warner Bros. is willing to finally make some major changes. James Gunn, the director of The Suicide Squad and Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, will become the next head of DC Studios at Warner Bros. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Peter Safran, the producer behind Aquaman and Shazam!, will also serve as co-chair under the new Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav.
With DC Studios's current film slate, however, the effects of James Gunn's appointment may not be felt until early 2025 at the earliest. DC Studios is not only overloaded with conflicting IPs, but also a real hesitation to move on. There are currently three (!) separate Batman actors, two films called Suicide Squad, and a semi-canceled actor in Ezra Miller, who is still set to star in 2023's The Flash. DC's upcoming schedule through late 2024 also includes, *deep breath*: Joker: Folie a Deux, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, and Shazam!: Fury of the Gods, not to mention a host of Matt Reeves and Robert Pattinson's The Batman stories, a third Wonder Woman film, and the return of Henry Cavill as Superman.
When Kevin Feige took the reins at Marvel in the late 2000s, he was able to completely start anew with Iron Man. Ushering in what would become the MCU, Feige had Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) begin recruiting heroes after they were introduced in their own films to later star in The Avengers. There are ways to make James Gunn the Kevin Feige for DC Studios, but only if Warner Bros. is also willing to move on and start anew. Black Adam technically could have marked a noticeable shift—and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson clearly wanted it to—but DC haphazardly intertwined his story with prior films.
Instead, all future projects greenlit by Gunn and Safran will exist in the newly formed "DC Universe (DCU)," according to Warner Bros., while everything else will belong in the previous DC Extended Universe (DCEU). Confusing! It's unknown if there will be any crossover between Gunn's current DC projects, because he already has his hands on a potential The Suicide Squad sequel, the second season of Peacemaker for HBO, and potentially Man of Steel 2. Warner Bros. also announced that plans for a Green Lantern TV series would enter major redevelopments. Par for the course at Warner Bros., both the writer and the showrunner for Green Lantern left after "weathering a number of regime changes at HBO Max," THR reported.
The upside in all this uncertainty and chaos is that if DC and Gunn can successfully pull off a clean reboot of their superhero universe, their major projects should arrive around 2025-2026, just as Marvel is wrapping up their Phase 6 Avengers films. In that lull, Warner Bros. may finally be able to take the upper hand. Don't go buying your "James Gunn Just Saved the Movies" merch just yet, though. If fans have come to learn anything about DC Studios, it's that big projects have a tough time before even seeing the light of day.
Josh Rosenberg is an Assistant Editor at Esquire, keeping a steady diet of one movie a day. His past work can be found at Spin, CBR, and on his personal blog at Roseandblog.com.
