Bosses at DC Studios, including James Gunn and Peter Safran, have shared ten projects for the new DC Slate. “The stakes are massive for Warner Bros. Discovery and for us,” says Safran.
The new DC Slate has been revealed from the producer’s studio, including a new Batman movie that won’t feature Robert Pattinson (but WILL feature Bruce Wayne’s murderous son), and a Superman movie coming in July 2025.
Also announced was a Game of Thrones-style drama set on Wonder Woman’s home island of Themyscira and an animated series called Creature Commandos that is already in production.
James Gunn and Peter Safran have been busy in the three months since taking over and joining the film and TV slate of DC projects, including live-action, animation, and gaming.
The pair have revamped how the film and TV sides do business, cutting ties with projects and creators. A writers’ room was also formed to find an overall story to launch a unified DC Universe.
Today (January 31st 2023), Gunn and Safran unveiled a slate combining big and known heroes and lesser-known characters. The hope is that some will become big, like Gunn’s former Guardians of the Galaxy, which he made for Marvel Studios.
READ MORE: Can James Gunn reunite the DC Extended Universe?
“One of our strategies is to take our diamond characters, which is Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and we use them to prop up other characters that people don’t know,” explained Gunn.
And continued Safran, “To build those lesser known properties into the diamond properties of tomorrow.”
While plans may yet shift, cautioned the duo, here is an initial slate of Chapter 1 in the order they hope it will appear.
Creature Commandos is an animated seven-episode series written by Gunn and already in production. Originally a team of classic monsters assembled to fight Nazis, this is a modern take on the concept. The voice actors have yet to be cast, but execs are looking to find people who can voice the animated characters and also portray the live-action versions when the anti-heroes show up in films and TV series.
Waller is a spin-off of Gunn’s own HBO Max hit series, Peacemaker. Viola Davis will return as a government task force’s ruthless and morally ambiguous head. It is being written by Christal Henry (Watchmen) and Jeremy Carver, the creator of the Doom Patrol TV series.
Superman: Legacy is a film starring the Man of Steel that Gunn is writing and may direct, although no commitments on that end have been made. While the two previous titles are meant to be “aperatifs,” in Safran’s words, Superman is the true kick-off for the duo’s DCU plans. “It’s not an origin story,” Safran said. “It focuses on Superman balancing his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing. He is the embodiment of truth, justice and the American way. He is kind in a world that thinks that kindness is old-fashioned.” A release date of July 11, 2025, has been pencilled in.
Lanterns is Greg Berlanti’s long-in-the-works Green Lanterns TV show which has been scrapped, and the duo have parted ways with the longtime DC series steward. In its place will be a new take on the space cops with power rings. “Our vision for this is very much in the vein of True Detective,” Safran described. “It’s terrestrial-based.” It will feature prominent Lantern heroes Hal Jordan and John Stewart and is one of the most essential shows they have in development. “This plays a really big role in leading into the main story we are telling across film and TV.”
The Authority: a movie based on a team of superheroes with rather extreme methods of protecting the planet that first originated in the late 1990s under an influential imprint known as Wildstorm, run by artist and now head of DC publishing, Jim Lee. “One of the things of the DCU is that it’s not just a story of heroes and villains,” said Gunn. “Not every film and TV show is going to be about the good guy vs the bad guy; giant things from the sky comes and good guy wins. There are white hats, black hats and grey hats.” Added Safran: “They are kinda like Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men. They know that you want them on the wall. Or at least they believe that.”
Paradise Lost: The duo describe this HBO Max series as a Game of Thrones-style drama set on the all-female island of Wonder Woman’s birthplace, Themyscira, filled with political intrigue and scheming between power players. It takes place before the events of the Wonder Woman films.
The Brave and the Bold: “This is the introduction of the DCU Batman,” said Gunn. “Of Bruce Wayne and also introduces our favourite Robin, Damian Wayne, who is a little son of a bitch.” 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. “It’s a very strange father-and-son story.”
The Batman sequel: Pattinson will continue to portray the Dark Knight in at least one more crime saga movie directed by Matt Reeves. The executives revealed that the movie will be released on October 3, 2025, and is titled The Batman Part II.
“2025 is going to be a very big year for DC,” crowed Safran. “Superman and Batman within the same year.”
Booster Gold: an HBO Max series based on a unique and lower-tiered hero created in 1986. Safran said of the series, “It’s about a loser from the future who uses basic future technology to come back to today and pretend to be a superhero.” Gunn described it as “imposter syndrome as a superhero.”
Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow: Taking its cues from the recent Tom King-written mini-series, this movie project promises to have a different take than what most think of when the idea of Superman’s cousin comes to mind. “We will see the difference between Superman, who was sent to Earth and raised by loving parents from the time he was an infant, versus Supergirl, raised on a rock, a chip off of Krypton, and who watched everyone around her die and be killed in terrible ways for the first 14 years of her life and then come to Earth. She is much more hardcore than the Supergirl we’re used to.”
Swamp Thing: a horror film that promises to close out the first part of the first chapter.
