Hollywood 2023: DC Universe Announces New Film and TV Projects

There are titles based on DC heroes — including the Superman feature written by Gunn, now officially titled Superman: Legacy, Batman and Robin movie, Wonder Woman prequel series and a Green Lantern mystery series.

There are also titles featuring lesser-known characters, Booster Gold and Swamp Thing. The DCU exists as multiverse, Safran said, but the titles exist in one singular universe.

The slate represents the most robust vision for DC’s future in scripted entertainment since Warner Bros.’ first attempt in 2014 to build a universe to rival Marvel Studios.

Given that the DCU is still in its earliest stages, the execs were light on specifics: No directors have been attached (although they said they’re “very close” on signing at least a couple), and no actors are attached.

Viola Davis

The exception is Viola Davis, who will star in the HBO Max series Waller as the amoral, self-imposed superintendent of the DC universe, Amanda Waller. She originated the role in 2016’s Suicide Squad.

Safran and Gunn left the door open for Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa, Ezra Miller, and Zachary Levi to continue playing their respective DC superheroes of Wonder Woman, Aquaman, the Flash and Shazam.

But Gunn reiterated that Henry Cavill will not continue as Superman. Otherwise, they will be casting new actors in the roles.

To build the overarching story for the DCU, Gunn brought a writers room of Drew Goddard (“The Martian”), Jeremy Slater (“Moon Knight”), Christina Hobson (“The Flash,” “Batgirl”), Christal Henry (“Watchmen”) and comics writer Tom King (“Batman,” “Mister Miracle”). Some of these writers would continue working on DCU projects, including Henry, who is co-showrunning “Waller.”

The plan was to release roughly two films and two TV series per year into the DCU. That output will not, however, sacrifice quality to meet deadlines. Films and series will not go into production until scripts are finished, which is not the norm for pricey tentpoles that need to create awareness.

The slate announced on Monday will run through 2027.

Only “Superman: Legacy” and “The Batman Part II” have set release dates.

Here are details about the projects.

MOVIES

“Superman: Legacy”

Set to open on July 11, 2025, “Superman: Legacy” will mark “the start of the DCU,” but it will not be an origin story of the Man of Steel.

“It focuses on Superman balancing his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing,” Safran said. “He is the embodiment of truth, justice and the American way. He is kindness in a world that thinks of kindness as old-fashioned.”

Gunn is writing the project, and perhaps “can be persuaded, perhaps, to direct it as well.”

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav had said that rebooting Superman was top priority for the company as he spent much of 2022 searching for the right leaders for DC. Thus, Gunn and Safran are turning to the most recognizable superhero to lead the charge for the DCU.

“‘Superman’ is for everyone,” Gunn said. “That’s a four quadrant film that should speak to everyone in the world.”

“The Authority”

“Superman: Legacy” will lead directly into “The Authority,” ensemble movie about superhumans with less-than-idealistic approach to saving the world.

The characters come from Wildstorm, which was launched in 1992 as an independent entity under current DC Comics chief Jim Lee and ultimately made an imprint of DC. The Wildstorm characters were later folded into the main DC comics universe when the company rebooted its continuity with the New 52 initiative in 2011. Gunn and Safran intend to do the same with Wildstorm characters in the DCU.

As a comic, “The Authority” was created by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch as an ends-justify-the-means superhero team, approach that appealed to Gunn and Safran’s desire to diversify the storytelling within the DCU.

“It isn’t just a story of heroes and villains, and not every movie and TV show is going to be about good guy versus bad guy,” Gunn said. “There are people that are very questionable, like the Authority, who basically believe that you can’t fix the world in an easy manner, and they take things into their own hands.”

“They’re kind of like Jack Nicholson in ‘A Few Good Men.’ They know that you want them on the wall, or at least they believe that.”

Gunn said the film “is being written now,” but he declined to identify the screenwriter.

“The Brave and the Bold”

“The Brave and the Bold” will introduce the Bat family. First among them is Robin, who is returning to live-action movies for the first time since 1997’s ill-fated feature “Batman and Robin.”

This version of Robin is Damian Wayne; Gunn described him as “our favorite Robin,” “a little son of a bitch,” an “assassin” and a “murderer.”

Damian is Bruce Wayne’s biological son, a fact unknown to Wayne for the first 10 years of Damian’s life. “It’s a strange sort of father-son story about the two of them,” Gunn said.

The project is based on Batman comics authored by Grant Morrison, who Gunn said was “exceptionally influential” on the DCU. The other comics writer mentioned by name was Tom King.

“Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow”

Based on King’s comics run of the same title from 2021 and 2022, “Woman of Tomorrow” features Superman’s cousin, Kara Zor-El, who is a very different type of Supergirl.

“We see the difference between Superman, who was sent to Earth and raised by loving parents from the time he’s an infant, versus Supergirl, who was raised on a rock chip off of Krypton, and watched everyone around her die and be killed in terrible ways for the first 14 years of her life.”

This Supergirl is “much more hardcore”–though King’s series also involves Krypto, the superdog.

The most extreme example of Gunn and Safran’s conviction to diversify the DCU, “Swamp Thing” will “investigate the dark origins of Swamp Thing” through the prism of horror.

TV

“Creature Commandos”

This animated series for HBO Max is the first project greenlit by Safran and Gunn, who has written every episode. The show is in production.

The Creature Commando characters were first launched in 1980. The premise features Frankenstein’s monster teaming up with a werewolf, a vampire and a gorgon to fight Nazis in World War II. It doesn’t appear that Gunn’s version takes quite the same approach — Weasel, one of the characters from Gunn’s 2021 film “The Suicide Squad,” is one of the Commandos, along with Rick Flag’s father, Rick Flag Sr.

Animation allows their creative collaborators to “tell stories that are gigantic, but without spending $50 million an episode.”

The actors cast to voice the characters on the show will also play the roles in live action later on in the DCU.

“Waller”

With Gunn focused on “Superman: Legacy” for the foreseeable future, Season 2 of “Peacemaker” has been put on hold. Instead, “team ‘Peacemaker’” will appear alongside Davis as “continuation” of that show, which (spoiler alert for Season 1 of “Peacemaker”) ended with Waller’s daughter Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) outing Task Force X (a.k.a. the Suicide Squad) and Waller’s role running it to the world.

Along with Christal Henry, who was part of the DCU writers room, “Waller” will be executive produced by Jeremy Carver, who created the beloved DC series “Doom Patrol,” recently canceled by HBO Max.

“They are crushing it,” Safran said of Henry and Carver’s work on “Waller.” “It’s just the greatest show ever,” Gunn added.

Both “Creature Commandos” and “Waller” will debut before “Superman: Legacy.”

“Lanterns”

“Lanterns” was described as “huge HBO-quality event” that is “very much in the vein of ‘True Detective.’”

The show will focus on two known members of the Green Lantern corps: Hal Jordan (the test pilot first played on screen by Ryan Reynolds in 2011’s “Green Lantern”) and John Stewart (an ex-marine and one of DC’s first Black superheroes), who investigate a mystery that Safran said “plays a really big role leading us into the main story that we’re telling across our film and television.”

“Paradise Lost”

This “‘Game of Thrones’-ish story” is set on the island of Themyscira before the birth of Diana (a.k.a. Wonder Woman).

“It’s really about the political intrigue behind a society of all women,” Safran said. Added Gunn, “How did that come about? What’s the origin of an island of all women? What are the beautiful truths and the ugly truths behind all of that? And what’s the scheming like between the different power players in that society?”

The provocative title recalls the “Paradise Island Lost” comics series authored by Phil Jimenez and George Pérez, which followed a civil war on Themyscira; however, that run directly involved Wonder Woman.

“Booster Gold”

“Booster Gold” allows the DCU to stretch into outright comedy. The character, also known as Mike Carter, is fan favorite. Safran called Booster “a loser from the future who uses technology to come back to today and pretend to be a superhero.” In the 25th century, Mike is a disgraced former football star who uses time machine on display in the Metropolis Space Museum.