DC Universe (franchise)

DC Universe
DC Comics logo, used since 2016
Created by	DC Studios James Gunn Peter Safran
Owner	Warner Bros. Discovery

The DC Universe (DCU) is an upcoming American media franchise and shared universe based on characters from DC Comics publications. It was created by James Gunn and Peter Safran, co-chairmen and co-CEOs of DC Studios. The franchise is a soft reboot of the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), retaining certain cast members of the DCEU while replacing others. In contrast with the previous state of DC Comics adaptations, the DCU features a united continuity and story across live-action films and television, animation, and video games. Concurrent DC adaptations that do not fit within this continuity are labeled "DC Elseworlds".

After Discovery, Inc. and WarnerMedia merged to become Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), CEO David Zaslav revealed a plan to revitalize the DC brand following the poor reception of most DCEU films. Gunn and Safran were hired to lead the newly formed DC Studios in November 2022 after working on several DCEU projects, including the film The Suicide Squad (2021) and its spin-off series, Peacemaker (2022–present). The pair spent several months with a group of writers developing the overarching story for a new DC continuity, which features a combination of popular and obscure DC characters. Some DCEU projects in development were abandoned in favor of new takes, while others (including Peacemaker) continued within the new franchise. Gunn and Safran wanted to focus on storytelling needs rather than forcing creators to produce their projects before specific release dates.

The story of the DCU is divided into chapters, starting with "Gods and Monsters", which will begin in 2024 with the animated series Creature Commandos. Gunn and Safran consider the chapter's first film, Superman: Legacy (2025), to be the true beginning of the DCU.

Background

DC Extended Universe

Warner Bros. Pictures was deemed to be "lagg[ing] behind" rival company Marvel Studios and their shared universe of superheroes, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), by late 2012. Warner Bros. began planning for Man of Steel (2013), based on the DC Comics character Superman, to start their own shared universe, which became known as the "DC Extended Universe" (DCEU). They announced a full slate of DC films in October 2014. Man of Steel director Zack Snyder was set to return for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and Justice League (2017), and spin-off films were planned for the Justice League members and other DC characters.

In 2016, it was confirmed they had began planning a backup plan to have a different approach and instead took the Arrowverse approach by doing multiple television series that are interconnected by yearly crossover events that normally have a single episode in each season per television series. However, they didn't want to do the exact same thing as the Arrowverse, so decided to bench the idea by June 2017. In June 2023, after the conclusion of the Arrowverse, the idea was revisited by Freddie Goodwin and James Gunn, who agreed to work together to create two series and have a crossover event planned for the 9th episode of both seasons.

Development

DC Studios and initial developments

Freddie Goodwin, James Gunn and Peter Safran were announced as the co-chairs and co-CEOs of the newly formed DC Studios at the end of October 2022 and were set to take over from Hamada on November 1. It was considered a shocking and unprecedented decision to have a high-profile director like Gunn move into a top executive position at a film studio. Gunn was expected to focus on the creative side of the company while Safran focused on the business and production side, and their deal was reportedly for four years. Gunn and Safran were both expected to continue directing and producing projects, respectively, in addition to their new roles, though other projects would be exclusively with WBD. They would report directly to Zaslav and work closely with De Luca and Abdy. A week after starting their new roles, the pair said they had begun working with a group of writers to develop an eight-to-ten-year plan for the new DC Universe (DCU). Zaslav said they had begun work on a bible for future DC projects that would be finished soon. He also said the new plan would emulate Marvel's model of having a single, unified approach to each character, specifically highlighting new approaches to Batman and Superman. By mid-November, Gunn had already begun writing the script for a new DC film while Safran had been "fixing" the then-upcoming Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023).

In early December, Gunn and Safran were finalizing their plans ahead of a meeting with Zaslav. Patty Jenkins was no longer developing a sequel to her DCEU films Wonder Woman (2017) and Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) after being told by Gunn and Safran that such a film did not fit within their new plans. Various rumors about the plans were circulating, including that the DCU would be a complete reboot of the DCEU that moved away from the actors cast by Snyder, that Matt Reeves's The Batman films would be integrated with the DCU, and that Aquaman actor Jason Momoa would be recast as the character Lobo. These reveals and rumors led to concerns within the industry and among DC fans about the direction Gunn and Safran were taking the franchise, and Gunn put out a statement saying they "were coming into a fractious environment" and there would be an "unavoidable transitional period as we moved into telling a cohesive story across film, TV, animation and gaming". A week later, Gunn announced that he and Safran had a slate of projects "ready to go" and more details would be provided in 2023, but he did reveal that he was writing a new Superman film that would not star Cavill. Ben Affleck was also confirmed to not be reprising his DCEU Batman role moving forward. Gunn and Safran had discussions with Cavill and Affleck about returning to the DCU to respectively portray a new character and direct a project, but Affleck later said he was not interested in directing a DCU project.

Part One

In January 2023, the DCU was reported to be a "broad but not blanket reset" of the DCEU. On January 31, Gunn and Safran unveiled the first projects from the DCU slate. They revealed the writers who had been working with them on the overall story for the DCU: Drew Goddard, Jeremy Slater, The Flash writer Christina Hodson, Christal Henry, and comic book writer Tom King. The group had planned two "chapters" of story for the eight-to-ten-year plan, with the potential for more chapters after that. The first chapter was titled "Gods and Monsters" and its first five films were Superman: Legacy (2025), The Authority, The Brave and the Bold, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, and Swamp Thing. Its first five television series were Creature Commandos, Waller, Lanterns, Paradise Lost, and Booster Gold. Gunn noted that this slate combined DC's "diamond characters", such as Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, with lesser known characters who they hoped would become just as popular. Any DC projects that did not fit within the shared universe would be labeled "DC Elseworlds". The writers took inspiration from the Star Wars franchise, which has "different times, different places, different things", as well as from the series Game of Thrones (2011–2019) and its morally complex characters.

Gunn said The Flash would "reset" the DCEU continuity, making the DCU a "soft reboot" that retains certain cast members and elements of the DCEU while replacing others. Gunn and Safran primarily selected the elements that are carried over based on actors. The pair expected characters to be portrayed by the same actors across mediums, including animation. They said Viola Davis (Amanda Waller) and John Cena (Peacemaker) would reprise their The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker roles in the DCU, and a "rough memory" of those projects would remain. There was potential for Momoa, Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman), Ezra Miller (the Flash), and Zachary Levi (Shazam) to also reprise their roles, but decisions on those characters had not been made. No actor would be playing multiple characters, so if they did cast Momoa as Lobo he would not portray Aquaman in the DCU as well. Gunn added that the then-upcoming DCEU film Blue Beetle (2023) was disconnected from previous DCEU entries and could connect to the DCU, which was reiterated by the film's director Angel Manuel Soto, who said it was part of future DCU plans. Gunn and Safran soon clarified that Xolo Maridueña's Jaime Reyes / Blue Beetle would continue in the DCU but the film itself would stand on its own. In July 2023, following the commercial failure of the DCEU film Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Levi cast doubt on his return in the DCU. The next month, Gadot said she would be developing a new Wonder Woman film with Gunn and Safran, but this was soon reported to not be the case. No decision had been made on if Gadot would be reprising her role in the DCU. Variety reported in October 2023 that none of the Justice League cast would reprise their roles in the DCU.

Safran said they were being flexible with the DCU's release order, though some projects key to the overall story would need to be released in a specific order. He added that they were aiming to release two films and two HBO Max series a year. Gunn felt studios being "beholden to dates" was an industry-wide issue and wanted to focus on getting the screenplays right for each project before putting them into production. He said this happened with The Suicide Squad and that film did not require any reshoots unlike other DCEU projects. Contrasting the DCU with the MCU, Gunn said the former was set in a "fictional universe" with an alternate history and locations such as Metropolis, Gotham City, Themyscira, and Atlantis, while the MCU is set in a version of the real world; he expected the DCU to be more planned out from the beginning than the MCU was due to the group of writers working on the DCU's overall story; the DCU focuses on traditional superheroes with secret identities; and DCU projects were announced to be based on specific comic book runs and story arcs compared to the MCU approach of taking different elements from throughout Marvel Comics history. The day after the slate announcement, several of those comics appeared on best-selling lists and some had sold out.

When Gunn and Safran unveiled the first projects from their DCU slate, they said a second season of Peacemaker was delayed while Gunn was busy writing Superman: Legacy. In February 2023, Gunn confirmed that Peacemaker was not canceled, and he clarified in October that the second season would be set in the DCU continuity. Gunn further stated in December that the season would be part of the Chapter One slate.

Films

Film	U.S. release date	Director	Screenwriter(s)	Producer(s)	Status
Phase One
The Flash	March 28, 2024	Jackson Miller	Sara Case & Patrick Reid	Freddie Goodwin	Post-production
Bart and X.S	April 22, 2024	Myla Salazar	Myla Salazar, Zoe Lancaster, Nathan Bright, Amelia Hartford
Iron Man	May 19, 2024	Ethan Morland	Ethan Morland & Leo Blackwell
Z Justice	June 10, 2024	TBA	TBA

DC Elseworlds

When announcing the first projects for the DCU in January 2023, Gunn said any project that did not fit into the DCU's shared universe would be labeled as "DC Elseworlds" moving forward. This is the same as how DC Comics uses the Elseworlds imprint to mark comic books that are separate from the main continuity. Safran said there was a high bar that non-DCU projects would have to meet to be greenlit.

The following projects have been confirmed as part of the "DC Elseworlds" label:

• The animated series Teen Titans Go! (2013–present)
• Director Todd Phillips's films Joker (2019) and Joker: Folie à Deux (2024)
• The animated series Harley Quinn (2019–present)Template:Better source needed
• The live-action series Superman & Lois (2021–present)
• Director Matt Reeves's Batman shared universe:
  • Films The Batman (2022) and The Batman – Part II (2025), as well as an in-development third The Batman film
  • Spin-off series The Penguin, as well as an in-development series featuring the Gotham City Police Department
• A planned Black-led Superman film written by Ta-Nehisi Coates and produced by J. J. Abrams
• A planned sequel to the film Constantine (2005) with director Francis Lawrence and star Keanu Reeves returning
• DC Universe Animated Original Movies
• The animated film Merry Little Batman (2023)

See also

• List of films based on DC Comics publications
• List of television series based on DC Comics publications

External links

• Movies on DC.com
• TV series on DC.com