What Comes After Superman?

We’ve talked a lot about the current state of the Marvel Cinematic UniverseWhen it first began in 2008 with a little film called Iron Man no one suspected the empire that would follow. Superhero movies in the past, especially those not featuring either Batman or Superman, were usually terrible. And yet, Iron Man would lead to a long series of successful films, launching the most successful cinema brand in history: the Marvel Cinematic Universe. and how Marvel seems to be failing fans as it flails around in the post-Avengers: Endgame era. Marvel feels directionless, which is surprising only because their first run of films, “The Infinity Saga”, felt so tight and interconnected. They put in the work and made a series of films that could, on their own, stand as one of the greatest film sagas ever. Their latter work in “The Multiverse Saga” seems destined to tarnish that.

But while Marvel is flailing, it seems like DC is on the upswing. After the disastrous start for the DC Extended UniverseStarted as DC Comics' answer to the MCU, the early films in the franchise stumbled out of the gates, often mired in grim-dark storytelling and the rushed need to get this franchise started. Eventually, though, the films began to even out, becoming better as they went along. Still, this franchise has a long way to go before it's true completion for Marvel's universe., which began with an inauspicious start of Man of Steel and then flailed around for a few years before finally dying with the release of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, DC is rebooting and refreshing their line (almost) completely with the DC UniverseThe successor to WB's failed cinematic universe, the DCEU. Headed by James Gunn and Peter Safran, this new DC Universe carries over some continuity from the former film and TV series while crafting a new, rebooted universe for the future., a soft reboot that gets rid of most of what happened in the previous universe, saving only a few characters that co-creator James Gunn is particularly attached to.

James Gunn and co-studio head Peter Safran recently sat down and met with a small group of journalists (staff from Asteroid G were not invited) to discuss the upcoming slate of DCU works and the projects that were developing. This informal chat was very different from how Marvel has handled their MCU presentations. Where Marvel grabs up a massive auditorium at ComicCon and announces a huge, multi-year slate with logos and release dates and everything penciled in, Gunn and Safran seem far less concerned with making sure films come out at specific times, or meeting specific deadlines. Gunn, as the creative lead for the universe, puts his value in ensuring scripts are done before a single bit of pre-production is done for a film. They might say, “we’re working on these ideas and hope to launch these films and shows,” but if an idea isn’t ready then they push it back and wait for it to get there.

In a way it reminds me a lot of old Blizzard, where their games were “done when they’re done.” A film doesn’t get going until the script is ready, which stands in stark contrast to Marvel where they’ll put the cart well before the horse, working pre-production and even initial filming before a script is even done. In fairness to Marvel, it worked for them initially on Iron Man, and it was a strategy that got them through “The Infinity Saga”, but it has clearly shown all the ways that method doesn’t work in their later films. A studio waiting until a film is ready to go feels so novel and different in the modern Hollywood landscape.

But then, Gunn has stated that he doesn’t want to run DC Studios the way Kevin Feige runs Marvel Studios. He didn’t say it as a dig against his former producer, just that Gunn is a creative guy that approaches his films a certain way, and he absolutely wouldn’t want to do all the financial production work that Feige handles (Safran is on hand for that side of the studio business). Still, you can tell that Gunn saw how Marvel ran things and wants to do it differently at DC. Already it feels like he’s on the right track.

The informal discussion with journalists produced little in the way of material they could actually show. There were no mocked up logos, no sketches or storyboards presented, and the only thing that anyone has so far seen from the new universe is Creature Commandos, which already finished out its first season, and Superman, the trailer for which lit up the internet. Outside that, we’ve had one shot of a chair from the set of Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow and, well, that’s it. But that doesn’t mean they didn’t have a lot to talk about. They did, and what they discussed makes it feel like the new iteration of the DCU is going to be very fun and very different from what we saw before.

To start, of course, there’s Superman. The film comes out in May, and it won’t be presented at ComicCon, as that event happens in July. After that, two more films are actively in development with expected releases in 2026 (so that makes only one live-action release in 2025 for the franchise), with Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow (directed by Craig Gillespie, written by Ana Nogueira) coming first followed by Clayface (directed by James Watkins, written by Mike Flanagan) coming later in the year.

Candidly, the production duo of Gunn and Safran noted that they hadn’t had plans to even make a Clayface movie in their initial projections for the DCU. Watkins and Flanagan, though, came to Gunn and Safran with the perfect idea, the perfect script, and the film was immediately greenlit. It’ll be a body-horror sci-fi film that Safran likened to The Fly. The fact that the cinematic universe is flexible enough to slide in a new movie out of nowhere, and the fact that Gunn and Safran eagerly encouraged it, is actually pretty awesome.

Notably other films that aren’t yet ready for production are The Authority, The Brave and the Bold, and Swamp Thing. The case for Swamp Thing is understandable since James Mangold pitched the film and will spearhead its development, but the writer/director is busy on another project, so Gunn is happy to let it brew and develop as an idea before it gets into development. For the other two films, though, Gunn has noted that the scripts aren’t where they should be yet and they won’t get greenlit officially until the scripts are ready.

Meanwhile, the television side of the universe is taking firm shape as well. With the first season of Creature Commandos having aired, the next work will be a second season of Peacemaker. James Gunn once again took lead, acting as showrunner for the series, and that will debut in August of this year. Following will be Lanterns, the Green Lantern show featuring Hal Jordan and Jon Stewart, and the series is actively filming with an expected release date of some time in 2026.

Once again, though, other shows are still in the works but haven’t managed to crack their ideas yet. Waller is supposed to be a spin-off of Peacemaker and The Suicide Squad and it was expected to begin filming soon. However, Gunn noted that the scripts weren’t working and the idea wasn’t ready yet, so the series is still on the backburner, cooking. Similarly Paradise Lost, the series focusing on Wonder Woman’s Amazons, is also still struggling to find the right voice and get its ideas fully formed, so it hasn’t moved out into production yet.

Interestingly there’s other films in the works that aren’t even related to the main DCU but that Gunn and Safran are still excited to talk about. A key production was Dynamic Duo, a puppet movie featuring Dick Grayson and Jason Todd. Yes, really, puppets. This is one of the many animated works that will be coming out from DC Studios, and while Gunn said that right now the film didn’t tie into the larger cinematic universe, he was also bullish on the possibility that, perhaps, one day it might work its way back in, which would be weird and hilarious.

The final plan for the DCU, as per Gunn and Safran, is to produce two live action films, one animated film, two live action series, and two animated series each year. That does sound like a lot, like a Marvel, “man they produce way too much homework for us,” amount. There are a couple of things that make me think that’s not as bad as it could be, though. For starters, the duo didn’t actually say that everything that would be released in a given year would necessarily be part of the DCU. Dynamic Duo wouldn’t be. It’s possible that shows like Harley Quinn and Kite Man factor into their count without being part of the DCU. There could be a fair amount of wiggle room about what counts and what doesn’t.

But, secondly, it doesn’t feel like every show and movie has to be watched by every person for them to be able to keep up with the universe. Creature Commandos is part of the universe, but there are no current plans to have the creature show up in other works. It could happen after their second season debuts, but maybe it doesn’t, and that’s fine. We might see characters crop up from Peacemaker elsewhere but it sounds more likely that certain characters will stay siloed in certain areas, and fans can watch them only if they choose. That cuts down on the amount of homework and makes it so the universe is friendlier to casual fans as well as the hardcore.

We are still very early in the DCU cycle and there’s still plenty of time for the ship to run aground. But right now, with Gunn and Safran saying all the right things and making all the right moves, it feels like DC is doing everything they can to take the crown from Marvel. And with Marvel absolutely dropping the ball as of late, I welcome it.