Sci-Fi Bulletin: Exploring the Universes of SF, Fantasy, Horror and Spy-fi!

The 10-year plan masterminded by James Gunn and Peter Safran for screen DC adventures has been revealed.

Chapter One, “Gods and Monsters”, between 2025-2027 will include five movies: the Gunn-penned Superman Legacy, a new Batman and Robin film, The Brave and the Bold, a Swamp Thing movie, and films based around Supergirl and the  DC rogue squad The Authority. On the small screen there’ll be Creature Commandos written by Gunn, the Peacemaker spinoff live action series Waller with Viola Davis, a Lanterns series, Booster Gold and Paradise Lost. (Peacemaker season 2 isn’t happening.)

“One of our strategies is that we take our diamond characters — Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman — and we use that to help prop up other characters that people don’t know. Like what happened with the Guardians (of the Galaxy) in some way. Like taking teams like The Authority, which is I know is just as spectacular idea for a film that is completely different take on superheroes. Because it’s really connected to Superman. It’s about to use those well-known properties to help lead into lesser known properties,” explains Gunn. “We’re going to promise that everything from our first project forward is going to be unified.”

The four movies currently in preparation will probably be part of what’s happening. “There’s no reason why any of the characters or the actors that play in those characters are not part of the DCU. There’s nothing that prohibits that from happening.”

The projects are:

Creature Commandos – animated TV series. “Animation will lead into live action and back into animation,” said Gunn. “It’s a way to tell stories that are gigantic and huge without spending $50M an episode. Gunn has written this, it’s done. Creature Commandos is comprised of military superhumans including a human leader, a werewolf, a vampire, Frankenstein’s monster and a gorgon. Gunn pointed out that Weasel from his Suicide Squad will be on the show. This band of misfits were introduced in Weird War Tales #93 (November 1980), created by J. M. DeMatteis and Pat Broderick.

Waller HBO Max live action series, the spinoff of Peacemaker. “We’re using the same actors, this is a continuation of Peacemaker. I’m working on Superman, so we can’t do Peacemaker season 2. We’re working on Waller in between,” Gunn explained. Christal Henry (Watchmen) is writing the show and Jeremy Carver (creator of Doom Patrol).

Superman Legacy feature:  “This is really the start of the DCU,” says Safran. The release date is July 11, 2025. “It’s not an origins story, it focuses on Superman’s balancing his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing. He’s the embodiment of truth, justice and the American way, he’s kindness in a world that thinks of kindness as old fashioned.”

Lanterns HBO Max live action series. “Our vision for this is True Detective,” Safran says, “It’s terrestrial-based, it’s got two of our favourite Green Lanterns –Hal Jordan and John Stewart…it plays a really big role in the main story that we’re telling across our film and Television. This is a very important show for us.”

The Authority feature. “There’s great Wildstorm characters that were popular for a long-time and we’re incorporating them into the DCU,” says Gunn.

Paradise Lost — HBO Max live action series. “It’s going to be a Games of Thrones-ish story about Themyscira, the home of the Amazons and the birthplace of Wonder Woman. This drama is really about the political intrigue behind the society of all women. How did that come about?” says Safran. “What’s the beautiful truths and the ugly truths behind all of that and what’s the scheming like between all the power players in that society?” added Gunn. The series will take place before the birth of Diana (aka Wonder Woman).

The Brave and the Bold feature This will be Gunn and Safran’s version of the DCU Batman outside what Matt Reeves already created. The movie will feature Batman and his son, Damien Wayne, as Robin “who is a little son of a bitch,” bills Gunn. “Assassin, murderer who Batman takes on, who is Batman’s actual son that he doesn’t know exists for the first 8-10 years of his life….it’s a strange father and son story about the two of them and based on Grant Morrison’s run of the Batman.”

Reeves’ Batman 2 script is still in the works and “it’s something we’ll have to balance out with this movie.” The duo revealed that Reeves’ Batman II will be Oct. 3, 2025. Gunn and Safran will be looking for a new actor to play Batman for The Brave and the Bold.

Booster Gold HBO Max TV series is about a loser from the future, who uses future technology to come back to today, and pretend to be a superhero. “Imposter syndrome as a superhero,” describes Gunn.

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow: feature based on Tom King’s comic book series from 2022. “In our series we see the difference between Superman who was sent to Earth and raised by loving parents from the time he was an infant, versus Supergirl who was raised on a rock, a chip off Krypton, and watched everyone around her die and be killed in terrible ways for the first 14 years of her life, and then came to Earth when she was a young girl. She’s much more hardcore, she’s not exactly the Supergirl we’re use to seeing.”

Swamp Thing feature will investigate the dark origins of the creature.