7 Ways James Gunn’s DC Universe Is Reviving Old DCEU Plans

The James Gunn and Peter Safran-led DC Universe will revitalize the superhero franchise, reviving several plans from the old DC Extended Universe in the process. The DCEU began with 2013’s Man of Steel, and while there have been notable DCEU successes, such as 2017’s Wonder Woman and 2018’s Aquaman, the franchise, unfortunately, struggled to match the astounding critical and commercial performance of its rival franchise, the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The DCEU has had numerous unrealized projects that will, to varying degrees, see the light of day in Gunn and Safran’s DCU, albeit adjusted to fit the new franchise’s timeline.

Following the events of the upcoming The Flash, the DC movie timeline will be reintroduced, with its first wave of properties “Chapter One: Gods and Monsters,” beginning after Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. As revealed by Gunn and Safran in their slate announcement, the new DC Universe will not be a complete reboot of the old DC Extended Universe. Superman and Batman’s respective corners of the DCU will be brand new, with new actors taking over the roles of Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne, but other characters will remain largely unchanged from the old DCEU. Moreover, planned elements of the DCEU will be re-imagined and integrated into the new DCU.

Related: DC Has 1 Story That Will Save Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman From Gunn’s Reboot

7 A Unified Vision For The DC Film Universe

Unlike its rival franchise, the MCU, the DCEU lacked a Kevin Feige-type figure to creatively oversee the franchise as a whole. Despite this, many of the DCEU’s early installments coexisted quite well, with their respective creative teams collaborating to keep the characters and overarching narratives consistent. Zack Snyder, Patty Jenkins, and James Wan ensured that the developments of their shared characters aligned across their respective appearances, but there were occasional continuity issues due to a lack of oversight. For instance, the deceased Robin referenced in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was Dick Grayson, yet David Ayer’s Suicide Squad accidentally refers to him as Jason Todd.

As the director of Man of Steel, Dawn of Justice, and Justice League (before Joss Whedon took over), Zack Snyder was initially set to be the DCEU’s creative overseer, with his planned Justice League and Superman sequels guiding the rest of the DCEU. This was, ultimately, not the case in the old DCEU, but it will be in the new DCU. James Gunn and Peter Safran’s respective successes with 2019’s Shazam! and The Suicide Squad likely led to the decision to put them in charge of the DCU franchise as a whole. While Gunn and Safran will not necessarily write or direct every DCU installment, they will lead the franchise.

6 A More “Classic” Superman

Zack Snyder’s planned character arc for Superman was for him to begin as a more somber take on the character before more closely resembling his classic, cheerful, comic counterpart following his return from the dead. He would struggle to maintain his humanity at this point, however, and only fully reconcile his human and Kryptonian identities by the end of his DCEU arc. While Henry Cavill’s Superman never had a chance to complete this arc, a more “classic” iteration of Superman will likely be depicted in Superman: Legacy, which will have been written and directed by James Gunn himself, portraying Superman this way at the start of his arc.

5 Supergirl

The old DCEU was also building towards introducing Kara Zor-El, better known as Supergirl, to live-action films. Kara is canonically part of the DCEU, courtesy of a Man of Steel prequel comic, but an empty stasis pod (strongly implied to have been Kara’s) appears throughout the DCEU, setting up her eventual debut. Sasha Calle’s alternate universe iteration of Supergirl, who will appear in The Flash, was also set to replace Henry Cavill’s Superman as the DCEU’s Kryptonian hero, but this will not be the case in Gunn and Safran’s DCU. Whether or not Sasha Calle returns as Kara, Supergirl will have a DCU solo film: Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow.

4 The Batman Family’s Live-Action Debut

If Ben Affleck’s Batman solo film and Zack Snyder’s Justice League sequels had been made, an iteration of the Batman Family would have finally made its cinematic debut. With Dick Grayson having died before the events of Dawn of Justice, Snyder planned to base the DCEU’s Batman Family on Frank Miller’s comics by having Carrie Kelley succeed Grayson as Robin. A larger Batman Family, based on the mainstream DC Comics universes, will debut in The Brave and the Bold, with Damian Wayne as Robin, implying that perhaps the four previous Robins (Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, and Stephanie Brown) are alive and active crime-fighters in the new DCU.

3 A Live-Action Green Lantern Corps TV Show

2011’s Green Lantern was initially intended to be the first installment of a shared DC film universe, but the movie was a critical and commercial failure, leading Warner Bros. to begin the DCEU with Man of Steel instead. In 2014, Green Lantern Corps was announced, but it was repeatedly re-imagined and delayed. The property was initially a live-action film before becoming a live-action TV series. Its intended roster of heroes was similarly inconsistent, sometimes including all human Green Lanterns and other times being limited to one or two. The series, now renamed Lanterns, will finally see the light of day in Gunn’s DCU, starring both Hal Jordan and John Stewart.

2 A Wonder Woman Prequel Set On Themyscira

In 2019, Patty Jenkins, the director of Wonder Woman and Wonder Woman 1984, announced that she was developing a film centered on the DCEU’s Amazons. Although the movie would tie into Wonder Woman 3, it would not star Gal Gadot or even feature Wonder Woman, as it would be set long before her birth. Wonder Woman 3 was canceled in December 2022, leaving Gal Gadot’s future as Wonder Woman unfortunately unclear (though Gunn has, thankfully, suggested that she may remain in the role), but the Amazon-focused property will now be the upcoming DCU TV show Paradise Lost, which will still be set on Themyscira before Wonder Woman’s birth.

1 The Flash Replacing Henry Cavill And Ben Affleck

Although The Flash will end the DCEU era and initiate the new DCU, the film was originally going to make major changes to the franchise anyway. After both iterations of Justice League, Henry Cavill and Ben Affleck were due to be replaced as Superman and Batman, respectively. The Flash’s timeline changes were initially going to replace Cavill’s Superman with Sasha Calle’s Supergirl and Affleck’s Batman with the Michael Keaton iteration and, in the latter’s case, merge the lore of both the Tim Burton and DCEU Batman franchises. After The Flash, Superman and Batman will be replaced in James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC Universe, but now with new actors.