In October 2022, director James Gunn and manufacturer Peter Safran were called co-chairs and co-CEOs of DC Studios, a freshly formed department that changed DCFilms Gunn informed fans at the time that he and Safran would provide their prepare for the future of the DC Universe (DCU) in January 2023, and onJan 31, he provided on that pledge.


On Tuesday, Gunn and Safran revealed the DCU’s “Chapter One: Gods and Monsters” (rather than Marvel Studios Phases), the very first chapter in a 10-year interconnected legend, to a space of handpicked press reporters. Ten movie and television tasks were revealed as part of Chapter One, consisting of the Gunn- penned Superman Legacy, an adjustment of DC Comics’ Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow by Tom King, Bilquis Evely, and Matheus Lopes, which is set for release onJul 11, 2025. Also revealed was The Brave and the Bold (film), The Authority (film), Swamp Thing (film), Creature Commandos (animated television program), Waller (television program), Lanterns (television program), Booster Gold (television program), and Paradise Lost (television program).

During the DCU statement, Gunn discussed the DC Comics’ motivation behind the stories that will be informed in Chapter One, discussing the impact of King’s Women of Tomorrow and Grant Morrison’s Batman comics. For example, when discussing the comics motivation behind The Brave and the Bold, he stated, “This is a story of Damian Wayne, who is Batman’s actual son that he didn’t know existed for the first eight to ten years of his life. He was raised as a little murderer and assassin. He’s my favorite Robin. It’s based on the Grant Morrison comic run, which is one of my favorite Batman runs.”

Then, on Thursday,Feb 2, Gunn tweeted out more of the DC Comics motivation behind the brand-new DCU: (1) All-Star Superman by Morrison, Frank Quitely, and Jamie Grant; (2) The Authority by Warren Ellis, Mark Millar, Tom Peyer, Bryan Hitch, Dustin Nguyen, and Quitely; (3) Batman by Morrison, Andy Kubert, and Jesse Delperdang; and (4) Absolute Swamp Thing by Alan Moore, Stephen R. Bissette, John Totleben, Rick Veitch, Shawn McManus, and Dan Day.

In addition to tweeting pictures of 4 comics that influenced him, Gunn composed, “We’re talked a lot about Woman of Tomorrow, but these are more of the comics inspiring #DCStudios and the new #DCU in these early days. That doesn’t mean we’re adapting all these comics, but that the feel, the look, or the tone of them are touchstones for our team. Check ’em out!” See the tweet on your own below:


James Gunn Responds to Fans on Twitter

James Gunn and the DC logo

Gunn is a social networks maven and Bane of the nerdlingers, routinely engaging with his fans on Twitter (and sometimes gently annoying his more “vocal” critics).

In reaction to Gunn’s suggestions, someone tweeted, “The Brave and the Bold really does need to be the tonal/visual opposite of The Batman to stand out. It can’t just be ‘It’s got the Bat Family, we haven’t seen that in a movie.’ I think it really needs to embrace everything outlandish, flashy and surreal about those Batman comics.”

Gunn reacted to the fan, composing, “I don’t think a vision for any good film starts with being ‘not’ something. It must be fully its own thing, not the shadow (nor the copy) of another work.”