So, the new DCU from James Gunn and Peter Safran has officially kicked off with Creature Commandos and, as expected, it was a riot of a show that gives a flavour of just how ‘out there’ this new DC universe is going to be.
Now Gunn is talking about the future of this new universe and teasing some things we can look forward to in the coming weeks, months and years.
Gunn has made no secret of the fact that Creature Commandos, while now the official start of this new universe, was not originally meant to be and was a sequel to his Suicide Squad movie and first season of Peacemaker, which explains why both these productions act as kinda/sorta the same universe. Warners/DC were leaning on him to make a new TV series and Creature Commandos was the product of that.
“Yeah, they’re light canon,” Gunn says, “Peacemaker is pretty straightforward, with the exception of the appearance by [the Snyder Justice League] at the end. They don’t exist yet. But the rule is: If we mention [something from the past] in one of the new DCU shows [and movies], then it happened. So that’s the way we’re dealing with it.”
It’s a ballsy way to deal with it but, and I say this as a guy who loves mult-verses and all that good gear, it is a little confusing; where do the previous DC movies and shows come in? Gunn’s Suicide Squad was most certainly a sequel to David Ayer’s movie, so is that canon? If they’re not set in stone, does that mean, for example, we might see Captain Boomerang return in the new DCU? I gues only time will tell.
Gunn, perhaps reflecting on the Marvel way of doing things, is keen to point out that, moving forward, there will be no projects moving into production until they are absolutely polished and ready: “We want the screenplays to be ready before we greenlight them. What goes into production is based on what is ready to go. I’ve just seen for many, many years, the industry get dragged down by having start dates on projects and going into production with screenplays that don’t’ have a third act. It happens constantly. It’s the primary reason why films aren’t as good as they were in the ’70s and the ’80s,” he says. I mean, when you look at the golden age of cinema in those tow decades, it’s hard to argue.
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So, after Creature Commandos, we have Gunn’s Superman to look forward to next July (and we will get our first look at Superman in later episodes of Creature Commandos) and word is previews are going well and while we wait for the first trailer later this month, Gunn is positively buzzing about it: “Superman is an enormous bear of a movie. It’s completely different from this show in every way, but it’s very much fantastic as well. Honestly, from the bottom of my heart, David Corenswet is going to freak everyone out with how great he is. He is one of the best actors I’ve ever worked with, and he can do everything. The man is incredible.”
After that, we’ll be getting the return of John Cena’s Peacemaker in the show’s second season which, Gunn says, is a different animal: “Season two of Peacemaker is also going to take people by surprise. We take a very different route than the first season, and it’s a really magical story that people are going to be blown away by. Frank Grillo, of course, is a major part of that [and Superman], as his character, Rick Flag Sr, from Creature Commandos.”
Ok, so, since we’re on the top if Grillo’s Rick Flagg Snr now set to be the link between Superman, Peacemaker and Creature Commandos, we know that Gunn has previously said that the new DCU will have characters across all mediums played by the same actors, so where are we with that? Is Grillo the only planned one?
“We’ve talked about all of these characters in live-action and how we would do them, if we did them, in live-action,” Gunn says, “I don’t want to give away any secrets, but we use some technology in Superman that’s completely new in regards to this kind of stuff. So we would know exactly how to do GI Robot.”
GI Robot is currently one of the fan-favourites from Creature Comforts, so having him in live-action would be very cool… might we, for example, see him in the planned Sgt Rock? Indeed, in a recent interview, Stranger Things star David Harbour, who plays Frankenstein in Creature Commandos said that while he knows Gunn plans to keep all the upcoming shows/movies/games whatever separate, it would be wild to see Frankenstein appear in, say, a Batman movie and I tend to agree.
Before we go, Gunn teased another project down the line, saying: “We’ve greenlit something else… and it’s going to go into production next. But I can’t quite tell you yet.”
Oh, Gunn, you tease! Is it perhaps Clayface? The Bane/Deathstroke movie or perhaps the aforementioned Sgt Rock? Oh, this new DCU is gonna be all sorts of exciting!
Marc
Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….
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