Following their reveal of the new films and TV series that mark the first part of their new unified DC slate, DC Studios chiefs James Gunn and Peter Safran spoke about the existing slate of DC projects coming and will happen there.
First up, they confirm “The Batman Part II” will release on October 3rd 2025 and will be one of the ‘Elseworlds’ films not a part of the DCU. Reeves’ screenplay is currently in the works.
The same ‘Elseworlds’ label will apply to Todd Phillips’ “Joker: Folie à Deux” and Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Black Superman film which is still in the works.
As for existing actors from the prior DCEU, Safran says: “There’s no reasons why all the people you mentioned [Gadot, Momoa, Miller, Levi], couldn’t be part of the DCU, we just haven’t decided what the story is that we want to tell that incorporates Shazam or Aquaman.” He then teases a third “Aquaman” could happen, saying: “Jason always saw Aquaman as a trilogy.”
They also indicate Ezra Miller could continue as The Flash in the DCU with Gunn calling Andy Muschietti’s upcoming “The Flash” film as: “probably one of the greatest superhero movies ever made.” Safran says: “Ezra is completely committed to their recovery. We’re fully supportive of that journey that they’re on right now.”
Gunn spoke about Zachary Levi’s recent controversial tweet saying: “I can’t be changing my plans all the time because an actor says something that I don’t agree with. Actors and filmmakers that I work with are going to say things that I agree with and things that I don’t agree with.”
Asked about the Cavill situation, Gunn says:
“We didn’t fire Henry. Henry was never cast. He was in a cameo, and that was the end of his story. A lot of people made assumptions which weren’t true, but for me, it’s about who do I want to cast as Superman and who do the filmmakers want to cast. For me, for this story, it isn’t Henry. I like Henry. He’s a great guy. I think hes gotten d–ked around by a lot of people, including former regimes of this company. But this Superman isn’t Henry for a number of reasons”
As for the Momoa as Lobo rumor, Gunn assets that: “I will say we won’t have an actor playing two different roles.”
Indeed that rule of same actors playing the same roles across every medium not only applies to the movies & TV shows, but to the video games as well as, unlike Marvel, games from DC will fit into the new continuity. Whilst no specific titles were announced, Gunn says titles will fit into the universe’s storytelling:
“What’s very different about it, for us, for DC, it’s not like we’re going to have ‘Superman’ come out, and then have the ‘Superman’ game come out. It’s more like, we have ‘Superman’ come out then, two years later, we have ‘Supergirl’ coming out. So, what’s the story in between there? Is there a Krypto game that we can play, that comes in between, that’s still set in the world with these characters. But that is its own thing. To sort of give games the prominence that they deserve.”
Safran also spoke about the cancelled “Batgirl” situation:
“I saw the movie, and there are a lot of incredibly talented people in front of and behind the camera on that film. But that film was not releasable, and it happens sometimes. That film was not releasable. I actually think that [president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery David] Zaslav and the team made a very bold and courageous decision to cancel it because it would have hurt DC. It would have hurt those people involved.”
Finally, Gunn confirms Ben Affleck is really keen on directing a DC movie, but it’s not clear which one and he currently has no involvement with the just announced “The Brave and the Bold”.
Source: Variety
