As the world waits for more Batman to hit the big screen, James Gunn wants you to know and internalize that Robert Pattinson won’t be double dipping.
On Threads, a fan asked if Pattinson could play a DCU variant separate from the version he plays in Matt Reeves’ Bat-movies. Gunn’s answer? A firm “no,” reaffirming past comments he’s made about keeping his and Reeves’ continuities separate from one another.
While he’s been open about Batman being a tricky character to incorporate, he said in 2025 it was “certainly not the plan” to have Pattinson portray two Batmen, despite online chatter hoping that’d be the case.
That’s where Andy Muschietti’s Brave and the Bold comes in. Announced at the start of Gunn’s tenure, that film recently bagged a writer in Birds of Prey and The Flash’s Christina Hodson. In a separate Threads post, Gunn came to her defense, saying anyone holding the latter film against her “has almost certainly never read an actual screenplay by Christina. She’s one of the writers who was with us early in the DCU planning stages. I don’t think you can judge my writing based on films others directed, as massive liberties are sometimes taken.”
So for fans hoping to see David Corenswet and Pattinson share the big screen together, you’ll have to keep waiting: a different actor will put on the cowl for Brave and whatever movies we get Batman in Gunn’s universe. Meanwhile, Pattinson will reprise his Batman in October 2027’s The Batman Part II.
Superman racked up several glowing reviews and was a box-office hit. That’s usually a formula that keeps interest going when awards season rolls around, though summer blockbusters tend to only rack up nominations in categories like special effects and costumes.
However, there have been exceptions: Marvel scored a historic win for superhero movies (even though it didn’t score the actual award) when Black Panther got a Best Picture nomination. A year later, Joker also notched several big nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director, as well as Best Actor for eventual winner Joaquin Phoenix. But James Gunn, director of Superman and the co-head of DC Studios, doesn’t have Oscar fever as Hollywood gears up for the next big awards season.
In a new interview with Variety, Gunn—who, lest we forget, got his start among the legendary B-movies of Troma Entertainment—was asked his thoughts on “prestige versus mainstream” movies.
“I don’t care about prestige,” he said. “I mean, sure, would it be cool to be nominated for Best Director or something? Yeah, would I rather have that than not? But it’s not really my concern. Occasionally I have ideas that are more independent movies, but I like making the kind of movies that I make, and I like making pop cinema, for lack of a better term.”
He continued. “If I can have those things also be something that are emotionally resonant to people, or affect people in a deeper, more spiritual way, like a lot of people have told me that Superman did, a lot of people have told me that Guardians 3 did, then that’s fantastic. That’s what I would love to be able to do. But I like making the big movies too. There’s an artistry to it, the creative flow. But then I also like the part of it that’s putting the big puzzle together and creating this machine that works for an audience to elicit a reaction from them, whether it’s emotional, whether it’s laughter, whether it’s screaming, whether it’s whatever it is. That’s the fun part of it.”
Variety asked, but this is all Gunn would reveal about 2027’s Man of Tomorrow, Gunn’s next directorial effort: “At its core, it’s about Clark and Lex. I relate to both of them. I relate to Lex’s ambition and obsession—minus the murder. And I relate to Superman’s belief in people, his Midwestern values. They’re two sides of me.”
Oscar nominations are announced January 22. It sounds like Gunn, who is clearly already living the dream anyway, won’t be holding his breath.
We loved James Gunn’s Superman and are incredibly excited that we’ll get to see its characters return sooner rather than later, both on the big and small screens. But, until that happens, Abrams is releasing a new book called Superman: The Art and Making of the Film by James Field, which will take you back inside the production of the hit DC film. And now, io9 has an exclusive look.
Below, we have two gorgeous spreads from the book, which features an introduction by James Gunn and a foreword by Superman himself, David Corenswet. The first is a seriously cool look at the Daily Planet. “But Germain, we saw the Daily Planet in the film.” Yes, you did. But you didn’t see much of it and only in small tastes. Here, these pages reveal not just the full layout of the newsroom but also fascinating information about its construction. Or, more specifically, a lack thereof. Check it out.
You have to wonder if, with the upcoming Jimmy Olsen show, Gunn and team will have to reconstruct this found location somewhere on a soundstage. We bet they will. But we loved learning about this iconic location and how it was tackled in the film.
Speaking of iconic locations, our second exclusive spread is less informational and more inspirational. It’s a look at some truly gorgeous concept art of the Fortress of Solitude. The book is filled with this stuff, especially when it comes to the Fortress.
The book, which we caught a glimpse of in digital form, is chock-full of stunning art like that. There are also set photos, character portraits, exclusive interviews, you name it. Plus, in our favorite little nod, it’s got the full DC mural from the Hall of Justice. Which is kind of worth the price of admission on its own.
Superman: The Art and Making of the Film by James Field will be available wherever books are sold on November 18. Check out the cover below, and here’s the link on Amazon.
As the year comes to a close, it just means less time having to wait until 2026 for DC Studios’Lanterns show after Warner Bros.’ solid Peacemaker and Superman run.
The next phase of James Gunn and Peter Safran’s take on the DCU is the series showrun by Chris Mundy (True Detective) and starring Aaron Pierre as John Stewart.
In a new profile of the actor in Men’s Health, Mundy and Pierre spoke about the show, with Mundy explaining that their take on the Green Lantern’s heroic mantle is “as much of a buddy cop show as a superhero show.”
Centering on a seasoned Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and on-the-rise John Stewart, Lanterns will explore their dueling schools of thought when it comes to superhero legacies.
“Our show is in a lot of ways about replacement—when should someone step aside and when is it time for the next person to take the reins?” Mundy told the magazine. “That push and pull between those two characters is really important. So much of the power that John has is by not taking the bait, understanding that you lose your power if you’re yelling and screaming. That’s what we’re trying to convey: he knows he belongs, so he doesn’t have to overcompensate. There’s a real balance there that’s just innately inside of Aaron. He’s big. He’s an intimidating presence just physically. But there’s a softness to him too. There’s a thoughtfulness. You can’t teach that.”
For Pierre, “the character just radiates strength and fortitude … That hunger to be the best version of yourself, which also holds you accountable when you’re not.”
Lanterns will be the first time fans see John Stewart as a live-action character, and the duo understands the importance of that.
“Aaron felt a responsibility, especially as a Black man playing this particular role, to make sure he really understood him and brought him to life,” the showrunner said. “I think fans will see the reverence he has for it, and that goes a long way.”
What was James Gunn’s Arkham Asylum TV show update?
Speaking to BobaTalks in a recent interview with the YouTuber, Gunn was asked about Reeves’ show, which was originally set to be a spin-off to The Batman and focus on the Gotham City Police Department. Gunn was asked if there were any hopes for the show to come back, and while he didn’t say no, his answer all but shut the door on it.
“Hope? Sure. But that isn’t something that’s being developed by anyone right now. You know? Just didn’t work,” said Gunn.
The show, which was originally rumored to be titled GCPD, went through many changes. Originally described as a drama about the GCPD, reports suggested that Reeves then spun those plans into a separate project that would’ve focused on the iconic asylum that houses many of Batman’s most legendary foes.
For whatever reason, the show never materialized and Reeves ended up working on the award-winning and critically acclaimed series The Penguin instead. Whether or not Reeves will continue that series, or perhaps work on another DC project for Gunn, is unknown as of now. Currently, Reeves is working on the follow-up to The Batman, The Batman: Part II, which is set to release in theaters on October 1, 2027.
Originally reported by Anthony Nash for SuperHeroHype.
In the aftermath of the Peacemaker finale, DC Studios head James Gunn has faced an intense line of questioning regarding John Cena’s very much not meta-human anti-hero, who became the guinea pig to test out ARGUS’ Salvation prison dimension. Fans want to know about Darkseid, whose parademons can be heard in the trees and seen only by Peacemaker as the credits roll.
In a conversation with Screen Crush, the filmmaker revealed that the different universe his version of Salvation exists in does not stick to the script that DC Comics fans might expect in regard to Darkseid, who was featured in the Snyderverse Justice League.
“I don’t expect that to be exactly what it is,” he said bluntly, explaining that he loved the idea of the “Salvation Run,” the 2007 Bill Willingham/Lilah Sturges limited series (that was, fun fact, inspired by a pitch from Game of Thrones scribe George R. R. Martin!). “I liked the idea of supervillains building a society in this other dimension. And I liked the way that it was a very practical way that Amanda Waller and Rick Flag Jr., in that instance, were trying to deal with the problem of meta-humans who continuously escaped from prison in a way that I think a fed-up government might. Those were the things that interested me.”
But where “Salvation Run” and the DCU differ is on the origins of the world: in the comics, the planet was revealed to be a training world used by the New Gods of Apokolips, overseen by Darkseid’s right-hand man, DeSaad. In the DCU, there’ll be no New Gods connection to DeSaad or his master.
“You gotta remember the first and foremost thing is that I’m building a world, okay? And in that world, an aspect of that world is now obviously ARGUS, who are in charge of meta-human activities, have taken upon themselves to start sending meta-human prisoners to Salvation,” Gunn continued. “That’s the plan, at least. And then we’ll have to see how that affects and touches everything else.”
So don’t expect Peacemaker to bump into Darkseid despite the parademons of it all. But not just to make something original inspired by the comics, but because Gunn thinks that Darkseid shouldn’t be touched yet after both the prior DC movieverse and Marvel’s own Ominous Cosmic Big Bad Guy in the form of Thanos. After his MCU run with the Guardians of the Galaxy, featuring Gamora’s connection as Thanos’ daughter and how that tied that larger universe together, Gunn plans to stay away from that sort of territory for now.
“There are aspects of Darkseid and Thanos, [who] are obviously very similar. They look very similar,” Gunn concluded. “Using Darkseid as the big bad right now is not necessarily the thing, for a lot of reasons: because Zack [Snyder] did it so cool in his way. And because [of] Thanos in Marvel.”
After eight weekly episodes, Peacemaker season two has finally come to an end. James Gunn’s sophomore effort with the John Cena-led show, which exists in canon limbo between the DCUs of old and new, had a lot of hype around it. That hype became even more fever-pitched as the show was positioned as a direct follow-up to Superman. So without further ado, here are all the peaks and valleys from Peacemaker season two.
We here at io9 have made it our top priority to glaze Eagly, the best Peacemaker character (edging out Adrian by the narrowest of margins), at every given opportunity. He’s simply a delight. There’s just something about the Muppet kayfabe of its cast of actors having to pantomime (or better yet, act with a mocapped actor like in Superman) for all of Eagly’s silly little moments.
Whether it was Eagly indignantly ignoring the team to chase down some baloney or soaring into the fray for his big hero moment, the fact that CGI and motion capture turned a damn bird into a cherished character—and made viewers search “does the bird die” every week—is proof of how good Gunn is at weaponizing cute animals to pull at our heartstrings. Thankfully, the bird survived this season. Big shout-out to Dee Bradley Baker, whose wild career arc led to voicing the show’s undisputed best boy.
Peacemaker‘s second season felt distinctly sillier than its first. Maybe something was in the water with the show sharing a streaming service with Looney Tunes (before Warner Bros., in its infinite wisdom, got rid of the show) because this season had big Looney Tunes energy. No element emphasized that more than Michael Rooker’s Elmer Fudd-ass subplot as Red St. Wild, who hunted Eagly while toting a comedically oversized rifle. It’s always a good sign when a comic book show isn’t afraid of being goofy, and this whole bit was peak. No notes.
Liked: That big (albeit predictable) Earth X twist
Although viewers predicted that Peacemaker‘s alternate dimension was Earth X weeks in advance of when Gunn thought they would catch on, the punch of the reveal wasn’t any less effective as a huge “uh-oh” moment of the season. Kudos to Gunn for deliberately choosing background characters in Earth X to be of the mayonnaise complexion variety, while rapidly cutting back to our world—set in Atlanta, mind you—with very visible and, dare we say, drop-dead gorgeous extras turning the heads of the main cast. It was a clever twist made all the more poignant for fans sitting in anticipation for how that shoe would drop, and it dropped in the most hilarious way possible.
What’s more, it managed to make its entire Nazi world ride the line between being outwardly comedic and deeply upsetting, highlighting the danger Judomaster and Adebayo were in. We know Gunn tries not to make his works analogues for real life events (cough cough Superman), but letting Adebayo say the quiet part out loud about our current political climate not being so different from Earth X was some good shit. Robert Patrick’s character can keep his fence-sitting centrist hero speech, though.
From the moment Gunn became publicly cagey about where the rest of the season would head, it was clear the DC boss had big plans and cameos in mind. While it was a bit of a shame that, despite all the secrecy, he ended up scooping himself in the director’s commentary of Superman‘s expedited digital release, it didn’t make Nicholas Hoult‘s cameo as Lex Luthor any less huge.
Considering Gunn’s misgivings about his Peacemaker characters haphazardly making cameos in other DC projects without his prior knowledge, it was neat to see Gunn make Peacemaker feel less like a property stripped for parts to elevate shakier projects and instead act as an essential lynchpin. It can afford to have cameos that aren’t silhouettes, and big marquee players in the DC Universe can come play around in Peacemaker‘s toy box.
Gunn’s really good at making an ensemble cast of characters who are otherwise assholes feel like the most endearing, compelling, tight-knit group of pals. Peacemaker‘s cast is to DC what the Guardians of the Galaxy misfits were to Marvel, and that sentiment is made even more true in season two.
With every development where the gang was on their own splintered adventure, the thought of “I wonder what X would think/say about this” was all but impossible to ignore. And, not missing a beat, the show would deliver those moments. Seeing the gang’s reunion teased out was super effective because the show felt like its heart was made whole whenever the group got together and tried to overcome whatever harrowing situation they were in. Witnessing the gang giving each other shit from a place of love and dropping the pretenses of their joking relationships to get real was one of the best bits from the show.
Liked: John Cena’s evolution from wrestler to bona fide actor
Among wrestlers turned actors, the hierarchy of talent is still ironclad, with John Cena behind Dave Bautista and leaps ahead of Dwayne Johnson. However, Cena’s performance this season was his best yet; with his uncanny comedic timing, physical acting, and emotional depth, Cena was firing on all cylinders. You can always tell when an actor is just phoning it in compared to when they’re deeply in their element, playing off their costars and acting like a sponge, squeezing out every action and reaction they can from a scene. And Cena did that shit.
Watching him play a man with a silly helmet who bawls his eyes out when he’s seen as a joke—and later realizes his weirdo assortment of a found family is willing to kill his alternate dimension family to save him—was genuinely emotionally stirring. Sure, solid scripts lay the groundwork for exceptional stories—but the raw vulnerability and versatility Cena brought this season truly earned him the title of actor.
One of the strong points of Peacemaker‘s first season was its comedy. Much of it was Donnie Darko-esque, delivering terminally online asides about fandoms, niche factoids, or observations that would otherwise fit right at home on r/ShowerThoughts subreddit. But what made them work was that they weren’t throwaway quips to fill time. Some were overly long but worked because they were the rare, drawn-out, improvised bits in a sea of short-jab punchy jokes.
We didn’t get much of that this season. Instead, the humor hovered somewhere between “drawn-out Family Guy prelude to a cutaway gag that never comes” and Ghostbusters-reboot levels of “oops—all improvisations.” The end result was a lot of long-walked bits that weren’t worth their flimsy punchlines. Unfortunately, much of this was divvied up to Economos, making him a character one would reflexively brace themselves for in preparation for a ramble that didn’t go anywhere, much less effectively distract the bad guys while the rest of the gang engages in sneaky subterfuge.
It’s no secret that James Gunn loves his needle drops. And to his credit, he does it better than most. Much of his deep pulls are leagues preferable to the overplayed tunes other directors employ, which become more distracting to the scenes they’re tied to than a stellar underscoring.
That being said, Gunn got a bit too overzealous this time around. While yes, Foxy Shazam’s “Oh Lord” is a bop, its inclusion as one of three needle drops in montages in the show’s finale felt more like padding out a limp ending to a show whose penultimate episode ended on a stronger note than its own finale. What’s worse, many of the finale’s musical sequences felt like they would’ve been leagues more interesting as actual scenes. Speaking of…
Much of Peacemaker‘s thrust as a show felt like it petered out by the time its eighth episode and final episode rolled around. Sure, we got to see what happened between Harcourt and Chris on that boat. Sure, we got to see the gang have an emotional climax that deepened their bonds. But the whole episode felt like multiple epilogues stitched together to signpost where the DC Universe was going with portal dimensions, leaving the 11th Street kids in the dust.
And that sucked. Especially since its heavy-handed musical montages flattened moments when it felt like we were building up to the gang thwarting ARGUS’ plans with Planet Salvation, only to putz around with Judomaster, Fleury, and Bordeaux (who just show up as new members of the group without any real justification for why), setting up their own base of operations.
Having the legs cut under what felt like a way to get back at ARGUS made it seem like the show didn’t really know what to do with them. Plus, Chris getting black bagged and sequestered in Planet Salvation felt like a cop-out after that rah-rah speech about fighting back—and a bit of a waste of time with a show that’s otherwise been lean and to-the-point.
Ultimately, “Full Nelson” felt more like an empty punt toward the rest of the DC Universe that left its characters in a lurch. Placing Chris in a proverbial box and filing him away was certainly not a cathartic touchdown. We spent the whole season liking these characters. Having the finale set up other shows while shelving the 11th Street kids didn’t instill excitement for how Lanterns—or any future DC project—will “yes, and” with Peacemaker as an expansive connected universe.
Peacemaker season two is now streaming on HBO Max.
It began with Creature Commandos and got deeper withSuperman, but it was the finale of Peacemaker where James Gunn really began to pull the curtain back on his plans for the DC Universe. Since the very beginning of this journey, Gunn has made it clear that he has a plan for a big, overarching story in the DC Universe. One that you don’t have to watch every single piece of content to understand, but that will connect.
And while there have been teases before, the ending of Peacemaker season two is the first and best time we’ve had an idea of where this is all going.
So at the end of Peacemaker season two, Peacemaker himself (John Cena) is relegated to Salvation, a dimension where the government has begun to place metahumans it does not want to deal with. And, speaking with Rolling Stone, Gunn confirmed that the idea of Salvation is at the root of not just Peacemaker’s future, but the DC Universe at large.
“People should expect that the way that the military and Rick [Flag] and everybody are working together and they’ve created a probably illegal prison for metahumans on another dimension is gonna be a part of DCU stories going forward,” Gunn said. “And not just a tertiary, ‘Oh, this is Arkham’—it’s a part of the stories. There’s an escalating war, obviously, that’s going on between the government and metahumans. And this is a part of it.”
That “escalating war” will also be a part of the next two big pieces to the puzzle: Lanterns on HBO Max and Supergirl, in theaters June 2026. “Both those things are worked in,” Gunn said. “We knew both of those stories were a part of what we originally put together, so they’re part of the overall tapestry, but they’re also their own thing. Supergirl especially is a space adventure. It’s like Guardians [of the Galaxy]. Lanterns is its own thing. There’s just a longer, sort of a bigger world we’re building with all these different pieces and they do all come together and intersect sometimes in a story fashion and sometimes just in a, you know, ‘Here’s another piece of the world’ fashion.”
Of course, you begin to see that when you remember Peacemaker saw Rick Flag Sr. and Lex Luthor, star of the next Superman movie, Man of Tomorrow, in cahoots during this time. But, Gunn has teased, the big threat of that 2027 movie will be something new entirely.
“There is one big story,” Gunn said in a separate interview, as reported by Screen Brief. “On the one hand, everything is going to be okay to watch by itself, but there is still a bigger story that is being told that involves, for example, Salvation. And that story involves Rick Flag, it involves Lex and Superman, so those movies I’m going to be directing.”
” I’m not expecting people to go into Man of Tomorrow and know what Salvation is,” Gunn added. “We will say it in the movie. You’ll find out anything you need to know about, such [as] metahuman’s disappearing, through that movie.”
What do you think this story about metahumans disappearing thanks to the government will lead to? Let us know below.
The second season of Peacemakerhas been all about alternate universes and led to the return of some characters from last season and several movies. With a single episode left, one notable alum won’t be making the cut, but James Gunn assured that character hasn’t at all been forgotten.
During season one, Chris worked for Clemson Murn (Chukwudi Iwuji), who turned out to be be possessed by Ik Nobe Llok, an alien butterfly who didn’t want to join his people’s plans for world domination. Murn died, but Gunn nearly brought him back for this season, where he’d have been in Earth-2 (or rather, Earth-X) as another member of the Sons of Libery alongside Vigilante looking to free the planet from the reigning Nazis.
Instead of being “the worst guy in the world before he became a butterfly, Murn on their planet was a total action hero,” said Gunn on the latest Peacemaker podcast episode, further likening him to a “kick-ass Harriet Tubman.” This would’ve been part of a larger storyline for the season that ended up being cut, but Gunn said this idea “still exists. There’s still the future, we didn’t blow up Earth-2.”
Recently, Gunn indicated Peacemaker would have a future, just not necessarily a third season. When asked by Deadline about the show coming back, he told the outlet “some of these characters will continue” past season two. The specifics will be laid out in the upcoming finale, but at the same time, he’s not closing the door on an actual season three coming. It just depends on what his ever busy schedule looks like.
SPOILER ALERT: This story discusses major plot developments in Season 2, Episode 6 of “Peacemaker,” currently streaming on HBO Max.
James Gunn said in a new interview with GQ magazine that he heard from “a few racists” after “Peacemaker” dropped its bombshell Nazi twist during Season 2 Episode 6. Much of the new season of the DCU series has taken place on Earth X, which fans now know is an alternative universe where Nazi Germany won World War II. So yes, Gunn’s new DCU has a planet out there run by Nazis. The second season of “Peacemaker” is set after Gunn’s “Superman,” with Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor recently making a cameo on the show.
“I really do whatever I want with ‘Peacemaker’ — and I mean, in one respect, I do whatever I want with anything, because I am able to make my own choices and I’m my own boss. But with ‘Peacemaker,’ we really let it go. We take chances. We go to places where I think other people are afraid to go,” Gunn told GQ. “We got a lot of pushback from various sources within the structure, on this episode in particular, and we’re like, ‘Let’s not be bashful about this. Let’s just do the story that we want to do and I don’t want to have to pull punches with it.’”
“And it’s interesting because there hasn’t been that sort of… I have a few racists that have called me polarizing, but I’m okay with being polarizing and letting racists fall to the wayside,” Gunn added. “People have loved this episode the most, so it’s exciting… Listen, we’re dealing with a very sensitive subject. We’re dealing with racism and at the same time, there’s humor in this episode. And so, you’re dealing with something very delicate and yet we’re not being delicate about it — but I don’t think we’re not being delicate in a non-thoughtful way. I think we’re being thoughtful about it.”
Speaking to Varietyafter the episode aired. Gunn revealed he held his own private test screenings of “Peacemaker” Season 2 to see if anyone would notice some of the tidbits sprinkled throughout the episodes that tease the big Nazi reveal. The most notable tidbit is that Earth X is populated only with white people.
“No one noticed at all,” Gunn said. “And that was people of color, too, by the way. It wasn’t just, you know, the whites.”
Some internet sleuthers did end up noticing the all-white Earth X, however, as Gunn explained: “It’s really hard when you’re online and one person out of the millions of people that are watching the show says, ‘Wait a second, here’s a screenshot of what it’s like in the alternate world, and here’s a screenshot of the background actors in the DCU,’ and you see the difference between them immediately. A lot of people don’t go online to talk about television. So I got a lot of comments of people that were freaked out. But a lot of people knew it was coming.”
“Peacemaker” drops new episodes on Thursdays on HBO Max.
Peacemaker‘s penultimate episode gave us a lot more insight into Chris Smith’s (John Cena) “perfect” alternate universe. And just when we all thought we understood that it was the Nazi America, Auggie Smith (Robert Patrick) says something that throws a wrench into our assumptions.
**Spoilers for Peacemaker season 2 lie ahead**
In episode 6, Chris learned that his “perfect” world was filled with Nazis. Ads (Danielle Brooks) had to run away from Keith (David Denman) when he announced to everyone that “one got out” and suddenly the world Chris was willing to give up everything for was a lot darker than the world he lived in.
Now, we know that this world is one where the Nazis won World War II and it resulted in people of coloring being thrown into camps, as Vigilante (Freddie Stroma) telling everyone. But when Chris, Emilia (Jennifer Holland), and Economos (Steve Agee) all get caught up with Auggie and Keith, they learn some pretty shocking information.
The most shocking part about this back and forth was when Auggie pushed back at being called a Nazi. “Don’t call me that,” he said and when Emilia says “Don’t call you a Nazi?,” he responds by saying “I don’t agree with them.” Before he can explain what he means, Vigilante flies into the kitchen and stabs him repeatedly, stopping Auggie’s explanation right then and there.
He’s still not a good guy
We can tell throughout the rest of the episode that Chris is in shock. He thinks that his alternate universe is still a good dude and arguably, he’s better than Chris’ real dad but he is still upholding Nazi values. He might not “agree” with them but his son was the one who jumped out of a car and screamed at Ads.
Vigilante’s response to Auggie and Keith is telling. When our normal Adrian says that his best friend is Peacemaker, the new universe’s Adrian is furious because Auggie, Keith, and Chris in that universe all uphold the racist values of the Nazis in charge. He’s not absolved of sin because he simply thinks that he is different from the Nazis.
Keith, Chris, and Auggie are, in their own ways, supporting Nazi ideals by attacking those who are opposing them. Auggie can justify it all he wants but he’s still not a hero. And our universe’s Chris wants so badly to believe that his father can be good that he’s willing to ignore that for a brief moment. I trust that Emilia and Ads would both tell him how Auggie still wasn’t a “good” guy once they’re back home but still.
The twist reveal that Auggie isn’t as bad as Chris’ dad doesn’t do much for the character aside from showing that he is a different kind of coward in the Nazi America universe. I hope that Chris doesn’t try to think he’s anything other than a man who fought to uphold Nazi values, even if he didn’t “believe” the same thing as the Nazis.
Rachel Leishman (She/Her) is an Assistant Editor at the Mary Sue. She’s been a writer professionally since 2016 but was always obsessed with movies and television and writing about them growing up. A lover of Spider-Man and Wanda Maximoff’s biggest defender, she has interests in all things nerdy and a cat named Benjamin Wyatt the cat. If you want to talk classic rock music or all things Harrison Ford, she’s your girl but her interests span far and wide. Yes, she knows she looks like Florence Pugh. She has multiple podcasts, normally has opinions on any bit of pop culture, and can tell you can actors entire filmography off the top of her head. Her current obsession is Glen Powell’s dog, Brisket.
Her work at the Mary Sue often includes Star Wars, Marvel, DC, movie reviews, and interviews.
The new DC Universe is off to a fast start. We’ve got Peacemaker jumping through dimensions, Superman saving Metropolis, and Supergirl, Clayface, and more Green Lanterns all on the way. But the one thing most fans are waiting for is Batman and James Gunn recently offered a very broad update on when the Caped Crusader might be coming.
Over on Threads, a fan asked the president of DC Studios if he thinks the new DC Batman movie will release as late as 2030 or 2031, to which Gunn simply replied, “No.”
Of course, there are a lot of factors adding to this answer so let’s attempt to break them all down. Gunn and his DC Studios partner Peter Safran announced that they would be making a Batman movie, likely titled The Brave and the Bold, when they first took over DC a few years ago. In that time, Gunn has offered multiple updates on the project, mostly centered on his not wanting to rush into the movie with a script that he thinks is worth making. So, for the past few years, that script has been in the works, presumably getting better each and every day.
Notably, though, there is a Batman movie coming from DC in the near future. That’s The Batman: Part II, Matt Reeves’ follow-up to his 2022 hit starring Robert Pattinson. That film, as well as its spinoffs like The Penguin, exists in another universe. Pattinson’s Batman is not the Brave and Bold Batman who can, presumably, team up with David Corenswet’s Superman or John Cena’s Peacemaker.
Reeves’ film, however, has a release date of October 1, 2027 (two years from yesterday!). So, you can imagine DC and Warner Bros. would not want to release two Batman films too close to one another. If Reeves’ film is coming in 2027, and Gunn thinks their film will be before 2030 or 2031, you have to think 2029 is the aim right now. Give fans a year off from Batman on the big screen, and then bring in the new one.
Of course, this is all speculation. Gunn has said numerous times before he’s not going to rush the film but he’s thinking about it a lot. Batman is too important not just to DC but also to Warner Bros. When it happens, if it happens, it’ll be right. But, it’ll probably happen before the totally fake-sounding year of 2031.
This week’s Peacemaker episode ended with a twist fans have been calling for weeks, and now it’s affecting the show’s Fortnite presence.
At the end of Thursday’s “Ignorance is Chris,” the 11th Street Kids go to find Chris in the alternate universe he’s been hanging around in. Turns out it’s the Nazi dimension, made clear by Adebayo getting chased down by white people and the swastika in place of the 50 stars on the American flag. On Saturday night, Epic Games revealed it was disabling the “Peacemaker Hips” emote while it “inquires into our partner’s creative intentions. Assuming it’s not coming back, we’ll issue refunds in the next few days.”
Peacemaker’s dance emote from Fortnite has been disabled.
“As we inquire into our partner’s creative intentions in this collab emote. Assuming it’s not coming back, we’ll issue refunds in the next few days.” pic.twitter.com/hwHqOiid1o
The “Hips” emoji references the show’s season two intro, which has its cast flap their arms up and down in a way that makes them look like swastikas. That dance may also have been hiding the Nazi twist in plain sight (boy, what a sentence), so Epic’s spent two weeks potentially unaware that it was charging people 400 V-bucks (or $3.29) to make their characters dance like Nazis. At time of writing, neither WB or James Gunn have commented on the emote being disabled.
Fortnite’s no stranger to emote-related controversy, but the apparent secrecy behind the Peacemaker dance’s intent makes this all so fascinating from different angles. Is Gunn and WB at fault for not giving Epic a heads up about the meaning, or did the developer not do its job in properly vetting it? Is this just what happens as IP collaborations become so normalized, which Fortnite itself has had a hand in? The aftermath of this will be interesting to watch play out, and probably make the emote itself feel like an important part of the game’s ever-evolving life.
Fans had been waiting for a surprise cameo on Peacemaker season 2 and we got it. Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor was featured in episode 6 after Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo) goes to see him. But one line has the internet turning into detectives. Sort of.
Lex Luthor is talking to Rick about his time at Belle Reeve when he says the following: “You have the Justice Gang and Superman determining international politics. Meanwhile, I’m here in Belle Reeve listening to a bear-sized man with dragon skin butt-f****** a glowing twink with cartoon eyes in the cell beside me every night. I did everything I could to eradicate the metahuman blight and now I’m enshrouded in it for the next…what did the judge say? 265 years.”
While people were going back and forth on Lex Luthor talking about a sexual act like that, others focused on the two characters he could have been talking about. Priorities. And you’d be surprised how complicated it is to figure out which one is which. There are plenty of characters it could be but it seems the consensus has fallen to two characters in particular so let’s talk about their new relationship in the DCU.
The bear-sized man with dragon skin
(DC)
When it comes to a man with “dragon” skin, the answer is seemingly Killer Croc. Now, we’ve seen Killer Croc in live-action before in Suicide Squad, played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. He lived in the sewers and wore a hoodie. But in the DCU, he may have found love in the hopeless place known as Belle Reeve.
In the comics, he does have a relationship at times with Enchantress but hey, that’s okay. Maybe he has just moved on and found happiness locked away with his roommate behind bars. But for the most part, the clues that Lex gave to us through his upset point to Killer Croc as one half of this relationship annoying the LuthorCorp CEO.
The glowing twink with cartoon eyes
(DC)
Now, a glowing twink with cartoon eyes gets a little more complicated. Many are pointing to Doctor Phosphorus as the other half of this new fan favorite ship but here’s the catch: His skin literally burns people. Does the tough “dragon skin” of his lover withstand his irradiated skin? Is this a match made in Rogue and Magneto heaven?
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Whoever it is who found love at Belle Reeve, we’re happy for them.
Rachel Leishman (She/Her) is an Assistant Editor at the Mary Sue. She’s been a writer professionally since 2016 but was always obsessed with movies and television and writing about them growing up. A lover of Spider-Man and Wanda Maximoff’s biggest defender, she has interests in all things nerdy and a cat named Benjamin Wyatt the cat. If you want to talk classic rock music or all things Harrison Ford, she’s your girl but her interests span far and wide. Yes, she knows she looks like Florence Pugh. She has multiple podcasts, normally has opinions on any bit of pop culture, and can tell you can actors entire filmography off the top of her head. Her current obsession is Glen Powell’s dog, Brisket.
Her work at the Mary Sue often includes Star Wars, Marvel, DC, movie reviews, and interviews.
What’s going on with Batman and Brave & the Bold, his first movie in this growing DC universe? According to James Gunn, things are going well, but not so well that they’ve found an actor for the superhero just yet.
Gunn previously mentioned 1923 on a recent Peacemaker podcast episode, prompting speculation that he was scouting out Sklenar. But he told THR he just likes the show and creator Taylor Sheridan’s work—he considers Sklenar “great” on it, but he’s watching “mostly for fun, definitely not because I need to find a Batman.” He did, however, single out Julia Schlaepfer, who plays Sklernar’s wife on the show: “She’s just so fantastic that I suggested her for something recently.”
As for Brave & the Bold, Gunn revealed to IGN the script is in a pretty good place. But when it comes to its co-lead Damian Wayne, “plenty of things are in flux. Some things have changed on what his situation is with his parentage and all that stuff.” When asked for clarification on what exactly that means, like who Damian’s parents are or if he’ll still be in the movie, he just said “you have to wait and see exactly what’s happening.”
Cryptic, but at least we know the movie still exists. Hopefully, we learn who our new Batman is, and what else to expect from Brave & the Bold, sooner rather than later.
If you watched the latest episode of the HBO Max original and DC Studios series Peacemaker,the question on every Superman fan’s mind has been answered by James Gunn. We finally know who shows up to help Rick Flag Sr. and ARGUS course-correct Peacemaker’s whole portal door to Earth X (Nazi America) ordeal, leading into the show’s finale.
However, if you haven’t watched, a spoiler warning is ahead!
When it came down to who to get help from with finding the 11th Street Kids and where they took the portal, ARGUS director Rick Flag Sr. went to the most powerful villain they have in their pocket (jail cell). And that, of course, is Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), who has a big price to use his tech to track down Peacemaker and friends.
In an interview with Variety, director and DC head James Gunn discussed the cameo that many thought would be David Corenswet as Superman and why it’s not (despite a certain Peacemaker x Supes selfie). Gunn even went as far as squashing our hopes to see an Earth X or Earth-1 Man of Steel, telling the trade, “No,” to the possibility: “In fact, David was very upset that Nick got to be on the show, and he didn’t. It just didn’t work.”
So no Nazi Superman, which in a way is a relief because we don’t want to tarnish the feel-good way Corenswet opened his era as the hero.
Gunn continued to explain why he needed Hoult back: “I needed Lex in the show to serve a specific purpose. And actually, what Lex and Rick Flag are up to affects very much what happens in an aspect of Man of Tomorrow. So all of that is connected. But this relationship between Rick Flag and Lex Luthor is a potentially negative thing for Superman and all meta-humans.”
He also discussed that it has all been in alignment with his plans for DC Studios as part of his universe reset pitch from the get-go. “I didn’t know some things about it, but I knew what the overall story of the DCU was. That was something I pitched to [Warner Bros. Discovery CEO] David Zaslav before we even took the job. I’m like, here’s the story. There’s going to be this movie, this show, this movie, this show, and those things all fit in in different ways. Some things came, like Clayface, that we didn’t expect, and other things have been a harder road to travel. But the general outline of that overall story is what we are following through Superman, Peacemaker,Man of Tomorrow, and beyond.”
In a recent interview with The Ringer-Verse, Gunn was asked about his approach to Lex for Tomorrow and the DC universe overall. Gunn is aiming to “get into the heart of Lex” and explore more of his human side. By his own admission, Lex was a bastard in that first movie (even before he killed Superman support Malik), but still feels there’s something “incredibly heroic” about the bald baddie at his core.
“[Lex] is a guy who [sees Superman] and says, ‘You can hold up a building or shoot down planes with your eyes. Fuck you, I’m gonna kick your ass because I’m better than you.’ I can’t help but admire Lex’s tenacity and his ego,” said Gunn. While nothing Lex’s jealousy and inferiority complex regarding Superman is through the roof, Gunn acknowledged how relatable a feeling that can be, and something he hopes to further explore in Tomorrow.
“That [jealousy] makes Lex full, so much more than most of these villains we’ve seen in these movies,” Gunn continued. “He’s got his reasons for everything, and he’s the underdog. He’s got corporate power to manipulate things, but he can’t fly to space or lift up a building. […] He’s just a guy, and I fucking love that.”
Gunn’s previously teased Man of Tomorrow as a teamup flick with Lex and David Corenswet’s Superman against a threat only the two of them can handle. Whatever that threat is, it’ll see Lex don his warsuit to help Superman out, only to double-cross him. We’ll see how that fractured alliance plays out when the film releases on July 9, 2027.
On September 3, James Gunn announced the new Supes movie title and release date. It’ll be called Man of Tomorrow and perhaps feature Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) in a mecha suit. That is, if the Jim Lee art Gunn posted on Instagram is a clue to the film’s plot.
Previously, Gunn said this movie wouldn’t be a direct sequel to Superman. “Superman has a major role,” he wrote on Threads. “It’s not Superman 2.”So who is the titular Man of Tomorrow? He later explained to Howard Stern how Superman and Lex Luthor will have to “work together to a certain degree against a much, much bigger threat.” Gunn also teased that Luthor will be much more involved. “And it’s more complicated than that. It’s as much a Lex movie as it is a Superman movie,” he continued. “I relate to the character of Lex, sadly.” He also shared they’ll start filming in April 2026.
As for how the pre-production process was for Gunn? Smooth sailing. He tells a fan on Threads that writing the sequel was “much much much easier” and “so fun.” Gunn told Collider on August 16 that he’s “totally done with the treatment” for the second film. “We’re scheduling it now,” he shared. “My treatments are incredibly intense. They’re not regular treatments. They’re 60-page treatments with dialogue and everything. And so, now I’m just turning that into a script. We’re planning out when we’re going to shoot that. It’s going to be much sooner rather than later.” Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav also confirmed this in an earnings call on August 7, where he teased that Gunn will write and direct the “next movie in the Super-Family.”
WBD has set July 9, 2027, as the release date for Man of Tomorrow. Where does it fit on the new DCU timeline? Our guess is maybe somewhere in between Lanterns and The Brave and the Bold?
Krypto’s dog-mom, of course. Supergirl is here to save our summer on June 26, 2026.
Peacemaker Season 2 showrunner James Gunn has finally clarified why he decided to provide canon status to Joel Kinnaman‘s Rick Flag Jr. in the DCU. Despite retconning the Justice League’s appearance in 2021’s The Suicide Squad with the freshly introduced Justice Gang to fit the ongoing DCU narrative, Gunn interestingly chose to build upon Flag’s story. In a recent interview, the filmmaker has opened up about his decision to include Kinnaman’s character in the follow-up edition of Peacemaker.
James Gunn explains why he carried Rick Flag Jr. from The Suicide Squad over to DCU
In an interview with Collider, James Gunn revealed that Rick Flag Jr. was already involved with Jennifer Holland’s Emilia Harcourt during the events of The Suicide Squad, and he wanted to make use of this connection to further the plot of Peacemaker Season 2.
“I always knew, from the beginning. Jen [Holland] and I knew that Harcourt and Flag had been having an affair when The Suicide Squad stuff happened. That was her reason for disliking Peacemaker so much, from the very beginning of episode one of Peacemaker,” the director said.
He further added, “We knew that she had this relationship with him that was not only a sexual relationship, but that’s just the way that they deal with their stuff. It really was a friendship. And so, that was always a plan.”
Gunn further shared that his desire to see Joel Kinnaman in a comedic role also motivated him to include Rick Flag Jr. in Peacemaker Season 2. “Joel’s a good friend of mine. He’s an incredibly funny guy, and people don’t know it. He’s literally never been in a comedy.”
The filmmaker continued, “And so, just allowing him to go out there and be this ridiculous, namby-pamby character was so fun for me. When I was writing it, I was just laughing, knowing I would be making Joel do this. And then, Joel just did it perfectly.”
Having made his debut as Rick Flag Jr. in 2016’s Suicide Squad, Kinnaman returned as the military veteran in Gunn’s soft reboot of the film in 2021. He recently reprised his role in Peacemaker Season 2, effectively establishing his character’s place in the current DCU canon.
Originally reported by Apoorv Rastogi on SuperHeroHype.
The writer-director appeared onThe Howard Stern Showwhere he offered an update on the recently announcedSuperman follow-up. He explained that instead of merely spotlighting David Corenswet’s Clark Kent, the movie will also focus on Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor.
“It is a story about Lex Luthor and Superman having to work together to a certain degree against a much, much bigger threat,” he said. “And it’s more complicated than that. It’s as much a Lex movie as it is a Superman movie. I relate to the character of Lex, sadly.”
When later discussing the ever-growing DCU slate and the writing process he went through for Peacemaker, Gunn offered a teaser of when the sequel will begin filming, stating, “That was at the beginning when I took on DC and I promised myself I’m slowing down at least a tiny bit. Although I am creating the Superman sequel that we’re starting to shoot in April or so.… I’m done writing that for the most part.”
Gunn teased the future of his self-titled Superman Saga in conversation with The Hollywood Reporter at the season two premiere of Peacemaker, where he revealed, “I’ve already finished the treatment for the next story in what I’ll call the ‘Superman Saga.’ The treatment is done, which means a very, very worked-out treatment. I’m working on that and hopefully going into production on that not too far away from today.”
Man of Tomorrow is set to hit theaters July 9, 2027. It’s safe to say Gunn’s slate is jam-packed, as DC Studios will next see the release of Craig Gillespie’s Supergirl on June 26, 2026, while James Watkins’ Clayface will arrive Sept. 11, 2026.
