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Tag: peter safran

  • Checking In on the DCU’s 10-Year Plan

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    Keepers of the DCU.
    Photo: Stewart Cook//Warner Bros. via Getty Images

    In 2022, James Gunn and Peter Safran were named co–biggest boys of DC Studios. Shortly thereafter, the pair announced that they had an “eight- to ten-year” plan for how the DCU would be connected across movies, TV, and video games. In that initial press conference, the duo unveiled the first part of their universe, Chapter One: Gods and Monsters, the big keystone of which was Superman. Or, as it was known then, Superman: Legacy. Other pieces set to follow included an Amanda Waller cartoon, some live-action Green Lantern shenanigans, and the film debut of Damian Wayne. So how has Gunn and Safran’s ten- (or eight-)year plan been going?

    Before Gunn and Safran could get their vision underway, they had to finish out the projects already chugging along the Warner Bros. Discovery assembly line. Okay, not all of them. A third Wonder Woman film was axed in December 2022.

    It was always unclear how much of the old DCEU would be making it into the Gunniverse. Viola Davis has played Amanda Waller across the Suicide Squad movies, but after the underperformance of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, Jason Momoa transitioned from Ocean Man to Space Bounty Hunter. He’s playing Lobo in the upcoming Supergirl film. Then there’s The Flash. In his initial rollout video, Gunn said the film “resets the entire DC Universe.” But that reset ended with George Clooney as Batman, so how central to the continuity can it be?

    The first official release from the ten-/eight-year plan was the animated Creature Commandos. It was Gunn’s trial run in having the same actors play characters across animation and live-action. Frank Grillo plays Rick Flag Sr. on the show and in Superman. The show introduced animated Amanda Waller, voiced by Viola Davis, cementing her place in the nüDCU. It also means G.I. Robot can fight Nazis in live-action, should the need arise.

    But obviously, the most important release for this ten-year plan was Superman. And now that it’s breaking box-office records, Gunn & Co. can unclench a little. The film sets up the Green Lantern Corps. and Supergirl, and even brings Hawkgirl from Peacemaker into moviedom.

    Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion) sets up the Green Lantern Corps. for HBO’s Lanterns. The show will be a double-hander between Lanterns Hal Jordan and John Stewart, “very much in the vein of True Detective,” per Safran and Gunn. The show is expected to come out in early 2026. Kyle Chandler will play Jordan, opposite Aaron Pierre as Stewart, per Deadline. Created by Damon Lindelof and Tom King, the show will follow noob Lantern Stewart and veteran Jordan as they solve a murder in flyover America. And those boys can fly.

    The ending of Superman sets up Milly Alcock as Supergirl, a hot mess Kryptonian party girl. Turns out Krypto is her dog, and Clark was pet-sitting while she got shit-faced off-world. Gunn has already said the film will closely follow the Woman of Tomorrow arc, with outer-space high jinks with her protege Ruthye (Eve Ridley) and the dark ’n’ gritty Lobo (Jason Momoa). Supergirl lands in theaters June 26, 2026.

    David Zaslav indicated that the Clayface movie is imminent in his statement celebrating Superman’s box-office success obtained by THR. “Over the next year alone, DC Studios will introduce the films Supergirl and Clayface in theaters and the series Lanterns on HBO Max, all part of a bold ten-year plan,” he wrote. “The DC vision is clear, the momentum is real, and I couldn’t be more excited for what’s ahead.” Clayface is reportedly shooting in Liverpool right now, with a tentative release date some time in 2026.

    While the world waits for Supergirl, her cousin’s next adventure is already being worked on. James Gunn told Collider that he’s “totally done with the treatment” for the Superman sequel. “We’re scheduling it now,” he explained. “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.” On September 3, Gunn announced that the upcoming Supes sequel will be titled Man of Tomorrow and come out July 9, 2027. Start your Doomsday clocks now.

    Gunn has been sharing some details about The Brave and the Bold, the DCU’s introduction to the entire Batfam. It’s going to be a father-son flick about Bruce and his son, Damian Wayne. All we really know about this movie’s casting, however, is that Robert Pattinson won’t be BatDad.

    We haven’t heard much about the planned Waller animated show since November 2024, when Gunn bleeted that the show was still in development. But on August 30, Gunn told People the show was still on his To-Do list. “We’re working on it, so we’ll see what happens,” he said. “Some things have moved faster than others. Waller’s not been the fastest.” In a since-deleted tweet, Gunn had previously attributed the delay on Waller to script issues. “Unlike most studios, we’ll never start production on a process if the script isn’t finished. Quality is the utmost priority,” he wrote in a very obvious dig at Disney’s MCU.

    James Gunn confirmed that Supergirl and Teen Titans writer Ana Nogueira is working on the script for the upcoming Wonder Woman movie. Gunn also denied the rumor that the movie’s being fast-tracked by the studio: “It’s a priority, but I wouldn’t call that fast-tracked. Nothing is going to be shot unless we’re as sure as we can be that the script is good.” Sorry, Gal Gadot, DC Studios is eyeing a new Diana Prince for the next generation of supes. So we’re probably still a few years away from revisiting Themyscira.

    Some shows and movies seem to have moved to the back burner, if they’re happening at all. There’s been very little info about The Authority (a “by any means necessary” alternative to the Justice League), Paradise Lost (a Game of Thrones–look-alike set on Wonder Woman’s homeland), the Booster Gold HBO Max series, or whatever Gunn and Safran are/were planning to do with Swamp Thing. But, hey, there are still five to seven years to go!

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    Bethy Squires

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  • DC Studios Boss Says Jason Momoa “Will Always Have a Home at DC,” Even If It’s the “End of the Journey” for ‘Aquaman’

    DC Studios Boss Says Jason Momoa “Will Always Have a Home at DC,” Even If It’s the “End of the Journey” for ‘Aquaman’

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    Peter Safran, the co-head of DC Studios, has shared that Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom could be Jason Momoa’s final appearance as the legendary comic book character.

    His comment came after the actor also said that the future of the DC superhero franchise is “not looking too good.”

    While recently speaking at the Aquaman sequel event at the IWC Schaffhausen boutique in Beverly Hills, Safran responded to a question about Momoa’s future at DC Studios. “When I think of Jason in this role, he is the definitive Aquaman,” he responded. “He’s redefined it. … It’s really been an 11 or 12-year journey for him — a lot of the audience doesn’t realize that he was cast so long ago. It’s kind of redefined him. When he took this role he was known as Khal Drogo, and now he’s really Aquaman.”

    Heading into Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom‘s theatrical release on Friday, the movie is tracking for a soft opening at the box office, which would pale in comparison to the first installment, released in 2018. The film, directed by James Wan, has also been met with negative reviews and currently has a 38 percent critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In her review, The Hollywood Reporter Arts & Culture Critic Lovia Gyarkye said the sequel is “frustratingly committed to formula.”

    But for Safran, he just hopes fans “will really be here to support him [Momoa] in this journey. If it’s the end of the journey, fine. If it goes on, that’s also fine, but I think it has meant so much to him. The way [director] James [Wan] crafted this second film, it feels like a very complete story when you watch the two films together.”

    He added, “We’ll see what happens with him beyond it. I know that Jason will always have a home at DC, and at Warner Bros. In fact, his next movie is Minecraft.”

    Safran and James Gunn took over DC Studios last year and have been open about creating their own vision for the DC cinematic universe.

    Last week, Momoa talked to Entertainment Tonight about reports that Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom could be his last time playing the King of Atlantis. “I don’t necessarily want it to be the end… [but] I don’t think it’s really, like, a choice,” he said at the time.

    Though the actor has greatly enjoyed playing the comic book character, he understands that Safran and James Gunn want “to start their own new thing up” at DC Studios.

    “The truth of it is, I mean, if the audience loves it, then there’s a possibility,” Momoa said of the possibility to play Aquaman again. “But right now, I’m like, ‘It’s not looking too good.’”

    He added, “I love this character and [I would want to] play it for a long time. I kind of see where I would want it to go. And even in the next 10 years or so, like there’s a lot of cool things they can do. And I do enjoy the role and the world. So, I mean, it just comes down to if people love it.”

    At the IWC Schaffhausen event, Safran was there as the Swiss luxury watchmaker launched its Aquaman-inspired watches, the Aquatimer Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month, in partnership with Warner Bros. Pictures.

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    Carly Thomas

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  • It’s Hard to Be Excited Over DC Movie News, Even for Fans of James Gunn’s Work

    It’s Hard to Be Excited Over DC Movie News, Even for Fans of James Gunn’s Work

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    Recently, it was announced that James Gunn and Peter Safran would both be the top creative leads at DC. While I like some of Safran’s work, and much of Gunn’s over the last few years, it’s very hard to be excited about this announcement considering the decisions of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) over the course of most of this year and the circumstances around the recent departure of previous DC head Walter Hamada.

    The first reason for concern was outlined extensively in the report that whoever would head DC would still have to report directly to WBD CEO David Zaslav. In a perfect world, this would actually streamline things because reporting to a full board would be messy and subject to having too many chefs trying to write a menu. However, considering how Zaslav rose to power and his toxic strongman approach to leadership, this is a red flag. Now, even before Zaslav and his wrecking crew came in, guns a-blazing, Hamada was not going to stick around. Shake-ups like this aren’t uncommon, even if it’s not so sudden and violent in every sector (see the gutting of animation), and Hamada found out about Batgirl‘s cancellation at the same time as everyone else. If he didn’t know he was leaving or not valued, this definitely sent that signal.

    Also, there’s a lack of patience and a demand for results regarding making the DC Universe comparable to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That’s despite the critical and/or commercial success of the films released since Hamada’s appointment in 2018. This includes Shazam!, Joker, Birds of Prey, Wonder Woman 1984, the Zack Snyder’s Justice League, The Suicide Squad, The Batman, and now Black Adam. Although, with Justice League come accusations from Ray Fisher of undermining the investigation into the abuse Fisher faced on the film’s set. That alone is a reason for many to be wary of Hamada’s leadership and show the limits of representation.

    Yes, I’m going to make it about race

    All of this aside, even if everything were sunshine and rainbows, I fully expected Hamada to be replaced by a white man. I’m just surprised it was two of them. That Dan Lin rumor didn’t phase me when projects and positions led by marginalized communities in WBD were cut left and right. Days before the announcement of DC films’ new leaders, WBD cut and then reinstated (possibly because they legally can’t cut it) a pipeline for more diverse talent behind the scenes.

    This is because Discovery (pre-merger) was super white, and the first investor call for the merged company spoke so much about nostalgia, capitalizing on existing IP (which is mostly white), and the need to court more audiences in middle America. Middle America is home to people of all types, including many refugee and immigrant populations, but that’s not what most people mean when they allude to this region.

    Also, I suspect that by naming two heads of DC, he is also diluting the creative power of each of them. Now, here are three visions for how to move forward. Based on Peacemaker and The Suicide Squad alone, I see Gunn and Zaslav with competing visions. Ideally, Gunn and Safran would always work together and be cohesive, but it will only take one begrudged head to ally with Zaslav. Or if one has a falling out or public clash with Zaslav or anyone at WBD, the other can be used as insurance.

    (featured image: Jesse Grant/Getty Images)

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    Alyssa Shotwell

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