Not every studio can have its own Marvel Cinematic Universe. Warner Bros. learned that the hard way when it drafted director Zack Snyder to build out a billion-dollar movie franchise based on DC Comics, starting with Man of Steel in 2013. After 10 years of dramatically diminishing returns, the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) finally guttered out with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom in 2023.
But Warner Bros. wasn’t about to put a potential cash cow like that out to pasture. The studio has hired director James Gunn and producer Peter Safran to create a new DC Universe (DCU). It officially kicked off this past summer with Superman, which was a big hit with both critics and audiences, drawing people to the movie theaters at a time when more and more people are choosing to just stream movies at home.
Will this new DCU become the smash that Warner Bros. wants, or will it crash and burn all over again? So far, Gunn and company are doing everything right.
The new DCU is taking its time
Slow and steady wins the race
Zack Snyder’s DCEU tried to do too much, too fast. After Man of Steel, the next film out was 2016’s Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, which brought the Caped Crusader into the mix. Just one year after that, the two teamed up with other DC heroes, such as Aquaman, the Flash, and Cyborg, in Justice League, which famously underperformed at the box office. One big reason was that fans weren’t as invested in these characters simply because they weren’t given enough time. Only two members of this Justice League — Superman and Wonder Woman — were spotlighted in solo adventures beforehand, so unless you were a comic book fan, most of these characters were unfamiliar.
Compare that to how Marvel began its historic run of superhero films. Releasing character origin movies, the Marvel Universe let us fall in love with the likes of Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor before they all came together in 2012’s The Avengers. With all that build-up, The Avengers felt like a once-in-a-generation movie event. Justice League felt like Warner Bros. playing catch-up.
This time around, James Gunn knows to take things slow. Superman introduced us to some of the main players in this universe, including heavy-hitters like David Corenswet as the Man of Steel and Nicholas Hoult as his arch-nemesis Lex Luthor. Gunn is now working on a sequel movie called Man of Tomorrow, which will force Superman and Luthor to team up against a common enemy.
Sequels are delicate things, and Gunn is approaching this one delicately. Man of Tomorrow will center on familiar characters like Superman and Lex Luthor, with new characters supporting those we already know. The DCU may well eventually build to a giant team-up movie, but at the rate it’s going, I’m willing to bet we’ll know all the characters inside and out by then, rather than learning about them on the fly. Gunn seems to grasp what the people behind the DCEU learned too late: moving too fast can cause the whole cart to tip over.
The new DCU is brighter, lighter, and more fun
Gritty isn’t always the way to go
At the end of Man of Steel, Superman did something out of character, ending the film on a gritty and dark note. For a Zack Snyder film, this made sense: Snyder is known for making movies with washed-out colors, brutal ultra-violence, and unrelenting grimness. However, for a Superman movie, it was a shock and stirred up considerable controversy.
Superman has been around for nearly 100 years, and there have been times in his long history when his story has become quite dark. However, he is generally portrayed as a friendly protector who will do everything in his power to avoid killing people, including his enemies. James Gunn’s Superman is much more in line with that template. This Superman takes time out of a fight with a monstrous kaiju to save a squirrel; it’s hard to picture him twisting anyone’s neck off their body.
I’m not saying that you’re wrong if you prefer Zack Snyder’s brutality to James Gunn’s gentle irony — ultimately, that’s subjective — but Gunn’s vision is better for the long-term health of the franchise. This way, there’s somewhere for Superman to go if Gunn ever wants to take him to a darker place, whereas Snyder’s Superman started dark and just got darker, metaphorically and literally; check out the black super-suit above.
Also, the cheerier tone is more inviting for family audiences, which I’m sure makes Warner Bros. very happy.
The new DCU feels unpredictable
They’re going to make a movie about who?
Zack Snyder crafted his DCEU in the shadow of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it showed. Batman v. Superman contains hasty references to numerous major characters we don’t properly meet until Justice League, an obvious attempt to tease viewers into coming back for what Warner Bros. hoped, in vain, would be a billion-dollar blockbuster in the style of The Avengers. The DCEU was clearly chasing Marvel’s success, which made everything feel a shade too predictable. It’s no wonder so many people shrugged off Justice League when it finally arrived.
James Gunn, on the other hand, seems to be taking steps to be as unpredictable as possible. The next movie he has lined up is Supergirl, which is about Clark Kent’s cousin, Kara, played by Milly Alcock. Supergirl will also star Krypto the Superdog, the true breakout star of Superman. That alone should get people into the theater.
Supergirl is scheduled for release in June of next year. After that, the weirdness truly begins: a movie about the Batman villain Clayface, written by The Haunting of Hill House creator Mike Flanagan, is set to land in theaters in September. It’s hard to understate what a strange decision this is. An actor-turned-shape-shifting criminal, Clayface is beloved by Batman fans, but when it comes to the Caped Crusader’s most famous adversaries, I don’t think he cracks the top 10.
Regardless, James Gunn and Peter Safran are choosing to devote a whole movie to him, before they even give one to Batman. Are they making a huge mistake, or is Flanagan’s script just that undeniable? Either way, I’m extremely curious, which is right where Gunn and Safran want me.
Digging in for the long haul
At the moment, this new DC Universe has just one movie and a couple of TV projects to its name. Gunn and Safran have a long road ahead of them, but they’re already on surer footing than Zack Snyder was at this early stage. Can they keep that up long enough for the DCU to fly where the DCEU fell?
You’re free to decide for yourself. Superman just started streaming on HBO Max, which has lots of great stuff to watch these days, and easily became the number one movie on the service. One successful movie does not make a successful cinematic universe, but I’m going to take a cue from our newly sunny Man of Steel and stay optimistic.
