Is The Authority ever coming to the silver screen? James Gunn reveals how DC Studios projects like Superman have pushed back the comic book movie.
When James Gunn and Peter Safran first announced the initial slate for DC Studios, one project stood out among all of the rest. It wasn’t huge announcements like Superman, nor projects based around cult heroes like Booster Gold. Rather, fans were perplexed when it was announced that The Authority, a lesser-known team that almost nobody was asking to see get a live-action adaptation, was getting its own film in the new DC Universe.
This confusion hasn’t cleared up in the following years, with The Authority being the DC Studios project fans have the least details about. This project was discussed during a recent DC Studios presentation with James Gunn and Peter Safran, where they two were asked why it’s taking so long to materialize. The answer was shockingly simple: Superman!
“I mean, what I would say about The Authority is it’s a property that we absolutely love,” Safran explained to the audience. “But as we were developing it, it’s a very, very big movie, if you’re going to do The Authority properly. And some story elements, you know, perhaps that are in Superman and some of the other films that we’ve fast-tracked, yeah, step a little bit on The Authority.”
“I’ll be—yeah, being just completely, you know, honest, out of all—that’s always a mistake,” Gunn continued. “No, it’s not good. It’s—out of all the projects that we had, everything is still 100% fully on track. The one that’s the most kind of got messed with through all of the other good things that are happening, yeah, is The Authority, and the script has also had a harder time coming along.
“So that’s been a part of it as well. So it’s not—it hasn’t been as much of a priority because it has been subsumed by, you know, by some other TV projects we’re working on, by Batman: Brave and the Bold, by the Wonder Woman stuff we’re working on and everything else.”
Why The Authority Has Been Pushed Back By Superman
It may seem odd that progress on The Authority has stalled simply because DC Studios is putting a higher priority on other projects. However, it does make sense when taking in the entire DC landscape being created. One of the team’s fan-favorite characters, The Engineer, is already being used in Superman by James Gunn. So until that project was completely finalized, it was impossible for a script for The Authority to be finished.
Characters may not be the only parts of DC Studios’ project that could stall The Authority. Most of the team’s books have a large focus on where the line should be drawn for heroes, with the team being far more brutal than many others in the DC Universe. Given what we know about other projects announced by James Gunn and Peter Safran, such as Waller and leaks regarding Superman, the idea of heroes doing whatever it takes to save the day will likely be heavily featured in the first DCU projects, potentially making The Authority feel redundant.
The Authority is currently in development at DC Studios. Stay tuned for the latest news regarding the future of the DC Universe and make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more content!
