James Gunn’s takeover of DC Studios with his co-chair Peter Safran has proven to be perhaps the most controversial decision in recent memory for the DC Universe. However, it seems as though the Superman: Legacy director was prepared for all the backlash he would get.
It’s hard to believe that James Gunn and Peter Safran were announced to be co-chairs of the newly created DC Studios only eight months ago, replacing longtime leader Walter Hamada and promising a new, cohesive age for the DC Universe. While many fans are excited for this new direction, Gunn revealed on Michael Rosenbaum’s Inside of You podcast that he knew he was jumping into a “ring of fire” because everyone had a different idea of what DC was supposed to be:
“I knew that there was going to be many challenges as we embarked on that journey, because people have different ideas about how things are supposed to be,” Gunn spoke “People have all sorts of things that they love whether they love things from the DCEU, or they love things from the Arrowverse, they love things from the animated worlds, or whatever, that is something that we knew was going to be a ring of fire we were gonna have to walk through.”
There has been perhaps no modern day fandom as divided in itself as DC fans. Even outside of the usual divide between comics and films, different fans seem to have different opinions on what makes a DC movie great, be it the gritty realism of the Zack Snyder films, the campy fun of the CW Arrowverse, or somewhere in between like the DC Animated Universe. James Gunn and Peter Safran have the unenviable position of uniting these fans with a new slate of films starting with Superman: Legacy. Only time will tell if they’ll succeed.
The future of the DC Universe
James Gunn and Peter Safran told journalists that their vision for the DC Universe includes locked scripts, wiggle room and a unified storyline across film, teleivsion, animation and video game projects. The two explained that the DC Universe could bring back elements from previous DC regimes, meaning that their eight-to-year plan is not a full reboot.
Blue Beetle and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom are currently in various stages of post-production at Warner Bros. Discovery, with both DC Universe movies slated to hit theaters in 2023. Will the characters from those movies make appearances in the new DCU? Only Gunn and Safran know.
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