Marking his debut in the DC universe, James Gunn delivered the best DCEU entry throughout its lifespan with The Suicide Squad, which was a drastic improvement over its 2016 predecessor. But prior to helming the The Suicide Squad film, Gunn was once offered the choice to helm a Superman film for the DC universe, which he refused.
Fast forward to today, Gunn is not only running an entire studio but is also shaping DCU’s iteration of Superman, which will kickstart a new beginning for the brand. However, instead of being a franchise Kickstarter, Gunn was initially hired to pen the upcoming Superman film as its own entity, similar to The Batman.
James Gunn’s Superman Was Initially Meant to Exist as Its Own Separate Entity
In 2022, with The Batman, Matt Reeves delivered what fans have been waiting for ages, the caped crusader’s detective skills, resulting in the noir thriller becoming a huge hit. While the DCEU had to end to make room for the new universe, Robert Pattinson‘s The Batman was left untouched and is set to exist as an Elsworld IP moving forward. Interestingly, the upcoming Superman film was initially set to follow in The Batman‘s footsteps and exist as an Elseworld property.
Answering fans, James Gunn clarified that Mike De Luca, Chairperson of Warner Bros. Entertainment, initially hired him to pen the upcoming Superman film as its own separate entity. Keeping in mind this was before the failure of the Black Adam, which led to WBD resorting to Gunn to helm the new DCU, we could’ve had Henry Cavill and Gunn’s Superman co-existing. Although, unfortunately, this wasn’t the case, it was probably for the best as the DCEU was on life support since BVS‘s failure, from which it never really recovered.
James Gunn Won’t Be Directing All the Episodes of Peacemaker Season 2
With the director deep into shooting Superman, James Gunn confirmed that the highly anticipated sequel to Peacemaker Season 1 is also scheduled to film this year. Set to take place after the events of Superman, Gunn revealed they will be shooting both projects simultaneously. But following his packed schedule, the filmmaker will only direct a few episodes for the forthcoming season. Taking to Threads, he explained:
“The source is kind of iffy but this is true… John Cena shared this on Howard Stern last week. To answer your follow-up questions: yes, we’ll be shooting Superman & Peacemaker simultaneously; yes, I’ve written all the episodes; but, no, in the interest of getting the show out there I won’t be able to direct them all (only some); & yes, Waller’s still happening & Jeremy & Christal are hard at work writing great stuff, but the schedule was impacted by the strikes so it’ll come after Peacemaker.”
Considering some have stressed concerns about two live-action Batman co-existing in the future, having multiple iterations of Superman would’ve only convoluted things more.
Superman will hit theatres on 11 July 2025.
