The future of the DCU on the big screen still has as many questions as it has answers. We know that a newly rebooted DC Universe under James Gunn and Peter Safran will be launching in the coming months and that most, but not all, of the previous DC actors are set to be replaced. But there is still a lot of confusion, which led one fan to call out James Gunn on social media as a “liar” for what they saw as a lack of cohesion in DC content.
The original post, now deleted, on Threads calls out Gunn for the “confusion” that is allegedly being caused by the fact that many films in the current DC Universe dropped on Netflix this month, while a new animated Batman movie has arrived on Amazon. The post claimed this made Gunn a liar as DC was “selling themselves out” and was now divided, and not cohesive, as Gunn claimed his upcoming DC movies would be. Gunn responded to the claim, saying…
Not sure where the anger is from, but you misunderstand. DC projects being spread across different platforms, so that more people have access to the stories, is not the same as not having any cohesion in the DCU timeline, which we very much do (starts with Creature Commandos). Merry Little Batman on Amazon is a fun animated kids’ movie that was already being made when we came aboard, but Elseworld animated projects like this will keep happening. I’m not sure how that’s confusing.
There does seem to be a conflation between the idea of the DCU being cohesive in story and it being cohesive in distribution. And of course, Gunn’s story has yet to actually begin. While it has been said that some actors from the previous DC movies, including Xolo Maridueña’s Blue Beetle and Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller, will be part of the new story, nothing that has begun production under Gunn’s watch has yet to see the light of day. The decision to release an animated Batman movie on Amazon wasn’t made by him.
While the new DCU is set to be a cinematic universe like the iteration that existed before, it will be both more, and less, “cohesive” than others like the MCU. Gunn has said that actors who play roles in live-action will also voice those same characters if they appear in animated series, or even video games, a level of continuity we largely haven’t seen before. At the same time, Elseworlds projects, that aren’t part of the main continuity are expected to be somewhat regular occurrences, with Robert Pattinson’s Batman under Matt Reeves being a prime example.
While Chapter 1 of the DCU won't be part of the 2024 movie schedule, as Superman: Legacy won't arrive until the summer of 2025, the DCU is getting ready to shift into high gear. Criticism will almost certainly continue then, but at least it will be based in the actual material.
