DC Studios announced the "Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters" slate at the start of 2023. Later that same year, Hollywood essentially closed down due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, meaning the first DCU project didn't arrive until the end of 2024.
Creature Commandos was a fun animated romp, followed by Superman earlier this summer (2025's highest-grossing superhero movie and a great take on the Man of Steel). Peacemaker Season 2 was so-so, but still received mostly positive reviews.
It's early days for this franchise, and the future looks bright. 2026 will see the release of Supergirl, Lanterns, and Clayface, while Man of Tomorrow swoops into theaters in 2027. We just hope the characters listed below aren't in any of them! Yes, a handful of additions to the DCU have already outstayed their welcome, so buckle up, because this might be controversial.
You can learn who we've singled out by hitting the "Next"/"View List" buttons below.
5. Jimmy Olsen
We didn't think it could get much worse than Jimmy Olsen being a CIA agent who gets shot in the head, but a bullet to the brain might be preferable to seeing more of this guy.
We've got no beef with Skyler Gisondo, but boy, what an insufferable version of the character Jimmy proved to be in Superman. An obnoxious ladies' man, his role in the movie boiled down to him treating a woman badly and then toying with her emotions to help save the day (James Gunn tried to save that with his wry smile at the end, but this Jimmy was a douche).
Throw in the fact that the movie failed to explore the friendships between Jimmy and Clark Kent/Superman, and we're not exactly counting down the days to seeing more of him in DC Crime or whatever it's called. Maybe if someone else writes him...
4. Maxwell Lord
Sean Gunn was excellent in Creature Commandos as Weasel and G.I. Robot, and it's going to take us a while to get over the latter not being dispatched to deal with Earth-X in Peacemaker Season 2. The actor is simply phenomenal in that role.
So far, Maxwell Lord has only had a few minutes of screentime. Unfortunately, nothing we saw in Superman or Peacemaker left us eager to see this character—the apparent founder of the Justice Gang"—take centre stage across the DCU in the coming years.
A future project could lead to a change of heart, but there's so far nothing particularly compelling about the role Lord has been given in this shared world. James Gunn has said he'll be a morally grey character, but he might want to make him interesting first.
3. John Economos
Peacemaker Season 2 wasn't the win we hoped for after a stellar first season. With no oversight, James Gunn indulged his worst instincts, relying heavily on R-rated humour, lengthy musical performances, and, with all due respect, turned it into a showcase for friends and family.
John Economos is the perfect example of a one-note character who is good for a few laughs...until he was rammed down our throats and all that good work is undone (Marvel Studios very nearly made the same mistake with Luis in the Ant-Man franchise).
Langston Fleury and Red St. Wild were a chore, but bringing Economos back to hit all the same notes we saw in Season 1 was downright exhausting. Now, as part of Checkmate, we'd bet on that continuing to be the case in multiple projects moving forward. Ugh.
2. Sasha Bordeaux
This was a tough slide to fill. The Engineer was a major let-down in Superman, making it relatively easy to figure out why The Authority has fallen apart. Sasha Bordeaux, however, was another misstep and speaks to wider problems in James Gunn's DCU.
The filmmaker seems focused on casting the right aesthetics for roles like this and The Engineer, but doesn't necessarily find people who can do right by the characters they're playing. Like María Gabriela de Faría, Sol Rodríguez gave it her best shot, and in fairness, the writing didn’t give her much to work with. Still, it left us with few reasons to be excited about seeing more of her in Checkmate.
Gunn also stripped away Sasha's history with Batman, transforming her into a generic A.R.G.U.S. agent with ill-defined cybernetic enhancements. "Generic" comes to mind, and her flirtation with our next character was another low point for poor Sasha.
1. Rick Flag Sr.
The Rick Flag Sr. we met in Creature Commandos was awesome. Heading into Peacemaker Season 2, the prospect of seeing him make Christopher Smith take accountability for his role in Rick Flag Jr.'s death was hugely exciting, only for it to boil down to an interrogation room beating.
Later in the series, Gunn portrayed Flag as a petty, nasty man who was happy to get high on drugs with Lex Luthor's minions while his A.R.G.U.S. agents were dying. It felt like a total one-eighty, and culminated with a villainous turn that felt unearned and like a major misstep for a character who had so much potential.
Something has gone wrong with Waller, and we can't shake the feeling that Gunn had to figure out how to make Rick fit into an Amanda Waller-shaped hole. Why should we be excited to see this character further descend into villainy? Hell, what reason do we even have to care? What a blunder.