DC Studios Is Announcing A LOT Of New Projects - But What About The Original Gods And Monsters Slate?

DC Studios Is Announcing A LOT Of New Projects - But What About The Original Gods And Monsters Slate?

Following the announcement of yet another DC Studios movie in Dynamic Duo, we're looking back at the "Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters" slate and how that's evolved - positively and negatively - since 2023.

Feature Opinion
By JoshWilding - Oct 02, 2024 12:10 PM EST
Filed Under: DC Studios

DC Studios kicked off last year by revealing the "Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters" DCU slate. The downside was it told people that 2023's DCEU movies didn't matter and, for the most part, they ended up flopping.

Reviews also weren't overly kind and the DC brand is now very nearly damaged beyond repair (even Joker: Folie à Deux looks set to underperform at the box office this weekend). As a result, it's up to James Gunn and Peter Safran to turn things around. 

However, as the DCU slate continues to expand - without a single one of their movies playing in theaters - it's time to look back at how "Gods and Monsters" has evolved. There are good and bad elements and a great many unanswered questions. 

You can read through this in-depth breakdown of where things stand with DC Studios by clicking the "Next"/"View List" buttons below. 
 

5. What Fans Want...Or What James Gunn Wants?

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You will find no James Gunn hate here. The filmmaker is an immense talent behind the camera, with the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy (and Holiday Special) and Peacemaker among the best comic book adaptations we've ever seen on screen.

However, with Gunn now calling the shots at DC Studios, it feels like much of what we're seeing from the studio is what he wants and not necessarily the stories fans have spent years waiting for. Peacemaker season 2 and Waller, featuring characters heavily featured in Gunn's DCEU work, have been made a bigger priority than countless other movies and TV shows. 

Creature Commandos is being made in the same vein as The Suicide Squad and it appears Gunn will take another crack at that concept with a Secret Six movie featuring Bane and Deathstroke. 

Now, there's Dynamic Duo, an animated project featuring a unique animation style that's arguably more suited to the filmmaker's tastes than what DC fans want to see from Dick Grayson and Jason Todd in theaters. In contrast, it feels like Marvel Studios is focused more on fans (instead of telling stories based on a very specific era of comics). 
 

4. Too Much, Too Soon

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At the end of January last year, DC Studios announced a slate of 10 movies and TV shows for "Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters." We've heard pretty much nothing about that title since and only Creature Commandos and Superman are in post-production. 

To be fair, last year's strikes played a role in that and Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow and Lanterns are now gearing up. However, Waller was pushed back in favour of Peacemaker, and The Authority, The Brave and the Bold, Swamp Thing, Booster Gold, and Paradise Lost haven't really made any progress (at least not as far as we've heard beyond some short-lived Booster Gold casting rumours). 

The slate reveal felt a lot like Warner Bros.' ill-fated DCEU announcement and DC Studios is already taking on an awful lot more than they might be able to handle. In the past year, Teen Titans, Bane/Deathstroke, and Robin movies have been added to the slate, as has a TV show revolving around Blue Beetle

To be fair, Gunn did say he and Peter Safran had mapped out a decade's worth of stories and those may be part of that...this just feels a little like Kevin Feige planning Captain Marvel and Black Panther while Marvel Studios was still making Iron Man!
 

3. Batman And Wonder Woman M.I.A.

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It's easy enough to see why Gunn wanted to prioritise Superman. For starters, he wrote and directed the movie, and the Man of Tomorrow is in desperate need of a reboot after Zack Snyder and Henry Cavill's moody take on the iconic superhero.

Still, as we near two years since the DCU slate was first announced, there's been no word on Batman or Wonder Woman. Shortly before The Flash was released in theaters, Andy Muschietti was announced as The Brave and the Bold's director, a baffling move which immediately left fans questioning Gunn's decision-making. 

The Flash was a box office bomb and, while reviews skewed more positive than negative, Muschietti's direction - including appalling CG sequences and creepy cameos - was not well-received. Perhaps it's for the best then that Batman hasn't been cast, particularly when the DCU's Caped Crusader will need to compete with what Matt Reeves and Robert Pattinson are doing.

As for Wonder Woman, Gunn has avoided any and all questions about Diana Prince, particularly in the wake of Gal Gadot claiming she'll return as the Amazon. Paradise Lost is meant to be a prequel set on Themyscira so it seems she'll be M.I.A. for the foreseeable future. 
 

2. The "Gods And Monsters" Slate

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We touched on this earlier but DC Studios' first major misstep might have been announcing a slate of projects without filmmakers attached. Now, they need to deliver on those or face being compared to Warner Bros.' slate of DC titles that never materialised ('member Cyborg?).

Bouncing back from a terrible 2023 isn't going to be easy for the brand but The Authority? Swamp Thing? Waller? Paradise Lost? These don't feel like movies and TV shows capable of restoring DC's good name and increasing interest in a superhero franchise that's in as bad a state as Sony's Marvel Universe thanks to the DCEU.

Even those newly announced projects do little to inspire confidence. Teen Titans after the disappointing streaming series? Is Bane & Deathstroke just meant to capitalise on Deadpool & Wolverine's success with an odd-couple pairing? Casting an actor who will be in his 60s to play Hal Jordan has also upset many fans.

The DCEU did little to help characters like Aquaman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and The Flash, so moving on from them - for now - does make sense. Still, when the reaction to your slate is more "Huh?" than "Wow!" you might be in trouble...
 

1. No Clear Direction...Yet

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It's important to note that DC Studios has so far enlisted a lot of phenomenal talents both behind and in front of the camera. Superman's costume design is admittedly questionable and Gunn has cast many of his friends but it does feel like he's trying to do right by these characters. 

Ultimately, with over a year and a half having passed since DC Studios was revealed to us, it would just be nice to have a better sense of where the DCU is heading. 

While it's true that we didn't know Marvel Studios was aiming for The Avengers until Iron Man's post-credits scene, there's no team-up project on the DCU slate and it instead appears the Justice League International will already exist and be a corporate team sponsored by Maxwell Lord. 

Not every superhero franchise needs a big crossover event but the MCU has made that the expectation for casual and hardcore fans alike. Right now, we don't know where the DCU is headed and, until we get some insights into that, it's a little hard to care about what feels like a slate consisting of ideas thrown at the wall to see what sticks.
 

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kazuma
kazuma - 10/2/2024, 12:43 PM
"No Clear Direction...Yet"

This is only a problem if you compare the DCU to the MCU. We're expecting a Justice League movie to cap off phases, just like marvel. Imo, DC doesn't need to do that.
A Justice League movie doesn't need to be set up. We don't need teases and foreshadowing of a future movie.
Just give em a reason to fight together and make that reason be in the movie.
FireandBlood
FireandBlood - 10/2/2024, 12:47 PM
@kazuma - DC more so than Marvel or any other franchise needs direction because the brand is in the toilet and they’ve got a lot of good will to rebuild. Now isn’t the time to throw spaghetti at the wall.
supermanrex
supermanrex - 10/2/2024, 1:14 PM
@kazuma - i dont understand how they can so no direction when we haven't even had a single project released yet. wait till we see some product before concluding there is no direction. JEEZ.
Moriakum
Moriakum - 10/2/2024, 1:24 PM
@kazuma - "A Justice League movie doesn't need to be set up. We don't need teases and foreshadowing of a future movie."

Yeah, because that worked out so well the last time...
kazuma
kazuma - 10/2/2024, 1:27 PM
@Moriakum - Go watch Justice League War. That didn't need setup.
Should marvel have never made Captain America 1 because the 90s Cap movie was bad?
It's very weird to use shit movies as a reason to not make future movies.
Moriakum
Moriakum - 10/2/2024, 2:01 PM
@kazuma - Are you really comparing a straight to VOD animated movie to a big budget blockbuster? Do you really think a JL movie with half a dozen main characters doesn´t need setup? OK

You should work for DC.
kazuma
kazuma - 10/2/2024, 2:22 PM
@Moriakum - It doesn't. Why? Because everyone knows who Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the Flash are. And have you actually never seen an ensemble movie?
Do we need a decade of solo movies for X-Men? GOTG?
McMurdo
McMurdo - 10/2/2024, 4:40 PM
@Moriakum - you simply need to write good scripts. Do all the characters in the Superman film not work because they weren't set up in 18 prior films? No, if you write them well then it works. It's all about the screenplay.
Arthorious
Arthorious - 10/2/2024, 5:01 PM
@Moriakum - To be fair, there were two giant contributors to why it didn't work so well: Zack Snyder and meddling WB.
thobie1
thobie1 - 10/2/2024, 12:45 PM
Seems like the initial slate was a little too ambitious. Maybe see how Superman does and adjust from there.
FireandBlood
FireandBlood - 10/2/2024, 12:45 PM
That original slate was trash 🚮
Forthas
Forthas - 10/2/2024, 1:51 PM
@FireandBlood - AGREED! Do you have any suggestion for WB on how they should proceed? Because to me every time they commit to one course of action and they see it is not working they seem like they feellike they are stuck with that direction for the foreseeable future. It wastes time, resources and damages the brand even further. It is a vicious cycle.
FireandBlood
FireandBlood - 10/2/2024, 1:59 PM
@Forthas - They should’ve started again with The Batman, but they insisted on making that its own thing, and now they’re building separate cinematic universe simultaneously in the most haphazard way. It’s all [frick]ed, tbh. But that’s WB/DC for you.
Baf
Baf - 10/2/2024, 12:47 PM
All will be clear after Superman is released.
jst5
jst5 - 10/2/2024, 1:06 PM
@Baf - Yep...we'll know if Gunn understands the tone of DC and what tone the DCU will have under Gunn with that movie.

I'm a massive DC guy...the DCEU BLEW.......so fingers crossed they get the DCU right.I'm liking the world building going on with The Batman...it would be very stupid from the WB side if they just start over once these next two Batman movies are doing....that would be very stupid from their end.
Arthorious
Arthorious - 10/2/2024, 5:04 PM
@JackBurton1 - Even the latest animated movies have been poor. There were maybe 2 movies that were good in the Tomorrowverse. The rest were bland and disappointing.
HermanM
HermanM - 10/2/2024, 12:49 PM
Let Gunn cook.
MCUKnight11
MCUKnight11 - 10/2/2024, 12:50 PM
I don't know about announcing all this stuff before July 2025.
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 10/2/2024, 1:10 PM
@MCUKnight11 - I can understand that
But again , you have to be a bit full steam ahead regardless of the reception or success Superman might get

If it is successful , you will then get people complaining that they haven’t capitalized on their momentum if they were casting Lanterns then etc.
Godzilla2000Zer
Godzilla2000Zer - 10/2/2024, 12:51 PM
I will agree that Wonder Woman should've had an update by now along with Flash and Aquaman I mean you gotta have the founding 7 relatively soon. The Brave and The Bold problem can easily be fixed by replacing Mushietti and getting someone who can immediately commit to it I find it hard to believe that we don't even have a writer yet and the excuse that Andy is to busy working on Welcome to Derry falls flat when you have James Gunn and Matt Reeves juggling multiple projects at once. I still do love the line up because it pulls from various sides of the DC Universe and to be fair we won't get a an idea of what the overall plan is until they actually you know come out.
BreakTheCode
BreakTheCode - 10/2/2024, 12:51 PM
It seems like Wilding wants the DCU to fail. Nothing but negativity from him on it.
FireandBlood
FireandBlood - 10/2/2024, 12:54 PM
@BreakTheCode - It seems like Gunn wants it to fail, because he’s putting what he wants before what the franchise actually needs.
JoshWilding
JoshWilding - 10/2/2024, 1:00 PM
@BreakTheCode - Quite the opposite. As a fan, I want it to do well and the better the DCU does, the more TV shows and movies we get and, well, the better that is for my job! I just don't think things are heading in a great direction and I'm a HUGE Gunn fanboy (though I could admittedly take or leave The Suicide Squad).
lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 10/2/2024, 1:36 PM
@BreakTheCode - I know! I was gonna say that too.
It's like he woke up with a cocaine hangover and just decided to trash JOKER 2 and the beginning of a new universe we almost know nothing about.

I usually try to stand up for Wilding, but his bias is p1ss1ng me off.
lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 10/2/2024, 1:41 PM
@JoshWilding - because, despite his track record (SUPER being a great beginning), you 'feel' like things are already heading to a bad start despite we've had one official pic, fanboys/girls taking shoddy photos from afar of the filming set, and absolutely no teaser trailer to come out yet, ... the DCU is already doomed. Haven't us DC fans been through enough in the last 11 years?! Oh, 'us' does not include you.
FireandBlood
FireandBlood - 10/2/2024, 2:18 PM
@lazlodaytona - Gunn hasn’t got a track record as a studio president in charge of producing an entire franchise. His job up until this point has been so much smaller, and even then, that track record of his was helped by the guiding hand of Kevin Feige; the only man within this industry that’s been capable of pulling off what everyone else can’t.

But what we can surmise from Gunn’s plans is that he’s putting what he wants to do, as a filmmaker, ahead of he needs to do as a producer and for this brand. That’s why we’re getting all these little quirky projects and bollocks like The Authority that don’t make sense, because this is Gunn’s DCU, just like the DCEU was Snyder’s before it.
lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 10/2/2024, 2:26 PM
@FireandBlood - studio track record? who the hell does? No one's got a perfect record....including Feige (didn't Marvel sell the rights of a ton of its characters years ago and an amazing director in Sam Raimi made a Spiderman trilogy - yes, the 3rd sucked, not his fault - that was hugely successful?!) Fantastic Four wasn't near as successful because the director, along with Daredevil's and Electra's movies sucked.
Anytime studios get involved and interrupt directors (Suicide Squad), the product has been a disaster. Raimi gets the keys in Spiderman 1 and 2, nails it, then the studio pushed too many villains int the 3rd film.

I believe in Gunn simply because he's been there/done that and understands how a studio should operate.
It's like NBA video coordinators putting in the time to slowly make it as a head coach. Steve Nash, who never did any of that? Failed miserably.
FireandBlood
FireandBlood - 10/2/2024, 2:44 PM
@lazlodaytona - Then we’ve gotta stop using his “track record” as some sort of proof he can pull any of this off, because he doesn’t have those credentials. Feige does. If it was Feige, nobody would bat an eye. But Gunn is Gunn, and so far, Gunn isn’t doing anything different from what Snyder did. He’s doing it his way. And again, he isn’t making one film after the other or even a trilogy. He’s building a massive cinematic film franchise, not a collection of vanity projects.

People aren’t questioning his lineup because anybody wants DC to fail. We’re questioning it because it’s plain to see this is being built around Gunn’s sensibilities, and not with the actual benefit of the franchise in mind, and we’ve seen the results of that before.
Arthorious
Arthorious - 10/2/2024, 5:05 PM
@JoshWilding - The Suicide Squad vs Suicide Squad. What's you're preference?
lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 10/3/2024, 8:38 AM
@FireandBlood - is it bad to say I trust his sensibilities?
FireandBlood
FireandBlood - 10/3/2024, 8:47 AM
@lazlodaytona - Maybe. I guess we’ll see.
lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 10/3/2024, 9:42 AM
@FireandBlood - all good. I appreciate civil discussions when people disagree. For sure, you do have valid points.
DocSpock
DocSpock - 10/2/2024, 1:07 PM

I hate to admit it, but I mostly agree with Josh's article here. I think the casting of Superman and Lois is great, but I'm starting to be concerned about the rest of it.

All this attention to animated crap and side characters while getting mostly nothing done with DC's main characters is bad.

I am afraid we might get a good Superman movie and a weak bag of junk after that.
lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 10/2/2024, 1:43 PM
@DocSpock - don't worry. I still love you Doc :p
DocSpock
DocSpock - 10/2/2024, 5:19 PM
@lazlodaytona -

I just can't help being so warm and cuddly.
tluciotti74
tluciotti74 - 10/2/2024, 1:07 PM
One part I agree is Gunn telling the stories he wants to tell and maybe not the ones the largest portion of fans would want but you better make sure they are flawless if you are going to do that. He is also known for liking the obscure characters which can be great for die hard fans but does nothing to bring in casuals. It is silly to pass judgement before his first movie even comes out but many people are seeing red flags and it should be fine to discuss them without hate from either side.
lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 10/2/2024, 1:45 PM
@tluciotti74 - well, he sure brought in a lotta of casual fans with the obscure GotG films. I'm a DC guy. I had no idea who the Guardians were, but I do now .... BECAUSE OF GUNN, not Marvel studios.
tluciotti74
tluciotti74 - 10/2/2024, 2:21 PM
@lazlodaytona - That is true but MCU was also already a big thing before he did GOTG so there was an established fan base to the entire MCU which helped. Nowhere in my post did I say these things would not work just that I have some doubts
Matchesz
Matchesz - 10/2/2024, 1:07 PM
Only DC im lookin forward to is The Batman part 2 and Constantine 2 with keanu reeves.
lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 10/2/2024, 1:47 PM
@Matchesz - Constantine...... really? Not only does Keanu not look like or act like the actual comic's version of Mr. C, the 1st movie sucked than the latest Matrix Film.
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