DC Studios co-Chair James Gunn sat down for a wide-ranging interview with YMH Studios to discuss several key topics, including how long the initial DCU film and television slate was mapped out, and how and why the release order has since changed.
The slate was initially announced back on January 31, 2023 and nearly three years later, there's been little to no update on several of the projects that elicited a ton of excitement from DC fans.
On that date, 5 TV shows and 5 films were announced and development on The Authority, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Swamp Thing, Booster Gold, Paradise Lost, and Waller has been virtually nonexistent.
Speaking to YMH Studios, Gunn touched on this fact.
"When we first took over, I had written up what the first shows were supposed to be and then where the story eventually went. So we met with David Szaslav, who was the one that hired us, and we told him what the basic plan was," Gunn told the podcast.
"He was into that and we got hired. He was the only one that knew the plan but then we told Mike DeLuca and Pam Abdi and they were into it, and we also told Casey Bloys- who's the head of HBO."
"So we had a basic plan and then we hired a bunch of writers who I really respected, who came in and we kind of worked out the whole story. Now some things have changed since then for various reasons but the basic thrust of the big story is the same- that is, what started in Superman, continues in Peacemaker season 2 and then continues in the next Superman movie, and then will continue in the movie after that, and then after that. So there was always this bigger plan that we came up with."
"It's like a decade, maybe a little less. It's very loose too. You have to be careful because there were certain projects that were part of that plan- because my other rule is that I'm not going to greenlight anything without having a screenplay that I love. And there were other things that haven't worked yet. You have to be able and willing to have the big picture in mind but also be able to shift anytime you need to. So the pinpoints are the same but some of the specifics have changed."
Per Gunn, while the initial release schedule of the first chapter for Gods and Monsters has changed, the broader paint strokes for the overall picture Gunn is trying to paint has remained the same.
Reading between the lines of his carefully constructed comments, it sounds like Superman will be the central thoroughfare of the slate in terms of telling its overall story. It seemed as if Supergirl and Lanterns were intentionally skipped to mention that Man of Tomorrow would be the next big paint stroke put on the DCU's canvas.