DCU's Next Movie After Man of Tomorrow Is Being Written By James Gunn: Here's Where He Should Head Next

DC Studios co-chair and Superman and Man of Tomorrow writer + director James Gunn has just confirmed that while he's working on the edit for his Superman follow-up (that's not a sequel), he's already hard at work on his next DCU project.

Hopefully, this is another film and not something of middling impact and interest like Peacemaker season 3.

The DCU desperately needs it as the film slate currently has nothing on the boards beyond Man of Tomorrow, which hits theaters on July 9, 2027.

Marvel Studios knows very well that one of the key components of a successful comic book cinematic universe is the promise of something more, that something bigger and better is always coming down the line.

That's partly why Marvel will sometimes release information about an "Untitled Marvel Studios Film" that has been dated for 3 or 4 years down the road. On a practical level, Disney is planting a stake in the ground to ward off rival studios. If Universal or Warner Bros. sees a massive $200 million tentpole scheduled for early May, they're forced to make a hard choice: do they risk a box-office head-on collision, or do they retreat and move their own blockbuster to a safer weekend? 

But it also serves to let hardcore comic book fans know that something 'more' is on the horizon. Leaving a slot blank creates an instant void for fans to fill with speculation. Is it X-Men? A new Avengers installment? An obscure street-level hero? That deliberate vagueness drives millions of social media interactions, powering endless speculative YouTube videos, Reddit breakdowns, and viral posts without Disney having to spend a single dime on actual advertising. It keeps Marvel permanently locked into the pop culture conversation, reassuring fans that no matter how chaotic the current phase feels, there’s always something bigger waiting down the road.

DC Studios doesn't have that right now.  At this moment in time, there's nothing happening after Man of Tomorrow- nothing concrete anyway, as there's reportedly lots of projects in development but nothing far enough along to actually give it a release date. 

So if Gunn is working on his next DCU script and presumably he's sticking around to preside over the Superman run of films, here's 5 ideas of where he should head next to keep the dream of a shared cinematic universe for Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman alive.

Go The Superman & Lois Route: Turn Superman Into A Family Man

• The Pitch: Jon Kent has been enjoying a popular run in comics as of the last decade+.  Introduced in Convergence: Superman #2 on July 2015, he's gone by Superboy, Superman and Tomorrow Man and uses his half-Kryptonian/half-Human physiology to accomplish feats that would even impress the Man of Steel himself.  With Superman and Lois openly admitting their love for one another at the end of Superman, perhaps Man of Tomorrow shows the pair heading towards marriage and a third film could deal with Clark and Lois preparing to become parents.  That could all become complicated when a mysterious time-traveler from the Legion of Super-Heroes arrives with a dire warning of a future crisis, claiming to be the infant son that Lois is holding in her hand, à la Future Trunks.

Lex Luthor's Superman Clone Returns As Bizarro

• The Pitch: Ultraman/the Hammer of Boravia was sucked into a black hole at the end of Superman but James Gunn has previously teased that it likely isn't the last time fans will see the Superman clone. Perhaps surviving that experience will physically and mentally transform Ultraman into a comic-accurate, deformed version of Bizarro and the pocket universe becomes  Bizarro World. Perhaps Amanda Waller and A.R.G.U.S. think they can succeed where Lex Luthor failed.  Intent on having a weapon to combat Superman in case he ever goes rogue, they find a way to access the pocket dimension, but the Ultraman that comes out looks a lot different than the one that went in...

Kryptonian Survivors Arrive On Earth And Want To Release General Zod From The Phantom Zone

• The Pitch: General Zod arriving on Earth to challenge Superman has been done twice in cinema already, so perhaps it's time for some other Kryptonian survivors to take center stage. For instance, the Kryptonian astronauts Bar-El and Lilo were a refreshing change of pace in All-Star Superman.  As space explorers out on a mission, they survived Krypton's explosion and eventually arrived on Earth by following the trajectory of Kal-El's rocket. Dying of cellular poisoning, they intend to live out their last days on Earth with reckless abandon, much to the dismay of Superman. There's also Jan-Al, the only Kryptonian to ever join the Green Lantern Corps. Perhaps the film is a flashback to Jan-Al's time as one of the very first members of the Green Lantern Corps., a story that Superman is telling to a classroom full of elementary school kids as a celebrity guest reader.

Apokolips Sets Its Sights On Earth, Setting Up A Showdown With Darkseid

• The Pitch: No villain in DC Comics history challenges Superman physically and psychologically quite like Darkseid.  The New God has Superman beat in raw strength, durability and energy projection, leaving Superman to mostly rely on his speed advantage and sun-dipping to win their encounters. However, their battles are some of the best stories in all of DC Comics and deserve to have a proper build-up. Zack Snyder's Justice League had the right idea on paper with Steppenwolf and the Parademons as an Apokolips vanguard- a precursor of a larger battle to come...it was just executed about as poorly as humanly possible.  

Superman Turns Evil Through Trickery Or Mind-Control

• The Pitch: For DC Comics' heroes, there's nothing scarier than a Superman that's turned evil.  Whether it's through trickery, magic, mind-control or black kryptonite, it usually comes down to Batman and the small green mineral he keeps in his utility belt to take him down and return him to his senses. A villain that somehow managed to get the Last Son of Krypton to do his or her bidding would make for great cinema. Poison Ivy managed to do it in Batman: Hush, as did Maxwell Lord, Manchester Black, Mongul and the Joker via Scarecrow's Fear Toxin.