James Gunn Reveals Exactly What DC Comics Era the DCU Is Inspired By

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James Gunn
is bringing the new DCU to life this summer with Superman,
but he has recently teased just how much the new franchise is going to spread its wings and embrace the entire history of DC Comics. While many previous iterations of characters such as Batman and Superman have played pretty loose with canon and comic book accuracy, Gunn is set on delivering one of the most comic-accurate interpretations of the many stories of DC’s heroes and villains.

It is now over two years since James Gunn laid out the first “chapter” of the new DCU that he and Peter Safran were developing as the joint CEOs of the newly formed DC Studios. That initial roster of movies, animation, and TV shows included several big hitters, such as Superman, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, and Wonder Woman prequel series, Paradise Lost, alongside some unexpected entries like The Authority, Creature Commandos, and the full-on horror movie, Swamp Thing.

Since then, Gunn has been refining and reworking the slate of projects being worked on, with some being pushed back, new ones being added, and others sitting in a state of limbo as scripts are worked on. However, in a recent response to a comment on Threads, Gunn has made it clear that there will be no corner of the DC Comics universe that will not inspire the future of the franchise. Asked which era of DC he would be focused on, Gunn said:

“One of the fun things about creating the DCU is taking elements from all different eras of DC Comics.”

Zack Snyder’s time in the DC franchise was focused primarily on very modern and gritty interpretations of specific sections of DC Comics’ history. In the main, Man of Steel, Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Justice League formed a controlled three-act story that did not have many plans for anything beyond that. Of course, there were some unrealized projects, such as Ben Affleck’s solo Batman movie, which could have seen an entirely different path appear to the one that we got.

What Gunn is certainly doing differently is bringing many more unexpected and obscure characters into the franchise compared to Snyder’s relatively safe gathering of DC’s biggest hitters. From a Robin movie to The Authority, along with a dozen lesser known appearances within Creature Commandos and Superman’s character lists, the world Gunn is crafting is about world building to a point that any character, from any period of DC Comics could make an appearance and be both familiar to long-term fans, and a new favorite to a new audience.

Creature Commandos has already promised a lot thanks to its near perfect reactions and strong viewership, and July 2 will see Superman become the first big test of Gunn and Safran’s time in charge of what should be one of the biggest movie franchises in the world. Whether they can soar is something many people are eagerly waiting to find out.

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