James Gunn Is “Pre-Writing” His Next DC Studios Project
The studio co-CEO and creator of 'Creature Commandos' and 'Peacemaker' and director of 'Superman' is keeping the work going
As someone who has been covering DC Studios since the search for the new CEO was ongoing, as far back as Dan Lin turning it down, I’ve found myself heavily invested as they navigate beyond the DCEU with the new DC Universe. And as mentioned before, the initial slate had its public reveal on my birthday so I feel that connection. I’m giddy at every morsel of development. In year one of releasing projects, co-CEO James Gunn has had a major creative hand. It began with creating and writing the series that launched the new DC Universe, Creature Commandos, which finished its first season on Max on December 9 and is renewed for a second season. He also wrote and directed the universe’s first film, Superman, which releases in theaters on July 11. That’s topped off with writing all of season 2 of Peacemaker, which brings the cast that began in the previous to the new. Gunn’s directing duties were dropped to three episodes due to his other commitments. But what’s beyond that? It’s not like he’s going to withdraw from writing new projects just because of his higher duties. On Monday, we got something of his next step forward.
A Threads user named after the Star Wars-originating phrase “Scruffy Looking Nerf-Herder”, with the handle nerfherder_scruffylooking asked Gunn “How have you been balancing post-production on Superman and Peacemaker with pre-production and generally working with the respective teams on other DC Studios projects like Supergirl, Lanterns, The Batman 2 or Sgt. Rock?” Gunn quoted it, saying “The bulk of my time is dealing with post-production on Superman and Peacemaker, but I’m also spending a fair amount of time pre-writing my next DC Studios project and watching dailies and offering ideas on the other projects. It’s much less overwhelming than when I was directing.”
Okay so he’s definitely on a break from directing, which is fine, he just got off of a major project. And it’s not Creature Commandos season 2 because he could just be forward by directly identifying it since it’s already announced. Plus he confirmed weeks ago. Without going too wildly, it seems some are already preparing mentally for a Superman sequel. Brandon Davis of the Phase Hero podcast bets on it being The Authority. The Authority is a group of heroes from WildStorm, which was an independent studio before becoming a DC imprint by the end of the ‘90s. When the imprint was initially shuttered in 2010, the team joined the mainstream DC universe through the New 52 reboot. They’re rooted in wanting to fix what they view as a broken world, a very ends-justify-the-means team. When the film was announced, Gunn called it a “passion project” that “leads directly” from Superman, and Variety reported it was “currently being written”. The seeds of its place in the new DC Universe have already been planted as Superman will feature María Gabriela de Faría as Angela Spica, The Engineer, who originated from Authority stories. Developments over the last two years have seen Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow leapfrog it to become the second film in the slate, while Clayface emerged and moved into the third slot while having not been part of the original slate.
Even if the script for The Authority hasn’t reached approval for greenlight, it’s unclear how it would devolve into pre-writing if it’s already been in the writing stage. Can’t put the genie back in the bottle that much.
Source: James Gunn on Threads