James Gunn, Peter Safran Update The State Of DC Studios With New Press Event
It’s great to hear about some of the in-development projects, but we’re also getting THREE NEW CARTOONS!
Just over two years ago, heading into three months as DC Studios co-CEOs, James Gunn and Peter Safran unveiled the first ten projects of their main DC Universe. A year later, Gunn was touching on the slate and its flexible elasticity. While January 31 had come to pass without anything major, it took just a three week wait longer with a new press event, and a widened scope that covered the entire output, encompassing both the Universe and non-Universe/“Elseworld” projects, announcing three new animated series that may help Cartoon Network bounce back.
“It’s weird sitting here, because it does feel like no time has passed and yet so much has happened,” Gunn said. “We look so much older,” Safran quipped back. “That’s the biggest difference.” There was a lot of that over the course of an hour. The informality of this press event is considered another way the pair are setting DC Studios apart from Marvel, and other studios with their franchises. They took questions about topics like California production tax credits, which they support when it makes sense for them to superheroes’ necessity in the current Felon’s regime. It was said it most resembles a Television Critics Association panel than one at San Diego Comic-Con. For the latter, their presence may only be as big as 2024 being that Superman, currently deep in post-production, will already be in its third week in theaters. No special screenings necessary. Creature Commandos has already brought its first season and has a second coming. Season 2 of Peacemaker is pretty deep in post too. Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow is halfway through production and still going by its full name. Lanterns has as previously reported started production and now has an official early 2026 window.
But what about the rest of the initial slate? Well, Brave and the Bold is currently in best position, with both men summarily squashing any suggestion that The Batman’s Batman, Robert Pattinson, will be folded in. Glad they took care of that nonsense. As for what the film is, it’s Andy Muschietti-directed Batman film that will have Damian Wayne as his Robin, described as quite the firecracker. Muschietti will be the first one to see a script. A writer is attached but the pair declined to announce him “as it puts too much pressure on the guy.” Deadline seems under the impression that Bruce is somehow unaware that Damian exists and that his fatherhood will be discovered but that doesn’t quite add up. While Swamp Thing awaits James Mangold back in the saddle to get moving again, The Authority has officially been put on the backburner. “It’s a very, very big movie, if you’re going to do The Authority properly,” Safran said. “And some story elements perhaps that are in Superman and some of the other films that we’ve fast tracked step a little bit” on what it was doing Gunn added that the script “also had a harder time coming along” so the film “hasn’t been as much of a priority because it has been subsumed” by everything else being worked on. They also claim Daniel Craig was never attached to Sgt. Rock and they had never met with him.
On the TV side Peacemaker’s own spinoff series Waller, which brings back Viola Davis has had what Gunn called “a bumpy road” as finding the right script proved difficult. It was originally set to be before Peacemaker’s second season but the troubles pushed it back and forced it to be replotted in its new position. Paradise Lost, the Game of Thrones-esque Themyscira series set long before the days of Wonder Woman is still in development and they’re moving forward on the Booster Gold series, after waiting on a “particular showrunner/creator” who had expressed interest in the show but ended up moving on.
Scripts have come up a lot here, as it’s part of the studio’s guiding reiterated philosophy: no project will get a greenlight until Gunn and Safran are satisfied with a completed screenplay. “It is hard enough making a good movie with a good script,” Gunn said. “It’s almost impossible making a movie with a script that you’re writing on the run.” It’s the biggest holdup for the sequel to The Batman which has accrued two years in delays. The latest on that front? Writer-director Matt Reeves has “yet to turn in a full script, but what we have read so far is incredibly encouraging” Safran said. Having a ready script is what allowed new fighters like the Clayface movie they had no plans to make before seeing Mike Flanagan’s script to emerge. Now James Watkins is getting ready to direct a “body horror film” releasing in September 2026 they hope “works as a pure horror movie for somebody who doesn’t care at all about DC.” Realizing upon being asked they’re probably confirming its existence for the first time, the Teen Titans film is still having its script worked on by Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow writer Ana Nogueira, it ain’t ready yet. However, they say “It was something that Ana was really impassioned about, and she turned over an amazing script for us. She’s fiddling with that now, but it’s definitely not a finished script.”
And now, it’s time to start feasting. The Blue Beetle animated series is still in active development and would continue the events from the film, being the one carryover from the previous universe that has no connection to Gunn’s The Suicide Squad work. Safran said he expects executive producers Angel Manuel Soto (the film’s director) and Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer (the screenwriter) to present the project for a possible greenlight “pretty soon”. The series will be directed by Miguel Puga, and written by Cristian Martinez. Still, there are three new animated series greenlit, and it brings a real restock for the 6-11 demo in a world with Batman: Caped Crusader and Kite Man: Hell Yeah! at one end and Batwheels at the other. It’s unclear what their primary landing spot is. And the first is a My Adventures with Superman spinoff!
My Adventures with Green Lantern is a Jessica Cruz-focused series, as a high school student who has her life upended when, according to the official synopsis, “a Green Lantern Power Ring falls from the sky” and chooses Cruz “to be its champion.” That’s followed by “more debris from the Lanterns’ ancient space war and their alien foes” descending in their arrival. Jake Wyatt is executive producing, and Stephanie Gonzaga is a co-executive producer. Wyatt confirmed it takes place in the same “timeline” as My Adventures with Superman and he’s “stoked to expand and explore that universe”. Gonzalez meanwhile said she has “many feelings” about the show and her big role in making it, but she assured “a lot of love and fun was put into this show”. This is especially exciting as this could turn into an entire line of series with DC heroes.
DC Super Powers takes place at the Alliance School for Heroes and focuses on new students Lightning, Flash, Plastic Man, Aquagirl, Green Lantern and Terra who “level up their powers under the supervision of Principal Martian Manhunter, in the hopes of one day graduating and becoming the next generation of Earth’s defenders.” Matt Beans is executive producing, and Michael Chang is a supervising producer. Which Flash? Which Green Lantern? You’ll have to wait to find out.
Finally, Starfire is following in Beast Boy’s footsteps getting her own solo series of a new continuity. Simply called Starfire, it serves as the origin story and follows her adventures after she uses “an ancient spaceship” she discovers on her home planet of Tamaran to escape her planet and explore the stars. Her new friends include “space biker Crush, plant-loving Fern, and the magical Princess Amethyst of Gemworld”. This group will “uncover the deepest reaches of the… universe, save Space Dolphins, surf technicolor nebulas, and boldly soar into the unknown.” Josie Campbell is executive producing, and Brianne Drouhard is co-executive producing. All three new series have their title cards released, and can be seen below.
The current plan is for DC Studios to release seven projects per year: 2 live-action film and 1 animated film, and two each of live action and animated series. It’s gonna be a ride.
Sources: Variety, Deadline, Jake Wyatt, Stephanie Gonzaga