With all the shared DC Universe shows and films ending, some of American fiction's oldest, greatest characters' future rests solely with James Gunn.
It's no secret that the future of the DC Universe in movies and on television is in the hands of James Gunn and Peter Safran. However, as TV series and standalone movies were excised by Warner Bros. Discovery's new owners, it puts a lot of pressure on one filmmaker to carry some of the most important characters in fiction.
The HBO Max series Doom Patrol and Titans are canceled after four seasons each. Similarly, the sun sets on the Arrowverse when The Flash debuts its final season. This leaves two disconnected shows to carry the DC torch on The CW, Superman & Lois and Gotham Knights. Matt Reeves and Todd Phillips are still doing their own things, for now. Yet, one reason the movie side of the DC Universe was able to experiment with tone and style is that most fans' comic book needs were being met by melodramas for teenagers on network TV. For the cost of marketing Black Adam, Berlanti Productions could deliver, at least, five 23-episode seasons of visual-effects-heavy superhero TV. To Gunn's credit, he also apparently thinks it's ridiculous that the TV and movie stories couldn't connect. While Safran keeps the hype trains running on time, Gunn is in a sink-or-swim situation without the ballast of Berlanti's DC shows.
RELATED: Not Even James Gunn Can Make a Marvel and DC Crossover Happen
During the height of discourse about the value of Zack Snyder's DC vision, deriding The CW series was de rigueur. It didn't matter that they were comparing movies with budgets in the hundreds of millions to all-ages morality plays produced in a matter of days, not months or years. The simplicity of these morality plays for pre-teens is part of what made the Arrowverse work so well. One could draw a straight line from that kind of storytelling to what was happening in the pages of comic books at the start of the modern age. Perhaps this is why the shows drew a diverse enough audience to make 58 the age of the average viewer of The CW.
The movie side of DC wanted its Avengers moment so desperately that it replaced the last filmmaker who designed a universe with the guy who directed Marvel's movie. When Marvel Studios dropped its "season finale" Avengers: Endgame in 2019, DC offered up Shazam! and Joker, two successful films that couldn't be more tonally different. That same year, as part of Arrow's final season, Team Berlanti pulled off a crossover even more massive. By beating Marvel to the multiverse, Crisis on Infinite Earths suggested that everything is part of the shared DC Universe. From Batman in 1966 to the forthcoming movie version of The Flash, they're all, technically, part of the Arrowverse.
Matt Reeves' then-forthcoming The Batman was also disconnected from any other film. It seemed DC was trying to position itself as the bespoke comics movie house. It's not a bad strategy. Audiences don't need to see 40 movies and series to know what's going on in Shazam!: Fury of the Gods. Like in the 1980s, Marvel is the massive machine, while DC offers up artsy, mature stories. At least, until now. James Gunn going all-in on a single, multimedia universe is a big gamble. At least Matt Reeves is also smart enough to recognize the value of TV. His isolated Gotham suite of shows leading into The Batman 2 gives DC fans another option if they aren't buying what Gunn and Safran are selling at first.
RELATED: Forget Batman, the Shared DC Universe Can Focus on Nightwing
Even without James Gunn's role in turning Marvel's unlikeliest sub-franchise into one of its best, the comparisons to Hollywood's House of Ideas are inevitable. Marvel beat DC to the shared universe punch, even though all it would've taken was a cameo from Christopher Reeve as Superman on Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman in 1979. As a comics fan from the start of the modern age, Gunn realizes that part of the fun is that Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman all know each other. As much as Matt Reeves' autonomy gives Gunn a little cover, smart money says he's constantly lobbying the director to let Battinson play with the rest of the Justice League at least once.
With a little luck, Gunn could create for DC what his old boss Kevin Feige did for Marvel. Yet, even Feige didn't do it alone. There is the "Marvel Braintrust," comprising producers and directors like Victoria Alonso or Louis D'Esposito. Yet, even these accomplished magic-makers stood on shaky ground between Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War. There was a moment there when DC could've taken the top spot away had things with David Ayer's Suicide Squad gone differently. Yet, Marvel Television led by Jeph Loeb was also deep into its collaboration with Netflix. Shows like Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage bolstered the MCU, even though they, technically, weren't part of it. Even Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. carved out a space for itself distinct from the films.
Now that both the MCU and the DCU will be one big story, respectively, a single film or season of TV could sink the whole ship. Marvel Studios, with its sheer volume of production and audience goodwill, could survive a few flops and duds. Some might say that in the MCU Phase Four, it already has. However, with all eyes on DC's next moves, its future is all on Gunn's shoulders, for better or worse.
Father, veteran, and storyteller. A cunning warrior, the best star-pilot in the galaxy, and a good friend. The first installment of his superhero fiction book, TALES OF ADVENTURE & FANTASY, is available on Amazon in print and ebook!