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On the preview episode of our brand new DC TV and movie podcast, we’re talking all about the upcoming movies and TV shows coming from the James Gunn DC Universe. From the leftover DC movies like Shazam: Fury of the Gods and The Flash, through the whole Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters slate, to the Elseworlds movies and TV shows, we’re breaking it all down.
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Episode Transcript:
Alex: Welcome to Sons of a Gunn, a podcast about the DC movie, TV and comic book universe. My name is Alex Gunn.
Justin: My name is Justin Gunn.
Pete: I’m Pete.
Alex: Also, last name Gunn. And for legal reasons, we can’t say who our father is, but-
Justin: Yeah, let’s just say we know what’s going on.
Alex: Yes.
Justin: Pew. Pew. Bang bang.
Alex: Yes. We are identical triplets who love the DC universe, and we’re very excited to be talking about it, particularly as a completely unrelated guy named James Gunn and Peter Safran have taken over the DC movie and films. But to take a big step back, before we get into any of that, a little bit of background about us.
If this is the first time you’re listening to one of our podcasts, we’ve actually been doing podcasts for over 15 years now. We have done a live show where we interview comic book artists and writers every week called Comic Book Club. It’s streamed live to a bunch of different platforms, including YouTube and Facebook, and we’ve rolled out a bunch of other podcasts off of that. Some of those are comic book podcasts. We do The Stack, a review podcast where we review tons of DC comics, as well as Marvel comics as well. Don’t want to downplay that. And we actually do have a Marvel podcast called MarvelVision, where we’ve been talking about the revamped MCU ever since WandaVision first premiered on Disney Plus. And now with this new start here, we’re trying to get into the same thing. We, I’ve done a couple of DC podcasts, right though? We’ve done… That’s
Justin: That’s right. Krypton, famously.
Alex: After Krypton. Yeah, you can check that out.
Pete: Doom Patrol.
Alex: We all agreed and loved it. And… Right, Pete? Yeah?
Justin: Yep, all fans.
Pete: Doom Patrol. We did Doom Patrol.
Alex: Yes, The Doom-
Justin: Still doing.
Alex: … Room. Yeah, we’re still doing it. At least another six episodes. We’ll see what happens, I guess, after that. And with it being canceled and all, we also did Watchmen Watch, a podcast about HBO’s Watchmen.
Pete: Oh, so good.
Alex: And was diving into the comic books there. And Sweet Tooth, which is a-
Justin: Of course.
Pete: Oh, yeah.
Alex: … Vertigo comic. We did a podcast called Candy Men, where we tried candy and also talked about Sweet Tooth, and did some fun interviews there.
Pete: My favorite of all the podcasts.
Alex: So you can check out that and many more podcasts from us at comicbookclublive.com. But this is going to be the place where we talk about the DC stuff going forward. So on this podcast, other than that little intro about ourselves, I figured what we could do is we could talk about this new rejuvenated, hopefully, DC cinematic universe, and then run down some of the stuff that’s coming up.
Pete: I don’t like your attitude already with the Rejuvenate. They’ve had- the Batman, you’ve been talking about how great The Batman is for months. Now all of a sudden Batman, it’s like, oh, you’re not going to count that?
Alex: I love the Batman. The Batman is the best-
Pete: Well, then don’t give the rejuvenated…
Alex: … Cinematic representation of Batman on screen. But that Robert Pattinson, he’s getting old, that’s what I’m going to.
Pete: Who are you?
Alex: When I say rejuvenated, he’s basically an old man at this point. And-
Justin: We need a younger Batman. That’s what everyone- we either need a younger or a much older Batman. I think we can all agree on that.
Alex: Well, we’re definitely going to talk about which one we’re going to be getting in a little bit. So as mentioned, and as folks probably know, James Gunn, who directed The Guardians of the Galaxy movies, as well as the Suicide Squad and the Peacemaker TV series, or at least directed a couple of episodes and wrote that. Did you say it’s magnificent, Pete? Is that what you threw out there?
Pete: Peacemaker, it was a lot- it was really great.
Alex: Great show. Super fun. He has been promoted to the creative head of DC Studios. He’s been working with a small writing team that includes Tom King, one of our favorite comic book writers, and a couple of other folks who crafted a story that is called Chapter One, Gods and Monsters. They have a 10-year story that they’re hoping to tell over, I believe, two movies and two TV shows a year. But before we get that, we got to get through the vestigial tale of the previous DC Universe.
Justin: Well, but it’s not to say- So, I mean, let’s just, to talk about what you’ve said for a second there.
Pete: Yeah.
Justin: James Gunn, you’re elevating a creative, a sort of in the moment popular creative force-
Pete: Oh, whoa, whoa.
Justin: … in comic book movies.
Pete: In the Moment. No, it’s been a long-
Justin: I mean that positively.
Pete: Years of- Oh, okay.
Justin: It’s a positive, a positive comment. He’s very much sought after. He’s- it’s strange to elevate someone who is such a hot director and hot writer and creator right now to a studio exec position. So it’s a strange choice in a good way, and I think it’s going to reprioritize a lot of things. But as Alex is saying, we have these movies that were already being made before he and Peter Safran took over. So that’s interesting. I’m curious, let’s talk about them. And I wonder how much of a hand they’ve had in these movies, if any, as they’re getting them ready to come out.
Pete: But I think, though, that DC has done that. I mean, if you look at Jim Lee and where he started to what he he’s doing now, is… DC’s kind of famous for taking talent and elevating it. Maybe not, you know, you might be great at something else, but also like, “Oh, let’s see what else you can do.” Pushing boundaries, trying different things. So I think there is an excitement to this move. It might seem a little crazy, but it’s also kind of exciting to see what can happen.
Justin: It’s very exciting. I mean, one of the things that he said, right? What James Gun said right when he took over was he wants to have finished scripts before they start shooting, which I know sounds crazy from a filmmaking perspective, but that is actually sort of an innovation, a step back to what storytelling used to be before.
Pete: Is that a shot at John Favreau and all his amazing improv?
Alex: No, that’s literally a shot at all of Hollywood, is what Justin is saying.
Justin: Exactly.
Alex: Hollywood movies are just rocketing towards the finish line. The script writer is the lowest on the totem pole. They’re writing on the fly. And I don’t think James got his, “No words will change on set.” That’s not what he’s saying here, but he’s literally saying, “Story comes first, idea comes first. We got to get that first, and then we can actually go to the shooting stage.” And I think that comes down to, what we’re bouncing around here a little bit, is he is a creative first, and that’s something- no shade, but that is not something that the DC movies have necessarily had up to this point. It’s been very executive driven in terms of, “We’re doing this plan, this is what we’re doing. We’re pushing this forward. Now let’s bring some people on to actually figure out what the story is.”
So the good news here is that James Gunn and Peter Safran work very well together, apparently. And Peter Safran is the guy who’s taking care of the business, while James Gut is able to talk to the creative people, figure out the stories, work on the casting, all of these other things. And it’s a really good division of labor, I think. So Justin, I believe you brought up how much of a hand they’ve had in this movies. And the other thing that’s been going on here is James Gunn has been very open and transparent about his process to-
Justin: Chatty on Twitter is Dad.
Alex: How does he have time? How does he have time to do all these tweets? I don’t get it. But we do have these movies that are coming out first. So just to read through.
Pete: I hope he has somebody else doing the tweets. You know what I mean?
Justin: Oh, I don’t think so.
Alex: A ghost tweeter?
Pete: Oh, man.
Alex: I mean, I’m worried because it’s like he should be doing so much.
Pete: If he’s on Twitter-
Justin: There’s a lot of downtime in between meetings. You’re in a car, fire off a couple tweets. I don’t think it’s as time-consuming as it seems. It’s just most people in his position would never be that open and available on Twitter.
Alex: How long does it take to write a tweet? Like half an hour, 45 minutes?
Pete: Three hours.
Alex: Something like that? Three hours, yeah.
Justin: The way I do it, it’s like three, four hours. ‘Cause I really, really craft it.
Pete: Oh, it’s got to be.
Alex: Every letter’s got to be just right. Why don’t we talk about these movies? So the first one coming out very soon as Shazam: Fury of the Gods on March 17th, which James Gunn has said about that one, is they didn’t need to change anything. It’s always sort of sat by the side.
Pete: No notes. No notes.
Justin: No notes.
Alex: I mean, the first movie had some shouts out to Batman and Superman. It certainly kind of seemed like Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill. But spoiler, if you haven’t seen the movie, they don’t show up in that movie. They’re not there. So you can pretty easily put that into something else if you want to. The Flash coming out June 16th, that seems to be the big one. That is wrapping up the previous DC extended universe and then kicking into high gear. James Gunn has said-
Pete: Flashpoint.
Alex: It’s Flashpoint. He has said-
Pete: Which, depending on who you ask, is either a great event or a really shitty one.
Alex: Yes. Well, what did you think? Because we are comic book readers, Pete, so what did you think of Flashpoint?
Pete: I’ve never liked Flashpoint. I’ve always felt like it was a weird thing that only lasts for a little bit and then gets undone. So why go through all the emotional stress?
Alex: You just described almost every comic ever published.
Justin: Honestly, almost every event in life, really.
Pete: Oh wow, okay.
Justin: It’s a weird thing that gets undone. Well, I think to say what Flashpoint is, if you haven’t read the comic, The Flash goes back in time.
Pete: Right.
Justin: To stop his mother’s death.
Pete: Cause if you run fast enough, you can go back in time, of course.
Justin: That is something that happens.
Pete: You’ve just got to run faster.
Alex: Yeah. I’m pretty close by the way. I know you guys have been following my training again. I’m getting very fast.
Justin: Honestly, you look at least one minute younger when you finish running, Alex. So the years are just going to drop off. But he goes back, messes up the timeline and that gives them the sort of ability to change the continuity of, in the comic book world, a ton of stuff. And here in the DC universe, perhaps the movie continuity as well.
Pete: Most of-
Alex: And James Gunn said, just to interrupt real quick, James has called this one of the greatest superhero movies ever made, which is high praise. And I almost feel like it’s a little crazy to be like, “Dude, you don’t have any movies or TV shows coming for a while. Why are you staking your reputation on this?” But…
Justin: We’ll see, I guess.
Pete: But also it’s from a kind of person who is maybe a DC fan or whatever, the star got into trouble, so now you’re like, “Oh, do I feel weird about going to see it?” But then they’re like, “Oh, Michael Keaton is fucking Batman.” And now you’re kind of like, “Oh, now I got to go see it. I mean, I don’t really have a choice, but it kind of feels weird to.” It’s really a torn position to be in, because normally you’d just like to be able to go to the movie and enjoy it. But there’s a lot of extra baggage with this.
Alex: Well, I do feel like, doing a DC podcast now, we’ve kind of locked ourselves into seeing it.
Justin: Yeah.
Alex: So that’s choice-
Justin: You probably will see this movie.
Alex: … has been taken away from us.
Justin: Well, and let me say-
Alex: Even with this one- oh, sorry, go ahead Justin.
Justin: I was going to say there’s been so much positive hype on it. To your point, Alex, James Gunn doesn’t have to hype this movie that hard. What he did with, excuse me, with Shazam, I thought, was he was like, “This movie didn’t need to be touched. I’m not touching this movie.” So he sort of says, “This movie’s coming out. I didn’t do a lot here.” So he is being supportive while taking ownership out of it. But The Flash, I feel like he’s thrown his weight behind and said, “See this movie, this movie is the best of the best.” So that’ll be an interesting thing to observe when it comes out, how it does and how good it is just from our perspective.
Alex: And there’s also been a lot of conflicting reports and rumors about things that may or may not have changed, particularly in terms of the ending. Apparently, there’s some cameos of some sort of Batman. There’s a lot of Batmens out there in the universe.
Justin: Batmens.
Alex: So I guess we’ll see what actually ends up on the screen. The next one-
Justin: You think-
Alex: … which you know-
Pete: Wait, do you think we’re going to see George Clooney?
Alex: Why… why? Why would he come back?
Justin: That feels like the least likely. Well, maybe Val is probably the least likely, but I think George is the second least likely. But Arnold Schwarzenegger will be there saying you should see…
Pete: Oh, you think so?
Justin: Hundred percent. Mr. Freeze.
Alex: Ice to meet you. Let’s kick some ice.
Pete: How about Jim Carey? You think we’ll get Jim Carey?
Alex: Yeah, they’re all coming back. All of those characters specifically. Why don’t we move on because there’s a lot of stuff to talk through.
Justin: Fine.
Alex: The next movie out, on August 18th, is Blue Beetle. This is another one. First of all, we don’t know anything about this movie at this point. We haven’t seen any footage, any looks at it or anything like that, but…
Justin: It’s a secret.
Alex: James Gunn said that, yeah, this very much, like Shazam, sits on the side, isn’t affected by anything. So presumably if it does well, they’ll keep with this Blue Beetle going forward. And the last one, which we-
Pete: Wait.
Alex: … not to throw Pete here- what?
Pete: I’m, regardless of the fact that I don’t know anything about- the fact that we’re getting a Blue Beetle movie is awesome. I’m very excited about it. One, the comic is done right, it’s an amazing character and very enjoyable. So I’m very nervously excited for this movie. And hopefully-
Alex: This is a character, for anybody who doesn’t know named Jaime Reyes, who Justin you have called multiple times the Spider-Man of the DC universe.
Justin: He is the Spider-Man of the DC universe. And I think this movie has the potential, if it’s good, to occupy that role in the movie space as well. But this one, the fact that it’s being so held, held so close to the vest makes me worried a little bit about its quality.
Alex: I guess we’ll see what happens with that one. And the last of the old guard is Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom coming out this [inaudible 00:13:07]
Pete: Yeah, come on!
Alex: And-
Pete: Come on!
Alex: There have been, and again, rumor-y so we don’t know, but a lot of troubling reports about it in terms of the movie not being very good at test greetings, them making changes and it getting somehow even worse at test screenings.
Pete: Wow.
Alex: Again, very rumor-y. Who knows? I haven’t seen a test screening. I haven’t seen it, but it is a little troubling…
Pete: It’s going to make it that much better when it’s awesome.
Alex: Yes, and-
Justin: Well, here’s the thing.
Alex: … Oh, go ahead Justin, please.
Justin: I’m sorry. I was just going to say, I did not enjoy the first Aqua Band. I thought it was really confusing and sort of all over the place, but this movie- that movie crushed at the box office, was a huge win.
Alex: Yeah.
Justin: So this may be- but that was back when superhero movies were sort of untouchable at the box office. And as we’ve seen over on the Marvel side of things, that there is some cracks in the facade. So we’ll see if this movie can pop even with its problems.
Alex: So there’s that.
Pete: I’m going to be there.
Alex: That’s the old guard. That’s the stuff that is already made, already coming out. And then we are finally moving into Chapter One, Gods and Monsters. There’s a lot of stuff going on here and not a lot that we know about it, but it’s split into two things. There’s the chapter one, gods and Monsters, and then there’s a couple of things that are being categorized as Elseworlds, things that take place outside this main DC continuity. So James Gunn is very careful to say, “We may not do all of these projects at the end of the day. We may do some different projects. We have other things we’re working on that we haven’t talked about right now.” So this isn’t in order, or the slate that they’re going to be released or anything. This is just the stuff they’ve talked about. The one that seems farthest along, though, surprisingly, is an animated series called Creature Commandos that presumably is going to come out on HBO Max. Seems interesting.
Pete: You had me at animated.
Justin: Really?
Pete: Animated DC project. Yes, please.
Alex: All right.
Justin: Because of your love of Harley Quinn.
Pete: That and Batman, the Animated Series.
Justin: Nice.
Alex: There you go.
Justin: Well, this one’s interesting. It does feel like this one, James Gunn really loves this. He’s worked on, he works on this show and is a creative force in the details of this show, which is cool. The interesting thing about this is they want to have voice actors who are also, will be available to play live action versions of these same characters. Which seems like, if this is their first swing, that’s a wild swing for two reasons. A, it’s hard to find a voice actor who’s good at that, but also great on-screen presence. And B, to say that-
Pete: Kevin Conroy would’ve been amazing, dude.
Justin: But again, he’s an amazing voice actor. But didn’t do a lot of on-camera acting because-
Pete: Well, he was a classically trained actor.
Justin: A hundred percent, no doubt. So the stage, maybe.
Pete: He would’ve killed it.
Justin: I look forward to the Creature Commando stage play that will inevitably come out.
Pete: Here’s my-
Justin: The second thing I was going to say is, to launch with an animated show as your first thing, with the potential to turn it into live action, feels like a strange also first step out into the world.
Alex: It’s backwards, honestly. I love animation too, Pete, don’t get me wrong. Animation is great. I love watching animated shows, but that’s not the way Hollywood works. That’s not the way the entertainment works. We’ve seen it with Marvel. And the animated shows, they have an audience. It’s not as big as the live action audience. It’s the same way. And this frustrates me every time I hear it, but when they’re like “Great news, we’re doing a live action version of Avatar: the Last Airbender,” that’s annoying to me because I love Avatar: The Last Airbender. I don’t need to see this in live action, but it’s a way of furthering the brand, it’s a way of growing it. More people will watch it if it is human people versus cartoon people. It’s an unfortunate way of the world. But I want to throw out a theory to you guys, and I’m going to jump ahead a little bit.
My theory is the first three things that they mentioned, Creature Commandos Waller, which has Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, spinning out of The Suicide Squad, Suicide Squad and Peacemaker where she appeared as well. And then the third project, which is Superman Legacy, which already has a date, July 11th, 2025, which is being written by James Gunn. That’s kind of all we know about another than it is a younger version of Superman than Henry Cavill. My guess is those three projects were already being done.
Justin: Right.
Alex: The reason we’re leading with Creature Commandos is, he was already doing Creature Commandos. We have Waller.
Justin: Yeah.
Alex: Because we already knew he was doing, working on some sort of spinoff of Peacemaker. That’s clearly it. And he’s come out and said that Superman Legacy, there was a earnings call with Warner Brothers Discovery, and David Zaslav said that, yeah, James Gunn was writing Superman Legacy when we brought him on to lead the DC stuff. So that was already in the works at this point. So that is my assumption there.
Justin: That’s a lot of things.
Alex: Well, but that’s my assumption there, why those things are there and maybe why they brought him on because they’re like, “Oh, you have all of these different projects that you’re making. Let’s expand that.”
Justin: Take over.
Alex: Exactly.
Justin: Yeah.
Pete: “You should just take over.”
Justin: And he is a confident, he has big ideas and he executes on them. Like Guardians, Suicide Squad, those movies had no reason to be as great as they were and are.
Pete: Oh, stop. They were great.
Justin: No, that’s what I’m saying. But I’m saying they weren’t built to be the lead tent pole movies of these huge companies and they are. This year, Guardians has to succeed and I think it will for Marvel. And Suicide Squad, they made two of those faster than they made a ton of other projects over at DC. And with Superman, he’s maybe going to direct it as well, right? Isn’t that- that’s not been fully confirmed or anything, but that’s a huge swing for him as again, the first big movie property for the new relaunch.
Alex: Yeah, we’ll definitely have to see in terms of the whole director-writer thing, how that works out, as well as his other responsibilities. There’s probably a lot more to say about Superman Legacy, but we also have a lot more things to cover, including the next thing on the list is Lanterns, which is a True Detective-style mystery series focusing on Hal Jordan and John Stewart, two Green Lanterns investigating a weird mystery on earth. And James Gunn said, the way that Superman Legacy is the official kickoff of their DCU, Lanterns is going to be the one that kicks off the big story. So lots of questions there. I am a little iffy on the project, to be honest, because the whole thing about Green Lanterns, I think, is they’re flying around space and doing space things. So for them to be-
Pete: Yeah. Space gods.
Justin: Famously.
Alex: Standing in a desert and drinking coffee and eating donuts is something not that exciting to me, but…
Justin: Well, I mean, if this is, again, the big story kickoff, it sort of needs to be good. It needs to be great. This is an idea, though, that feels great when you hear it, it’s like, “Oh, that’s cool,” but in execution, I can’t even imagine what it is. Are they going to be just on earth and occasionally making a little sword with their rings, or are they going to be ending up in space and making big, big light, big green light projects with their rings?
Alex: Well, I will throw out there, I think Justin, you mentioned this on one of our other podcasts, but of the creative brain trust, this feels like a Tom King idea.
Justin: Yeah.
Alex: Because doing something, if you folks listening don’t know Tom King, his go-to for comics is taking cheery, bright DC Comics characters and getting to the core of them emotionally and putting them through the ringer with dark, very grounded situations. So I think that’s potentially what we’re going to get here. I think that was a good call you made on an entirely different podcast.
Justin: Well, that’s, we’re here to collect the calls. This is a take pile here on DC stuff. The other thing about this is, for those of you who aren’t reading comics, Hal Jordan, John Stewart are two, sort of, by the book heroes. To partner them together is like, to use the straight cop-crazy cop paradigm, is like two straight cops being like, “No, I’m following the rules more than you are, sir.”
Pete: It’s a rules off.
Justin: It’s a rules off. And I’m not saying they’re the same character, but there’s the same energy. And you would think there’d be a little bit of the, to use True Detective, the Woody-McConaughey paradigm here. You need someone who’s in and someone who’s out. There’s something. So I’m curious how they’re going to play this out or if there’ll be another character that gets added to it.
Pete: Maybe it’ll be like a young John Stewart and- you know what I mean? It’ll be like a passing of the guard type of situation.
Justin: It could be like a two- if they de-age John Stewart a little bit, or age up Hal Jordan, that could change the dynamic in a good way. That’s a good call.
Pete: And is Ryan Reynolds going to do it?
Justin: Definitely.
Alex: Definitely. 100%. Another big swing they have coming up is the Authority, which is the adaptation-
Pete: Oh, man.
Alex: … of a Wild Storm comic that has since been brought into the DC continuity about a superhero team that essentially is doing what the title says. They are not waiting for stuff, they’re proactive. They get to the point where they’re basically doing whatever they want in the world. Not necessarily taking it over, but not waiting for the threats to come to them. They’re big, they’re bold, they’re brash. They have two of Pete’s favorite characters, Midnighter and Apollo, in there.
Pete: Yes.
Alex: Are you excited to see that on screen, Pete?
Pete: I am. I think there has been a great run of comics with Authority that have been really, really well received. So I think that this is a smart move and if done well could be a real big hit. So I’m excited.
Justin: This is also a surprising first thing to do here for DC, because the Authority, when it was created, is sort of was sort of a Justice League analog in another universe. They are sort of a more extreme Justice League that becomes proactive and a little like Minority Report, for the old Tom Cruise movie, where they’re being more aggressive with their crime fighting. So it was about seeing that the big ideas of what happens if a big superhero team goes too far. And the fact that they’re now going to be alongside Superman, and the rest of the Justice League potentially, feels a little strange. And also a lot of- Apollo, Midnight are our Superman and Batman. So what happens there?
Pete: I mean, not…
Justin: I’m not saying they’re the same, but they’re just, they’re similar, right?
Pete: There’s some similar qualities.
Alex: I hear what you’re saying. The Authority was definitely brought up as a comment on other superhero comics. Curious to see how they do it in the movies. Another one that is an interesting project that, to be perfectly honest with you, I am doubtful we’ll ever see the light of day is Paradise Lost, which is a Game of Thrones style show set on Themyscira, the home of Wonder Woman. The reason I am a little doubtful about this one is that is a very big, bold idea that the comics have tried a lot of times and every single time the comics try it, they’re like, “Yeah, let’s just kind of veer off into the Wonder Woman stuff,” and then “Oops, she’s off Themyscira,” and we don’t focus on that at all. So it just feels like the sort of thing to me that, in theory, is maybe a great idea and to understand why they’re going for it, but when they actually try to jot it down and plot it out, I just don’t know if it’s going to work.
Justin: Well, especially to do something that’s like Game of Thrones. What, are you going to do seven seasons of this? That feels like such a big thing when we really- what are the odds? Are we not going to see a Young Wonder Woman here? Or some sort of version of what of Wonder Woman? Like that’s what everybody wants. Especially since Wonder Woman, it was a huge hit for DC years past. If we’re not going to see of that Wonder Woman, Pete, do you want to see everyone else but Wonder Woman?
Pete: Yeah, I know. I mean, it would be great to, I mean, because there’s so many great comics about Themyscira and all the different stuff that’s on it and all the training and- Sorry, is there a barge going by you, Justin? Are you all right?
Justin: Sorry, I’m at sea.
Pete: That makes sense.
Alex: The other thing that I’ll throw out there, and we’re about to get to The Batman movie in a second. They’ve got a Superman movie. They got two Batmans, who we briefly talked about the first Batman. They’re going to have a second Batman and Wonder Woman. They’re like, “If you love Wonder Woman, here’s a series that she’s not in.”
Justin: Yeah, you’re going to love her relatives.
Alex: And that that’s weird to me. I mean, maybe they are stealth developing a Wonder Woman reboot as well, but I wish they had come out of the gate with that. That would’ve gotten me a little more excited if they had that main trinity. But let’s talk about the Brave and the Bold, which again, another bit of a swerve here was bait on Grant Morrison’s Batman and Robin Run. It is teaming up Batman with his jerk son, Damian Wayne. I can’t wait. This is a weird move.
Justin: Great.
Alex: But I love Damian. One of our favorite characters.
Pete: Damian’s great.
Alex: Very excited to see how they do this.
Justin: Well, and it’s exciting, the idea of seeing Batman frustrated by something he has to love, his son. We’ve never seen that dynamic and it feels like finally we can shake up the sort of dowdy, doomed Batman portrayals we’ve seen year after year, which are great, but I think we’re exhausted by that a little bit.
Alex: It is. Just to jump back really quickly, and this is just getting into wild theories, but you got the Brave and the Bold is Batman and his son, Superman Legacy is the name of the movie and so there’s been some speculation, maybe this is Superman with his son, John Kent.
Pete: Super Sons.
Alex: That would also be weird. I love the Super Sons, like Pete’s calling out, but the idea of they’re like, “We’re rebooting this whole universe and also Batman and Superman are dads.” That’s a strange place to start that. And I say that as a dad, it’s weird.
Pete: Well, if they’re setting up-
Justin: I’m a dad.
Pete: Super Sons is a-
Alex: Our dad is a dad, but we can’t tell you who he is.
Justin: That’s right.
Pete: If we’re, I mean, Supers Sons is a huge hit in the comic books world. I would love to see it in live action. And I agree Damian and Batman, that kind of relationship would be really amazing to see on the big screen or if they did a TV show of it or whatever. But man, I don’t know. That’s, that’s very exciting stuff.
Alex: Then we got Booster Gold, which is another TV show. If you don’t know Booster Gold, he’s a guy for the far future who steals a bunch of technology, travels back to our time and uses it to pretend to be a super powered superhero. That to me, that’s a no brainer. That works as a TV show. I get that, I get that concept. Doesn’t even need to be connected to anything else, so I’m very happy to see this one.
Justin: It feels like this could be a great comedy, a great action comedy, if they do it right, which has been hard to pull off in this superhero space, I feel like.
Alex: And then here’s a big exciting one that ties back to Tom King that we’ve named jacked several times in this podcast, but Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, based on the book by Tom King, excuse me, and Bilquis Evely, this… Who knows how they’re going to do it in the movie forum, but basically Supergirl, it’s very old-timey, high adventure. Her going to various planets on a mission of revenge with a young ward who is writing all about her adventures. It’s a phenomenal book if you haven’t checked it out.
Pete: Beautiful.
Alex: Another one that I can’t wait to see how they do on screen.
Justin: Yeah, it was sort of a fantasy, almost, like a space fantasy, you could say. Had some Xena: Warrior Princess energy to it with the-
Pete: Absolutely, yeah.
Justin: … the way the characters were. So it could be fun.
Pete: I agree. Yeah, it was a stellar comic. If they even get close to how great that was, they will definitely do well.
Alex: And the last one that’s part of this announced DCU slate so far is Swamp Thing, which is going to be a straight horror movie, I believe. I don’t know if he’s officially signed, but James Mangold, who directed the new Indiana Jones movie, also directed Logan, is going to be directing it. Seems like a good choice.
Justin: It’s funny how many swings Swamp Thing is has gotten in the multimedia world, because it’s sort of like who’s died first? Who’s like, “Swamp Thing, I love Swamp Thing.” Comic book fans, of course, love the Alan Moore Swamp Thing. There’s been a lot of great Swamp Thing runs. But to be like-
Pete: I grew up in the eighties, dude, I love the TV show.
Justin: I watched that TV show. That show, gave it a re-watch, not great. It’s like re-watching old He-Man episodes, it’s like, “Yeah, this was a long commercial that I was fooled into think-“
Alex: It’s good point, Justin. It was very funny seeing people’s response to this slate, and maybe it’s because it was the last thing they mentioned, but I saw so many tweets being like, “Oh my God, a Swamp Thing horror movie. I can’t believe it. I’ve waited my whole life for this.” And I was like, there’s 87 episodes of the TV- two TV shows, multiple movies. What are you talking about? One of them was directed and written by Wes Craven. Anyway, it’s fine. It’ll be good. Just, it’s another Swamp Thing.
Justin: Well, I do think maybe the excitement is about the idea of a true horror superhero movie. ‘Cause we don’t get a lot of those that are that work and I think horror’s having such a moment right now, in the last few years, for movies in general. So to actually pair that together could be something that people are genuinely into.
Alex: And now let’s move over to the Elseworlds stuff. There’s only a couple of things that have been officially designated as Elseworlds. There are other DC movies and TV shows. For example, Superman and Lois is one. We know that James Gunn has commented, could probably go on for another season or two, presumably that would fall under Elseworlds, but I don’t believe he’s given a specific statement about that. But we do know Joker 2: Folie à Deux, coming out October 24th, 2024. That is under the Elseworlds designation. The Batman part two, which we mentioned is coming out October 3rd, 2025. They’re very excited about the fact that they’re going to have a Superman movie and a Batman movie coming out in the same year, which cool.
Justin: It is cool.
Alex: Before that, we have The Penguin, the TV series that spins off, I believe it takes a place a week or a month after The Batman part one, I guess we’re calling it now. And it leads directly into The Batman part two starring Colin Farrell. Presumably we’ll see a lot of other characters from the world, but that’s pretty exciting. And a couple of other wild projects. One that everybody thought was dead, but is not, is Constantine Two, starring Keanu Reeves, is still a go, apparently. Wild.
Justin: That seems wild. Yeah.
Alex: Yeah.
Justin: Don’t know.
Alex: And another one I was very surprised to hear about, particularly because they were talking about, even though they have multiple Batmans, they’re like, “we’re trying to simplify this universe.” Ta-Nehisi Coates has been working on a take on Superman, particularly the President Superman, the black president Superman version of the character, for JJ Abrams. That is apparently still in the works somewhere. So we might actually have two-
Pete: He’s an amazing writer. He’s done amazing things.
Justin: Yeah.
Alex: Fantastic. It’s just weird to me to have these multiple- multiple Batmen, I can kind of wrap my head around because that is the one DC property that consistently does well at the box office. But Superman has always struggled. So…
Justin: Yeah.
Alex: I don’t know. We’ll see what happens.
Justin: Well, it’s also interesting because that Superman, president Superman, is a multiverse Superman from one of the different timelines.
Pete: And Superman hasn’t always struggled. They made four or five of them. You know what I mean? It was doing well.
Alex: But box office, they’ve never really broken out. I believe the most profitable Superman movie, if I remember correctly… I don’t think it’s Man of Steel. I think it’s Batman v. Superman. And even that one didn’t crack a billion dollars, which is sort of, ridiculously, the low water mark for blockbuster movies at this point..
Pete: But think about it, like that changed the game. You no longer start a fight until you’ve asked who somebody’s mom is. You know what I mean? I mean that…
Alex: Especially our case, you who ask your dad is, and then realize you’re all the same, have the same dad, and you start a podcast.
Justin: That’s how we met, is we didn’t realize we were triplets until we got in a bar fight and we’re like, wait, is your… is your dad? It’s crazy, it’s a crazy story.
Pete: What’s your dad’s name?
Alex: I’ll tell you what, it’s a real great Muppet caper situation.
Justin: Yeah, it was crazy. But anyway, the idea of the Ta-Nehisi Coates movie, like feels like it gestures toward the multiverse, something that Marvel is doing and potentially struggling with. Not to call that too soon. So I’m curious how they will frame this movie in relation to the others, because DC has been able to get away with like, “No, no, these are just different Batmen. No, no, no. It’s all fine. Don’t think about it too much.”
Alex: And the last one that they said is definitively in Elseworlds is Teen Titans Go, which great. Keep Teen Titans Go going forever. It’s a silly, goofy, fun show. I’m excited to see more of it. Again, there’s a lot of question marks, Harley Quinn, the animated series, I think everybody would love to see that keep going.
Pete: Yeah.
Alex: Also, Peacemaker season two, we don’t necessarily know about that, even though that’s a James Gunn project. Presumably he’s going to want to do that at some point. But I guess we’ll see. But overall, that’s what we have going right now. Surely there is more to come on this podcast. What we’re going to be doing is a couple of things. I mentioned this earlier, but first, we’re going to be doing re-watches. We’re going to be re-watching, or in some cases, first time watching of the DC movies as we lead into the stuff that is either coming out over the course of the next year or in this slate. So for example, our next episode will be a re-watch slash watch of Shazam leading into Shazam: Fury of the Gods. And then leading up The Flash, we’re going to try to watch all the Michael Keaton Batman movies. Maybe we’ll watch Justice League, I guess we’ll see what happens there. That should be interesting. Snyder version? Which version?
Pete: I’m not watching, no.
Justin: Let’s not get crazy.
Pete: No, no, no, no.
Alex: I’m going to watch both. I’m got to watch both. And the gray version. Justice is gray as well. All three. Just to get the proper perspective.
Justin: You got to.
Alex: We’re going to do all that. The other thing we’re going to be doing is some required reading. These are things that are suggested by James Gunn, or maybe by our copious experience of reading comic books, but we’re going to look back on the books that they’re basing this stuff on, like Absolute Authority, the Alan Moore Swamp Thing we mentioned earlier, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, and a couple of other things like that. So should be a fun time.
If you would like to subscribe to this podcast. This episode is the first episode, of course, so we’re just going to be getting the feed started. But presumably you should be able to subscribe everywhere pretty soon to Sons of Gunn, a DC podcast. Also, you can follow us regularly. We do a live show, as mentioned, every Tuesday night at 7:00 PM to YouTube and Facebook. Comic Book Club Live, come check that out. We would love to talk to you about the DC stuff. @comicbooklive on Twitter, Comic Book Club Live on TikTok and Instagram, comicbookclublive.com for this podcast and many more. And until next time, love you, dad.
Justin: Love you, dad. We’ll see you. Let’s see you for dinner. Keep working hard. Stay off Twitter.
