Videos by ComicBook.com
“There are references to things that happened in the past, and those references then become canon in the DCU because we mention them,” Gunn explained during the DC Studios panel at New York Comic Con.
That includes John Cena’s Peacemaker killing Joel Kinnaman’s Rick Flag in 2021’s The Suicide Squad. Frank Grillo, who voices Rick Flag Sr. in Creature Commandos, will then reprise his role in live-action in Superman and Peacemaker season 2.
In addition to Cena’s chrome-helmeted anti-hero, Viola Davis reprises her role from The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker as Amanda Waller in Creature Commandos. The seven-episode series is set post-Peacemaker and tracks a secret team of incarcerated monsters recruited for missions deemed too dangerous for humans, including the mermaid-like Nina Mazursky (Zoe Chao), Dr. Phosphorus (Alan Tudyk), Frankenstein (David Harbour) and the Bride (Indira Varma), and Weasel and GI Robot (both voiced by Sean Gunn).
Gunn has also confirmed that Xolo Maridueña’s Jaime Reyes will be the Blue Beetle of the DCU, but the events of the DCEU-set Blue Beetle movie are not canon.
The Superman reboot is “the true foundation of our creative vision for the DC Universe,” Gunn said when announcing the DCU slate, titled Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters, in 2023. Added Safran: “The DCU’s a multiverse, but we’re going to be focusing on one universe from that multiverse. And if something isn’t DCU, we’re going to make that very clear. So, strictly adult fare like Todd Phillips’ Joker, or kids animation like Teen Titans Go!, we’re going to make it very clear that those are DC Elseworlds, just the same way that they do it in the comic books.” That includes Matt Reeves’ The Batman saga, while the DCU will launch its own Batman franchise with The Brave and the Bold, about dynamic duo Batman and Robin.
The DCU slate includes Creature Commandos (December 2024), Superman (July 2025), and Peacemaker season 2 (TBA 2025). DC Studios will soon begin production on HBO’s Lanterns series, starring Aaron Pierre and Kyle Chandler as Green Lanterns John Stewart and Hal Jordan, and the Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow movie starring Milly Alcock as Superman’s cousin, Kara Zor-El, slated for 2026.
Other announced projects include the Max series Waller, Booster Gold, and Paradise Lost, and feature films The Authority, The Brave and the Bold, and Swamp Thing.
