It’s official now: they only waited 3 movies before sending James Gunn packing. No matter that Superman and Clayface made money and the shows had some appeal, the failure of Supergirl condemned the director (and his partner Peter Safran) to a future far from Skydance. There’s no bad blood, from what we can see, but the question everyone is asking is a different one: now, what happens to DC’s pantheon of heroes?
DCease among the heroes
After 4 years in the role, the universe has barely been given any structure, and all we know for sure is that Superman will have his Man of Tomorrow next year, besides the Jimmy Olsen and Gorilla Grodd spin-off. We’ll have to see whether in a hypothetical third installment they’d bring Gunn back or his time at DC is over for good.
As for Batman, in 2028 we’ll finally get The Batman II, but Pattinson’s Batman is from another universe, so someone still has to be chosen to star in The brave and the bold, the version directed by Andy Mischietti that, honestly, looks dead before it’s born. Whether the new head honcho will stop messing around and simply move Pattinson into the official DC Universe or not remains to be seen.
As for Wonder Woman, things look a bit better: it looks like Adria Arjona appearing as the superheroine for the first time in Man of Tomorrow alongside Superman, which is a relief for fans, because the cancellation of the Paradise Lost series was a pretty hard blow. And of course, with so many heroes in the mix, the obvious next step would be another Justice League movie, right?
Well, unless DC decide to move full steam ahead, I wouldn’t count on it. Two of the three main heroes still have to be introduced, and Green Lantern hasn’t even made his film debut yet. It’s possible we’ll get one if its new head honcho wants to speed everything up but that would be making the same mistakes as Zack Snyder’s universe.
And what are we left with? The Lanterns series, which after this doesn’t look like it’ll get a season 2; a Supergirl who’ll at best show up as a supporting character; a Clayface with no real future; a Blue Beetle who’ll return in Man of Tomorrow but whose series seems doomed; a Peacemaker whose storyline may never be resolved, and a whole bunch of other projects (Sgt Rock, Swamp Thing, and so on) that will most likely be forgotten. Like I said: more than DC, what lies ahead are DCeases.
