By Jonas Reichel on February 25, 2025 at 11:54 am3 min reading time

The future of the DCU has plenty to be excited about: In an interview with the trade magazine Variety, James Gunn and Peter Safran gave an update on their upcoming film and series projects. These include the "Teen Titans" live-action film adaptation, "The Penguin" season 2 and "The Batman 2" with Robert Pattinson.

Gunn and Safran started by emphasizing their philosophy that no film or series gets the green light until a finished script is ready. Quote by James Gunn:

"It is hard enough making a good movie with a good script. It's almost impossible making a movie with a script that you're writing on the run."

This approach is in stark contrast to Marvel. Here, projects are often announced with a fixed release date, even though the scripts have not even been written yet.

The output of upcoming projects, on the other hand, shows some parallels to Marvel: Gunn and Safran confirmed that two live-action films and one animated film as well as two live-action series and two animated series will be released each year. The focus will be on "The Brave and the Bold", which will introduce Batman to the main DCU. However, Robert Pattinson is not expected to take on the lead role, as his version of the Dark Knight is set in a different timeline. There is already some initial news for the movie "Clayface": Among others, British director James Watkins has been confirmed to be the director. Gunn emphasized that the film is intended to be a "body horror" in the style of "The Fly". Filming will begin as early as this summer.

New Animated Series

Animated series won't be neglected in the coming years either: A project called "My Adventures with Green Lantern" is currently in development, for example, which tells the story of high school student Jessica Cruz, who becomes the champion of the Green Lantern ring. "DC Super Powers", in turn, is about a group of young heroes who develop their powers at the Alliance School for Heroes. And "Starfire" deals with the origin story of the Teen Titans character of the same name. The "Teen Titans" live-action movie is also still in development.

"Booster Gold" and "Paradise Lost" are still on the schedule – but there are no further details yet. The series "Waller" revolving around Viola Davis' character of the same name has had a particularly bumpy start, as the script has been rewritten several times. The series was originally planned before the second season of "Peacemaker".

The Batman 2, Sgt. Rock and Swamp Thing

Not too much has progressed with regard to "The Batman 2". According to Peter Safran, writer and director Matt Reeves has not handed in a complete script yet. However, the first passages of the story are said to be extremely promising. The blockbuster starring Robert Pattinson will still be released on October 1, 2027.

Whether there will also be a second season of "The Penguin" is still uncertain. This probably depends on whether Colin Farrell expresses interest in slipping into the costume of the ruthless villain once again.

Regarding the "Sgt. Rock" film, James Gunn made it clear that it had never been officially announced. Daniel Craig had also never been in talks for the lead role. Recently, there was also news that he would not be involved, contrary to reports.

"Swamp Thing" comes with less welcome news. The horror film is still in limbo, as director James Mangold is primarily focusing on the Bob Dylan biopic "A Complete Unknown".

However, things are particularly bad for the project "The Authority". Gunn had spoken at length about the film in 2023 and emphasized that the plot of the film should take place after the events of "Superman". At the center of the story is a group of superheroes with uncompromising morals. Over the past two years, though, "The Authority" has increasingly faded into the background.

But on July 11, "Superman" will be the official kick-off for the new DCU in cinemas. It will be interesting to see what happens after that.