Since being named co-Bosses of the DC Universe in October, Peter Safran and James Gunn have had their hands full. The two are overseeing the development of a brand-new batch of movies and TV series for the company, ensuring that everything will work together in a coherent fashion in what they call the DCU Chapter One. This new roadmap is basically the DC equivalent of Marvel’s Phase 1, and Gunn has revealed how it works in a blog post on his website.
Essentially, only films and TV series produced by DC Studios will count as official DCU canon for now, with comics and video games not included in the plan at all. This move will ensure that there’s a clear path forward for the company, allowing fans to feel like they’re investing in something that has a future.
This plan also gives the creators of DC movies and TV shows much more creative freedom than previous franchises, which relied on the same characters to propel each film. Gunn says that “the goal is to make a movie that stands on its own and feels fresh.” Creating each film and series according to its own needs should help prevent the sort of superhero fatigue that’s hurt some of Marvel’s recent releases.
Gunn and Safran are also planning to release about two films and TV shows into the DCU each year, but they won’t sacrifice quality in order to hit their output targets. Instead, projects that need more time to develop will stay on the back burner until they’re ready to go. This will allow them to give projects that are closer to greenlight the attention they need, while still allowing them to land on the right creative track.
As an added bonus, Gunn and Safran have also capped the number of DCU movies that will be released each year, which should help avoid oversaturation and the sort of fatigue that has hurt some of Marvel’s recent releases. It’s a bold move in an era where more is often mistaken for better, but it could prove to be the key to ensuring that the DCU has a sustainable future in the face of superhero fatigue and other problems.
The first film to be released as part of this new timeline will be Superman, starring David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan. It’s the first major release to come out of Gunn and Safran’s new DCU, but it’s just the start of what should be a long journey ahead for DC. As more movies and television shows get released in the DCU Chapter One, it should become easier for audiences to understand what’s going on, putting an end to the endless DCU vs. DCEU debate that has been going on for far too long. Thanks to this plan, the company should be able to get off on the right foot, and it could be a model that other studios follow in the future.