James Gunn Confirms His Creature Commandos Appearance Is Not DC Canon

The first two episodes of Creature Commandos do a marvelous job kicking off the DCU by giving fans an enthralling story to follow and nodding at the larger cinematic universe. Although five episodes are yet to be released, the raving reviews and outstanding public reception have already crowned the animated series as a massive win for DC Studios, building up the hype for Superman. However, some fans dislike that a cartoon version of James Gunn appears in Creature Commandos, which some interpret as the filmmaker introducing himself as part of the DCU canon. Fret not. As Gunn himself explained, that’s not the case.

The animated version of Gunn pops up in the opening credits of Creature Commandos. While he’s not part of the show’s storyline, Gunn gets a few seconds of intro credits like the other main characters. As showrunner Dean Lorey told IGN, that was precisely the idea. As Lorey puts it, “James had a credit, and we were trying to figure out, ‘Well, we gave all the characters sort of little moments,’ animated moments in the credits. And we were like, ‘James is kind of a character. We should give him something.’”

While the homage moved Gunn, he was kept in the dark throughout the process. That’s why watching the opening credits “was like a shock” for DC Studios’ co-head. Commenting on his Creature Commandos appearance, Gunn quickly underlines, “That’s not canon,” before adding, “I was surprised, and my ego was stroked, and I was like, ‘Oh, my God. Please don’t let people think that I told him to animate…’”

Lorey confirms Gunn did not give the order to turn him into an animated character. In fact, the whole team was apprehensive about his reaction. In Lorey’s words, “I can tell you for the record, he didn’t [ask to be animated], and we were thrilled to present it. And nervously, we presented a little bit.”

[Related: Creature Commandos: The Sons of Themyscira Are Quite Different in DC Comics]

What’s Creature Commandos About?

Creature Commandos follows Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo) as the leader of Task Force M, a team of monstrous inmates created by Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) after Congress stopped her A.R.G.U.S. operations involving human prisoners. While the series is the first official chapter in the DCU, Creature Commandos mentions events from Season 1 of Peacemaker and The Suicide Squad, partially canonizing Gunn’s previous DC-based projects. This creative choice ensures that the DCU is a lived-in universe where caped heroes are not a novelty, which fits perfectly with the idea that Superman will take place years after Clark Kent first donned his uniform.

While Creature Commandos tells a self-contained story, the show also lays the foundations for Superman and other upcoming DCU projects. For instance, after starring as the voice of Rick Flag Sr., Grillo will appear as the flesh-and-bone version of the character in both Superman and Peacemaker Season 2. It’s still unknown if other Creature Commandos members will survive the series’ events, but Gunn already has the technology needed to give all of them live-action iterations.

New episodes of Creature Commandos hit MAX every Thursday until January 9, 2025.