James Gunn Explains Lack of Booster Gold and Batman Updates: ”We’re Not Quite There Yet”

James Gunn is shining the Bat-Signal on the future of the DC Universe. In the two years since Gunn and producer Peter Safran were appointed co-chairmen and chief executive officers of the new DC Studios, the dynamic duo has greenlit a robust slate that includes Gunn’s upcoming Superman movie, a second season of the Max series Peacemaker, HBO series Lanterns, and the spinoff feature Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow.

Other projects that were announced as part of Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters include The Brave and the Bold, a live-action movie from The Flash director Andy Muschietti that is set to introduce the DCU Batman and Robin, and the live-action Max series Waller (with Viola Davis) and Booster Gold (rumored to star Kumail Nanjiani).

“We’re not quite there yet in terms of Booster Gold. We’re just not quite there. The scripts aren’t quite where I want them to be,” Gunn explained on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. “From the beginning, I’ve made it clear that the one thing that we’re gonna do at DC is, no matter what, we’re going to wait until the screenplays and the teleplays are ready before we shoot them. And I’m not going to shoot anything until I’m happy with it.”

“I’m not a crazy person. I’m not sitting there micromanaging everything, and I’m never not happy with anything. I’m not one of those guys. But I have to feel it in my heart, and that’s happened,” Gunn continued. “It’s happened with Supergirl, it’s happened with Lanterns, it happened with another thing that was greenlit last week that I can’t even talk about yet. And it’s happened with some other things. There are other things out there that, we’re moving [on]. Other things aren’t quite there yet. Booster Gold‘s not quite there, Waller isn’t quite there, Brave and the Bold isn’t quite there. They’re not quite where I want them to be yet.”

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The last time we heard from Gunn about The Brave and the Bold was in February, when he dispelled rumors that Batman would appear in next summer’s Superman movie that will feature the superheroes Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi), Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), the Guy Gardner Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion), and Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan) alongside David Corenswet’s Man of Steel. Gunn previously debunked the rumor that John Logan, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Gladiator and Skyfall, was penning the script.

When Gunn and Safran announced the 10-project DCU slate in January 2023, Safran said that DC Studios will never “put a project into production before the script is right.”

“We won’t green light a film until we have a finished script we’re happy with and, in general, we won’t cast a film until the script is finished,” Gunn shared on Threads in March. “This is why some projects are moving faster than anticipated and others more slowly. It’s always gonna be quality first no matter what.”

Other projects that have been announced with few updates include a Swamp Thing movie, The Authority, and the live-action Max series Paradise Lost, a “Game of Thrones-type story” that takes place on Themyscira, home of the Amazons and the birthplace of Wonder Woman. The Batman Part II, which is under DC Studios but not part of the DC Universe, is dated for Oct. 2, 2026, with Matt Reeves directing.

The Brave and the Bold “is the introduction of the DCU’s Batman,” Gunn said last year. “It is not Robert Pattinson. It is not Ben Affleck.”

Described as an “unusual father-son story,” the movie “is a story of Damian Wayne, who’s Batman’s actual son that he didn’t know existed for the first eight to ten years of his life. He was raised as a little murderer and assassin. He’s my favorite Robin. It’s based on the Grant Morrison comic run, which is one of my favorite Batman runs.” Safran teased that Brave and the Bold is “going to feature other members of the extended Bat-Family. Just because we feel like they’ve been left out of the Batman stories in the theater for far too long.”

Booster Gold is about Michael Jon Carter, a disgraced football star from the 25th Century who uses stolen future and alien technology to time-travel to the present and pose as a superhero. “I think of it as, basically, the story of a superhero’s imposter syndrome. How do you deal with that?” Gunn said. “[It’s about] how he tries to use this future technology to be loved by the people of today and what is really at the base of that. It’s a character story that’s going to be a very different type of show, and we’re talking to an actor about it now.”

The Gunn written and executive produced Creature Commandos — featuring the voices of Frank Grillo, Indira Varma, David Harbour, Zoe Chao, Alan Tudyk, Sean Gunn, Steve Agee, Maria Bakalova, Anya Chalotra, and Viola Davis — is streaming now on Max. Superman opens in theaters July 11, 2025, and will be followed by Peacemaker season 2 later that year. HBO’s Lanterns is expected to air in 2026 after the Craig Gillespie-directed Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, which is dated for June 26, 2026.