DC Studios Bosses Explain Gaming Strategy

One of the bigger surprises to come out of the DC Studios era has been the repeated claim that video games will tie into the film and TV universe, and that the stories in those games will be canon to the broader DC slate. So far, there are no announcements that might shed light on what exactly that means, but during their slate presentation with reporters earlier this week, DC co-CEOs Peter Safran and James Gunn broke down their philosophy on the subject. The short version? They want to use games to bridge the gap between other projects.

So it isn't like we are seeing a 2000s-style return to movie-to-game adaptations. Instead, according to Gunn and Safran, video games will be used in the same way that comic books have been recently: to tell theoretically canonical stories that take place in the space between what you see onscreen.

"What's very different about it for us, for DC is it's not like we're going to have Superman come out and then have the Superman game come out," Gunn explained. "It's more like we have the Superman come out and then two years later we have Supergirl coming out, so what's the story in between there? Is there a Krypto game that we can play that comes in between, that's still set in the world with these characters, but that is its own thing? [The idea is] to give the sort of prominence to games that they deserve."

"Yeah, and it's a real just emphasis on storytelling and the universe, as opposed to the individual movies or television shows," Safran added.

The studio's initial film and TV slate, announced yesterday, included a number of movies -- Superman: Legacy, Supergirl: The Woman of Tomorrow, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, The Authority, Swamp Thing. DC's TV projects will include Waller, Booster Gold, Paradise Lost (a prequel centered on Themyscira), Creature Commandos, and Lanterns.

Gunn, the showrunner on Peacemaker and director behind the acclaimed The Suicide Squad, was tapped to take over DC late last year. He and his production partner Peter Safran are now co-CEOs of the newly-established DC Studios, which means that they answer to no one except Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav.

Are you excited to see what's coming in the first few years of DC Universe? What's your most-anticipated project, and why is it Booster Gold? Sound off in the comments below, or hit up @russburlingame on Twitter to talk about all things DC.