DC Chief James Gunn Updates Status of Elseworlds Superman Movie

The Elseworlds Superman movie is still poised to take flight, according to James Gunn. The DC Studios co-chairman and CEO confirmed that the standalone movie, written by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Marvel's Black Panther, Captain America) and produced by J.J. Abrams (Star Wars, Star Trek), is still in development under the soon-to-launch DC Elseworlds label that exists separate from Gunn's Superman: Legacy and the rebooted DC Universe. The Coates/Abrams Superman movie was announced in 2021 under the former WarnerMedia regime and will center on a Black Man of Steel, potentially the Kryptonian Val-Zod of Earth 2 or Kalel/Calvin Ellis of Earth 23.

"Yes," Gunn wrote in response to a fan on the social media platform Threads when asked if the Elseworlds Superman movie is still in development. The status update comes as the Gunn-directed Superman: Legacy, the film that will launch the new DCU, prepares to begin filming in the spring for its July 2025 release date.

Last year, Gunn confirmed that the as-yet-untitled Superman re-imagining is still in the works and "totally unrelated" from Legacy. Like The Batman and Joker, Coates and Abrams' Man of Steel will exist in his own universe. Chantal Nong — an executive producer on Wonder Woman 1984, The Batman, and Gunn's The Suicide Squad — is also on board to produce with Abrams.

"That's an exciting movie," Gunn told io9. "I know that Chantal Nong, who is the executive on that project, is extremely excited about it. So if it comes in and it's great, which I haven't read the script, and if the timing is right, that could absolutely happen. That's totally unrelated. It would be an Elseworlds tale like Joker."

When Gunn and co-chair and CEO Peter Safran announced their slate last January, they confirmed that the new DC Studios would oversee its own connected universe and outside-of-continuity projects under DC Elseworlds.

"DC has had great individual movies over the years, but we think that what the audience really appreciates and needs is a connected universe. It minimizes audience confusion and it maximizes their connectivity to it across all the platforms," Safran said. Added Gunn: "I think that's something that people love. I know that from my own experience. But again, we do have Elseworlds tales we're telling. The bar for an Elseworlds tale is going to be higher than the bar for a movie within the DCU. Not that we're not always going to have a high bar, but it's got to be something really special for us to tell that story outside of our regular continuity and to spend the money to make it."