DC Studios Boss Teases DCU Will Be Built for New Audiences That Skipped Recent Movies

For the last 15 years, Marvel Studios has told one extended story, featuring dozens of films and television shows that closely align with one another. Now that Warner Bros. Discovery is starting its own cinematic superhero world from scratch in the DC Universe, James Gunn and Peter Safran are hoping to take a little bit of a different approach from their counterparts. According to Safran, the DCU won’t be as dependent on crossovers and interconnected storytelling.

“The good news is, if you’ve seen nothing that we’ve done before, you can watch Superman Legacy, you can watch Creature Commandos, you can watch Peacemaker season two, and you can watch Blue Beetle. All of that,” Safran said in a recent chat with Vanity Fair. “We are trying to minimize audience confusion and maximize their enjoyment.”

What will make the DCU different from the MCU?

According to Gunn himself, the DCU will make for more inventive storytelling because of DC’s tradition of using fictional cities rather than placing superheroes into the world outside our windows.

“If you look at the MCU, there are very few traditional superheroes,” Gunn said earlier this year. “There was never a guy with a secret identity until Spider-Man in the MCU. Their Cap was turned into a soldier even though he wears a mask. Iron Man outed himself at the end of the first Iron Man because they don’t want to deal with the whole secret identity stuff. But there is a bit more of a fantasy element to DCU, because there are these larger-than-life superheroes and for me, there’s Superman and Clark Kent. They’re two different characters, and you have to find a way to deal with them that’s as grounded as possible within this world of DC.”

He added, “One of the things that I love about DC, that excites me about DC, is that in a way it’s another alternate history. It is Gotham City and Metropolis and Star City and Bludhaven, and all these different places in this other reality, and it makes it a little bit like Westeros in some ways. I love it in that way. I love that we get to create true worldbuilding in DC, it isn’t just ‘we’re throwing some superheroes on Earth.’ I think right now, that’s one of the key differences.” 

The DC Universe officially kicks off with Creature Commandos, which has yet to set a release date, and Superman: Legacy, which enters theaters July 11, 2025.

What part of Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters excites you most? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter!