Is Martian Manhunter Headed to the DCU?

A number of new DC movies and television shows are expected to debut in the next few years, thanks to the guidance of current DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran. The duo have promised to showcase plenty of beloved and unexpected elements from DC’s comics on the big screen, as already evident by the number of characters and titles confirmed for their new DC Universe. On Friday, Gunn added an interesting layer to fans’ speculations, posting a photo of a physical package of Chocos, the DC analog to Oreo cookies that are beloved by J’onn J’onnz / Martian Manhunter. With in-universe advertisements for Chocos already spotted on the set of Gunn’s Superman movie, there’s no telling exactly how the snack brand will be utilized in-universe. Still, it has led to one question in fans’ minds — could we see Martian Manhunter join the DCU sooner than later?

While Martian Manhunter’s overall superhero gimmick — being a stoic and powerful survivor of an alien war on Mars — has very little to do with Chocos, his love of the snack has become a part of his characterization since it was introduced in the Justice League International run of the 1980s. It has also already made its way into media beyond the comics, as his identity was teased on Smallville by Clark Kent (Tom Welling) discovering stray cookies across town, and the snack was also hinted at in last year’s Blue Beetle movie. It wouldn’t be unheard of for the new DCU to use Chocos to lay the groundwork for J’onn’s introduction, even as he isn’t currently publicly confirmed to be appearing in any of the franchise’s projects.

Of course, that then raises a whole separate question of how Martian Manhunter could be folded into the DCU. At the moment, with the debut of the first new DC Studios project still several months away, there are plenty of possibilities. There is always the chance that the DCU could hide J’onn in plain sight, only to later reveal that he is secretly the shapeshifting superhero, a trope that has been used to varying levels of success in Smallville, Supergirl, Zack Snyder’s DCEU, and even the infamous Justice League of America TV movie. An argument could be made for a twist of that nature working in virtually every confirmed DCU project thus far, whether in live-action or animation.

That being said, there are plenty of avenues for the DCU to have Martian Manhunter established without any sort of twist, especially given the narrative and thematic beats that seem to be on the horizon for the franchise. Superman has been teasing a version of the Justice League that is corporately owned by businessman Maxwell Lord (Sean Gunn), which has led to speculation that the fan-favorite Justice League International roster either already exists, or will exist at a later point. To an extent, J’onn’s involvement in that version of the team is too vital to ignore, and would help introduce the character in a different manner than his previous live-action incarnations. The same can be said for how the DCU plans to introduce the concept of the Justice League as a whole, as Martian Manhunter is a founding member of the team in both the pre-Crisis and post-Crisis continuities, and could be baked into the new live-action history as a result.

Even beyond that, the new DCU seems to have room to introduce Martian Manhunter as a few steps away from being an established hero, potentially even in some sort of solo project. J’onn’s time as a private eye or police detective, particularly in Steve Orlando and Riley Rossmo’s genre-bending 2018 Martian Manhunter maxiseries, could provide another cosmic True Detective-esque project alongside the forthcoming Lanterns television show. There’s also the prevailing theory that Gunn and Safran’s plans for the universe will lead to an adaptation of Darwyn Cooke’s beloved comic miniseries DC: The New Frontier, as their “Chapter One: Gods and Monsters” subtitle for the slate is lifted directly from that text. Martian Manhunter plays a significant role in the original events of New Frontier, so having him in the theoretical live-action adaptation doesn’t seem like too much of a long shot. Even then, it has been safe to assume that Gunn and Safran’s DCU will be filled with surprises, and we’ll just have to wait and see if Martian Manhunter ends up being one of them.