James Gunn’s Latest DCU Release Schedule Update Is Bad News for One Big Movie

Do ya really wanna, do ya really wanna taste of the DCU? James Gunn gave fans just that with the one-two punch of Creature Commandos and Superman, which officially kicked off the new DC Universe Gunn is spearheading with producer Peter Safran. Up next from DC Studios is season 2 of Peacemaker, Gunn’s hit The Suicide Squad spinoff fronted by John Cena (who donned the chrome dome helmet for the first time since 2022 during a surprise cameo in Superman).

Gunn promoted the show’s August 21 return on HBO Max with a costume-clad Cena at San Diego Comic-Con over the weekend, where Gunn took over Hall H to tout the new season with a star-studded cast panel, an immersive themed experience, and live musical performances by Steel Panther and Foxy Shazam as part of “Peacefest.”

So when Gunn gave an update on the DCU slate to TikTok influencer Straw Hat Goofy, the co-head of DC Studios playfully ignored Cena — in character as Peacemaker — to talk up everything but the new season of Peacemaker.

“We’ve got some really cool stuff happening. We’ve got Supergirl coming out in a year, we’ve got Lanterns coming out probably less than a year. That’s some really good stuff,” Gunn said in between cuts to an unimpressed Peacemaker. “We’re making Clayface right now, we’re working on The Brave and the Bold, Wonder Woman, The Batman 2 with Matt Reeves, we’re working on that. We’re working on Sgt. Rock … Krypto shorts for kids that are really fun.”

“That’s pretty much everything that I care about DC,” Gunn said, prompting Peacemaker to respond with, “What the f—, guys?!”

One project on the backburner is The Authority, which was announced as part of the initial wave of DC Studios projects in 2023. Gunn reaffirmed that the planned live-action movie — about a world-policing superhero team with a zero tolerance approach to threats — has fallen by the wayside.

“This is one of my real passion projects,” Gunn said at the time. “I’ve been working really hard on it with the writers and we’re starting to put together the entire story. This is a big movie.” Gunn noted that The Authority originated in the WildStorm imprint and that “we’re moving a lot of these WildStorm characters into the DCU” — the first being María Gabriela de Faría’s Angela Spica/the Engineer in Superman.

“The Authority’s a very different kind of superhero story,” he continued. “They’re basically good-intentioned, but they think that the world is completely broken and the only way to fix it is to take things into their own hands, whether that means killing people, destroying heads of state, changing governments—basically, whatever they want to do to make the world better. We’ll see how that journey goes for them. There are morally gray characters [in our DCU], of which these are.”

In February, Gunn revealed that The Authority “has had a harder time coming along” than other projects first announced in 2023. “It hasn’t been much [of] a priority.” More recently, Gunn has put pen to paper on his next feature script that is “in some way” related to his Superman movie but not “a straight-up Superman sequel.” That could be an adaptation of Superman and the Authority, Grant Morrison’s four-issue series that sees the Man of Steel recruit Manchester Black and a team of anti-heroes — including Apollo and Midnighter — to help him save the world.

Peacemaker season 2 — starring returning series regulars John Cena, Danielle Brooks, Jennifer Holland, Freddie Stroma, Steve Agee, and Robert Patrick alongside new cast members Frank Grillo, David Denman, Sol Rodriguez, and Tim Meadows — premieres August 21 on HBO Max.

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