New DC Studios Boss James Gunn Celebrates Halloween with Deadman Tease

In just a matter of hours, James Gunn will officially start his new role as co-CEO and co-chair of DC Studios, the fresh new film studio overseeing all live-action and animated content featuring characters from DC Comics. Ahead of his new position, the filmmaker shared Halloween well wishes with all of his followers on Twitter alongside a snippet including Deadman.

Deadman, of course, has been a fan-favorite DC horror character since his first appearance over 55 years ago. Naturally, this led some to believe a project featuring Boston Brand could be in the works when Gunn and Peter Safran assume their roles this week.

Happiest of Halloweens to each of you. pic.twitter.com/1ssMacvBBu

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) October 31, 2022

Is there going to be a live-action Deadman movie?

As it stands now, there are currently only five DC movies that have release dates including Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Flash, Blue Beetle, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, and Joker: Folie A Deux. In fact, the character has yet to even appear in live-action, only showing up in DC’s wide variety of animated offerings.

At one point, the character was expected to play a role in Guillermo del Toro’s Justice League Dark movie, but that never came to fruition.

“I am going to be presenting my storyline to DC and Warners of where I want to take this universe,” del Toro said back in 2013. “We do have a writer, but until that is firmed up, I have to keep it a secret. I hope it happens.” He added, “It’s going really, really well. It’s like meeting old friends. I grew up with Demon Etrigan, with Swamp Thing, with Deadman, so these are characters that are near and dear to my heart.” 

He added that his film was going to dive into the origins of each of the characters, potentially even launching a cinematic in and of itself.

“I’d love to use the origins that are proper to each character,” del Toro continued. “I love the idea of Jason Blood as a paladin and a knight…I love the entire Constantine mythology, the Deadman mythology, the Alec Holland Swamp Thing mythology. These are really rich things to well, and to dig.”

Most recently, JJ Abrams and his Bad Robot were working on a series of Justice League Dark-related properties for HBO Max, but most of them have been shelved or forced to shop around with other networks.