Prior to becoming co-head of DC Studios and overseeing the DC Universe franchise, James Gunn was one of the creatives involved with the DC Extended Universe, directing The Suicide Squad and spearheading Peacemaker Season 1. Elements of both of these projects were carried over into Peacemaker Season 2 (which is set in the DCU, not the DCEU), raising questions about what is and isn’t canon in the new timeline. Peacemaker Season 2 had its humorous way of tackling this issue head-on, but we still don’t know the full picture. As fans debate what might and might not be DCU canon, Gunn has weighed in with his input.
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On Threads, Gunn took part in a discussion about aspects from the DCEU’s Suicide Squad films and Blue Beetle that could potentially be DCU canon. One fan questioned if Bloodsport shooting Superman with a kryptonite bullet could fit in the DCU continuity, citing the Superman opening crawl’s reveal that Kal-El had just lost his first fight (to Ultraman). Gunn pointed out a flaw with this logic.
“A lot of people are saying this. But is being shot by someone at long distance while you’re not looking ‘losing a fight’?” he wrote in response. “I don’t see Abraham Lincoln having ‘lost a fight’ with John Wilkes Booth.”
Will The DCU Ever Address Bloodsport’s History With Superman?
In The Suicide Squad, Amanda Waller simply says Bloodsport is in prison because he sent Superman to the hospital after shooting him with a kryptonite bullet. She does not provide further context about that encounter, and viewers don’t see it in a flashback sequence. At the time, it was merely a way to flesh out Bloodsport’s character by highlighting how proficient and deadly of a marksman he is. But now, with the DCU active, that line has taken on a whole new life as fans try to figure out whether or not it’s canon. Gunn isn’t confirming anything on that front yet, but his response seems to support theories that it could be. As he says, it isn’t much of a fight if Superman was sniped from a distance, unaware that Bloodsport was trying to track him down.
The character of Bloodsport is canon to the DCU; he was part of the Corto Maltese mission alongside Christopher Smith and Rick Flag Jr. However, his backstory hasn’t been detailed. While things more or less stayed the same for Peacemaker in the two continuities, it’s possible the DCU’s variant of Bloodsport was imprisoned for a different reason and has no history with Superman. We know the DCU’s Superman didn’t publicly reveal himself until three years before the events of Gunn’s Superman. Depending on where the DCU’s version of Project Starfish falls on the timeline, Superman may not have even been an active superhero by the time Robert DuBois was incarcerated.
Peacemaker Season 2 (which is set after Superman) takes place “a couple of years” after the first season. Theoretically, that could imply Project Starfish happened before the world learned about Superman. That said, Gunn intentionally made the time jump between the two Peacemaker seasons “an unspecified amount of a couple of years” because he knows first hand how difficult it can be to make shared universe projects fit in a timeline together. A key part of his approach for the DCU is minimizing the amount of homework viewers have to do to follow a movie or TV show, so he doesn’t want to box creatives in with strict timeline guidelines. This leaves open the opportunity to tweak things down the line if need be (within reason, of course).
It’ll be interesting to see if Gunn and Co. address the Bloodsport/Superman dilemma at some point. Gunn has mentioned he’s “looking for a place to put Bloodsport” in an upcoming DCU project, so if the character has a future in the franchise, it stands reason to believe his backstory will be properly fleshed out in some regard. Considering how important of a figure Superman is in the DCU (and will continue to be for the next several years), it would be odd if Bloodsport returns and there’s still no mention of his past with Superman. On Threads, Gunn suggested he could revisit those DCEU projects once he’s done with Man of Tomorrow and clear things up for fans.
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