Did James Gunn Just Tease a Superman/Batman: World’s Finest Movie?

1938’s Action Comics #1 and 1939’s Detective Comics #27 introduced the world’s finest superheroes: Superman and Batman. But the Man of Steel and the Caped Crusader didn’t meet until Superman #76 (cover-dated May 1952), when the dynamic duo formed what the issue called “the mightiest team in the world.” Superman and Batman (with Robin the Boy Wonder) would share issues of the DC anthology World’s Finest Comics, and by 1954, the trio had become the book’s main feature starting with World’s Finest #71.

Superman and Batman went on to headline new World’s Finest titles in 1990, 1999, 2009, and the still-ongoing Batman/Superman: World’s Finest in 2022. They were also paired up in the long-running team-up book Superman/Batman.

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That’s all to say that the Last Son of Krypton and the Dark Knight Detective are known to work together, whether it’s as a duo or part of the World’s Finest Team (alongside the likes of Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, and Black Canary). With a Wonder Woman movie now in development at DC Studios and Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav naming DC’s Trinity — Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman — as “big asset builders” and pillars of the new DC Universe with Supergirl, it sounds like the world’s finest superheroes might meet sooner rather than later.

“I wouldn’t say only those four characters, but I would say that those four characters are incredibly important to us,” James Gunn, the co-chairman and CEO of DC Studios with producer Peter Safran, told Entertainment Weekly. “Right now, I feel great about where two of those characters are, and then we’re dealing with the other two.”

Gunn, who wrote the HBO Max series Creature Commandos and Peacemaker season 2 in addition to Superman, has been hinting at a secret project he’d begun “pre-writing” back in January.

“What I’m working on is in some way…I mean, yes, yes, yes, yes,” the Superman director confirmed when asked if he’s started thinking of a potential sequel. “But is it a straight-up Superman sequel? I would not say necessarily.”

Is it a Superman spinoff focused on the Justice Gang’s Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi), Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion), and Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced)? Or maybe a World’s Finest movie teaming David Corenswet’s Superman with a yet-to-be-cast Batman?

“I’m writing something else now that would be the next directing thing,” Gunn told outlets including ComicBook during a press event earlier this year. “It’s connected [to Superman] without saying exactly what it is.” Gunn would only confirm that he’s “writing something that’s within the DCU,” adding of the mystery project, “I didn’t say that [it’s not Superman 2].”

In 2016, Zack Snyder’s followup to 2013’s Man of Steel was, similarly, not necessarily a sequel. A second standalone Superman movie was planned before Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice pit Henry Cavill’s Man of Steel against Ben Affleck’s Dark Knight, with the versus movie also acting as a prologue to Justice League. (Man of Steel 2 never got off the ground.)

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DC Studios has already announced The Brave and the Bold, a Batman and Robin movie based on Grant Morrison’s Batman and Son comic and separate from Robert Pattinson’s version of the caped crusader in Matt Reeves’ The Batman saga. Andy Muschietti (The Flash) is attached to direct, but curiously, a screenwriter was never announced.

“We’re developing the Brave and Bold script right now and he’ll be the first one to see it,” Safran said of Muschietti at the DC press event, with Gunn declining to name the film’s screenwriter as it “puts too much pressure on the guy.”

“Everybody knows I love Batman and it’s important to me, so I’m working very closely with the writer on Brave and the Bold,” Gunn said. Gunn and Safran added that film remains in “active development” alongside the Reeves-directed The Batman II, slated for 2027.

DC Studios’ Superman soars into theaters on July 11. Tickets are now on sale.