James Gunn's Superman Is the "True Start" of the New DCU After Creature Commandos

2025's Superman is the first film in the rebooted DC Universe overseen by James Gunn and Peter Safran.

By Cameron Bonomolo

Creature Commandos is set within the newly-rebooted DC Universe, but the adult animated series is an appetizer for the main course: James Gunn's Superman movie. The DC Studios co-head has described the Viola Davis and Frank Grillo-voiced series (premiering Dec. 5th on Max) as an "aperitif" for the interconnected DCU, which officially launches when David Corenswet's Man of Steel arrives in theaters in July 2025. An example of that connective tissue: Grillo will reprise his animated Creature Commandos role as Rick Flag Sr. in the live-action Superman and Peacemaker season 2. 

"Superman is the true start of everything, it's a humongous epic," the DC Studios co-head told Entertainment Weekly, adding Creature Commandos is "a way for people to just take a little nibble and see what it tastes like." Written and executive produced by Gunn, the seven-episode Max Original series has "a ton of references to other DC stuff, a bunch of hints for things that are coming," the filmmaker teased. "So I think it's just an extraordinarily fun way to start."

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Frank Grillo voices Rick Flag Sr. in Creature Commandos, a role he'll reprise in live-action in 2025's Superman.

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While Gunn's The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker season 1 took place in the continuity of the DC Extended Universe (where Henry Cavill starred as Superman),  portions of that canon will carry over into the DCU. As for how characters like Peacemaker (John Cena) and Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) can exist in both universes, Gunn wrote on Threads: "I have a way in. It won't be confusing."

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"What we're doing with the DCU is we're having animation tied directly into live action. Television, movies and games all intertwine within the same universe," Gunn said when announcing the first chapter of the new DC Universe in 2023. In addition to Grillo's Rick Flag Sr. showing up in Superman and Peacemaker, Gunn has teased that one of the main characters in Creature Commandos will cross over into the live-action Max series Waller.

Creature Commandos tracks a secret team of incarcerated monsters recruited for missions deemed too dangerous for humans. Along with Grillo's Flag and Davis' Waller, the voice cast includes Steve Agee (Peacemaker) as John Economos, Maria Bakalova (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3) as Princess Ilana, Anya Chalotra (The Witcher) as Circe, Zoe Chao (The Afterparty) as Nina Mazursky, Sean Gunn (The Suicide Squad) as GI Robot & Weasel, David Harbour (Stranger Things) as Frankenstein, Alan Tudyk (Resident Alien) as Dr. Phosphorus, and Indira Varma (Game of Thrones) as The Bride. Creature Commandos begins streaming Dec. 5th on Max; Superman opens in theaters July 11th, 2025.

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