James Gunn is bringing the DC version of Thanos into the DCU, and he is going about it in a very different way than Marvel did with Thanos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In the MCU, Thanos made his first appearance in the Avengers movie as the mastermind behind Loki and the Chitauri attacking Earth. He was then developed further in Guardians of the Galaxy and became the first major big bad of the MCU. When he snapped away half the life in the universe and then finally fell in Avengers: Endgame, it was the culmination of carefully constructed worldbuilding by Marvel. Zack Snyder tried to fast-track Darkseid into the DCEU, hoping to avoid building the world as the MCU did, and he never got to the finish line.
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James Gunn is doing the opposite of what the MCU did with Thanos and Zack Snyder did with Darkseid when it comes to his DCU and the evil Darkseid.
Darkseid is Debuting in Mister Miracle Animated Series
Thanos popped up in The Avengers, and he was immediately a major threat coming to the MCU. Zack Snyder threw Darkseid into Justice League without giving the team time to actually come together, and he planned on bringing in the dark villain for the sequel. James Gunn is bringing in Darkseid, but he is doing it slowly and just introducing him as another character, and there are no plans to fast-track him or make him the very first big bad in the DCU. This is smart because it will introduce the villain and then allow the DCU time to form better before setting the ruler of Apokolips on the heroes of Earth.
Darkseid will debut in the Mister Miracle animated series. In Gunn’s DCU, the animated and live-action releases are all interconnected, and the actors who voice the characters in animation play them in the live-action versions. This happened with Frank Grillo, who voiced Rick Flag Sr. in Creature Commandos and then returned as the character in the live-action Superman and HBO Max’s Peacemaker Season 2. Whoever is cast to play Darkseid in Mister Miracle will also play him when he finally appears in a live-action DCU project.
What to Expect from Mister Miracle Series
The best thing about the Mister Miracle animated series is that James Gunn has brought in Tom King as the showrunner. This is important because King is also who wrote the Mister Miracle comic book miniseries from 2017-2019, with Mitch Gerads as the artist. This once again proves that Gunn wants comic book people making the movies and TV shows to keep it loyal to the source material, rather than have Hollywood people come in and try to change it into more mainstream entertainment.
The Mister Miracle miniseries was about Scott Free (Mister Miracle) and Big Barda, the woman he would fall in love with and eventually run away to Earth to marry. This story shows how Scott was traded for Darkseid’s son to end the war between the New Gods on Apokolips and New Genesis. That left him under the care of Granny Goodness, who tortured and beat him, leaving him looking to escape. He meets Big Barda, one of Granny Goodness’ warriors in the Female Furies, and they fall in love and escape together.
Darkseid plays into this because he is the ruler of Apokolips, and he is responsible for the torture and cruelty to Mister Miracle, which is what led him and Big Barda to escape to Earth and become heroes. In the entire miniseries, Darkseid is the shadow that lies over Mister Miracle and Big Barda, and he is shown to be a force of nature, the ultimate evil. By having Darkseid appear first in Mister Miracle, his power and true nature can be shown, and the setup is there for when he can later become a big bad in the DCU. However, there is no reason to rush things, and James Gunn seems intent on setting up his world first, rather than rushing into things from the outset.
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