James Gunn on the comics inspiring the new DC Universe

Last Updated on February 8, 2023

James Gunn announced a number of new DC movies and TV series earlier this week, but he’s continued to drop teases on social media. One of the big-screen projects announced was Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, which will be based on comic by Tom King and Bilquis Evely, but there are other comics that have inspired James Gunn’s new DC Universe.

James Gunn took to Twitter to tease a few of the comics that will help shape the first chapter of the DC Universe.

“We’re talked a lot about Woman of Tomorrow, but these are more of the comics inspiring #DCStudios and the new #DCU in these early days,” Gunn wrote. “That doesn’t mean we’re adapting all these comics, but that the feel, the look, or the tone of them are touchstones for our team. Check ’em out!” The comics James Gunn shared includes All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely; Batman by Grant Morrison, a run which introduced readers to Damian Wayne, who will be the the focus of The Brave and the Bold; The Authority Omnibus by Warren Ellis; and Absolute Swamp Thing by Alan Moore.

We’ll have to wait and see what elements of these comics will make it to the big screen, but I’m excited to learn what James Gunn and Peter Safran have in store for us. The current slate of movies is only the first part of the first chapter, which is called Gods and Monsters. James Gunn said, “We’re telling a big, huge central story that is like Marvel, except that I think we’re a lot more planned out than Marvel from the beginning because we’ve gotten a group of writers together to work the story out completely.” Despite all that planning, Peter Safran added that they’re “remaining flexible and we’re going to adjust because we’re never going to put a project into production before the script is right. This is a general timeline, but there will be flexibility within it.“

Following the release of the remaining DC movies (Shazam: Fury of the Gods, The Flash, Blue Beetle, and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom), the first project to emerge from the new DC Universe will be Superman: Legacy, which will be written by James Gunn himself. The film is set for a July 11, 2025 release.