As this year has played out, there have been a number of questions regarding the future of DC Films, the upcoming DC movies, and the hard reboot that James Gunn and Peter Safran appear ready to implement. And now that the WGA has settled the issues that were causing them to strike, Gunn became a little more vocal on social media about his plans, and their impact on what will now be known as the DCU. And I think that’s really bad news for Jason Momoa and his upcoming Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.
Taking to Threads, James Gunn started to clarify a few items for DC fans who were asking him questions. He stated that nothing that happened prior to the upcoming series Creature Commandos will be viewed as canon to the overall stories he, Safran, and their collaborators will be trying to tell. As Gunn pointed out:
Nothing is canon until Creature Commandos next year – a sort of aperitif to the DCU – & then a deeper dive into the universe with Superman: Legacy after that. It’s a very human drive to want to understand everything all the time, but I think its okay to be confused on what’s happening in the DCU since no one has seen anything from the DCU yet. And, yes, some actors will be playing characters they’ve played in other stories & some plot points might be consistent with plot points from the dozens of films, shows & animated projects that have come from DC in the past. But nothing is canon until CC and Legacy.
Gunn confirmed that the returning actors from the DCEU to the DCU would include Xolo Maridueña as Blue Beetle, Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, and John Cena as Peacemaker. He did not say these were the ONLY actors staying on in their roles. But he didn’t include anyone else.
Like Jason Momoa, the current Aquaman.
Now, Jason Momoa has been linked to DC rumors that he might play the intergalactic bounty hunter Lobo, and yeah, he basically looks the part and would be a tremendous pick to play that character. But that doesn’t help the fact that Momoa will be leading Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom in a few months. We saw the trailer for it recently. And it’s the next comment Gunn left on Threads that has me worried.
When asked if audience members will need to watch any previous DC movies in order to understand what is happening in the DCU, he replied:
They will not, no.
That makes Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom kind of useless, doesn’t it? I mean, James Wan is a terrific filmmaker. His original Aquaman movie made more than $1 billion. There’s an audience out there for the continued adventures of Arthur Currey (Momoa), but now we know for sure that this will be the last movie from the DCEU and, by extension, the SnyderVerse that so many fans love. If there’s a mid-credits tease in the movie, we know that it won’t go anywhere. And it raises more questions about that unusual mid-credits scene in The Flash that had Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen with Momoa’s Aquaman. That means nothing right?
In the big picture, it feels like DC wants to skip to Creature Commandos, a seven-episode series that will arrive in 2024… but we don’t know when. It is labeled to be the first installment in the upcoming DCU, an animated series led by Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) that features a team of Rick Flag Sr., Nina Mazursky, Doctor Phosphorus, Eric Frankenstein, the Bride of Frankenstein, G.I. Robot, and Weasel. The next phase of DC Films is coming. It just has nothing to do with what’s coming later this year.