Home Movie News New DCU Report Hints At What Existing Franchises Will Remain

A new report about the DCU future hints at what existing DC franchises and shows will remain as part of James Gunn’s planned franchise reset.

A new report hints at what existing franchises will remain part of the DC Universe’s future as part of James Gunn and Peter Safran’s franchise reboot. The co-CEOs of DC Studios are in the midst of formulating plans for what the DCU will look like for the next few years. Some information has already started to come to light, including Wonder Woman 3 not moving forward and Henry Cavill no longer being Superman in favor of a recast. It has also been confirmed that Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam is not part of the immediate future and that Matt Reeves’ The Batman franchise will remain separate. Still, questions have remained about what will be kept or if a complete reboot is in store.
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Now that a new year is upon DC, there is plenty of speculation about what will come next for DC’s 2023 movies and their franchise potential. According to a report from Variety, James Gunn and Peter Safran’s plans are for a “broad but not blanket reset” of the DC Universe. This will include recasting Superman, as Gunn confirmed in the past. But, this new report notes that existing franchises like Aquaman and Shazam and the HBO Max series Peacemaker could be kept as part of the reset, as well as the upcoming Blue Beetle. There is also a suggestion that Ezra Miller could remain after The Flash. None of these properties are confirmed to be kept, and James Gunn could respond to this report swiftly on media.

Related: Henry Cavill Has Become A Symbol Of The DCU’s Chaos

James Gunn’s Reset Plans Will Complicate DCU Canon Questions

The possibility that James Gunn’s DC reset plans will include current and upcoming franchises but also recast key roles points to how complicated the DCU’s future might be. Based on what is known right now, the Superman reboot movie James Gunn is writing is the only project confirmed to be part of the franchise. It will focus on a younger version of Clark Kent and recast the role, but that decision alone has huge ramifications for what else could or should be part of the new DCU canon. Henry Cavill’s Superman interacted with most of the DCEU’s key characters or has ties to them in some fashion.

The possibility that the DCU will have a new Superman actor but retain Jason Momoa’s Aquaman, Zachary Levi’s Shazam, Ezra Miller’s The Flash, or John Cena’s Peacemaker will become quite confusing for general audiences. For better or worse, Henry Cavill is known as the Superman who interacted with Aquaman and Flash, and it was even his Superman suit featured in Shazam. How James Gunn plans to explain a new Superman actor and change his DCU history will be quite complicated to pull off without a multiverse-type reset that keeps some key characters/actors and recasts others.

After all, Gal Gadot’s uncertain Wonder Woman future and Robert Pattinson, Ben Affleck, and Michael Keaton all having Batman appearances lined up are also situations that need to be resolved. Gunn and Safran have proven they are not afraid to make surprising decisions like recasting Superman or leaving Dwayne Johnson out of their plans, but making sense of the DCU canon is going to be difficult. Determining whether Aquaman, Shazam, Blue Beetle, and Peacemaker are kept as part of the DCU’s future will not be easy.

More: The DCU Reboot Needs To Avoid A Flashpoint Problem

Source: Variety

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