Welcome to the Heavy Spoilers show I’m your host Paul Aka Lames Pun and after what feels like months of waiting, we finally have the brand new DCU Slate. After announcing the line-up at a private event yesterday, James Gunn’s plans are now public and throughout this video we’re gonna be breaking down the whole thing. There are movies to talk about, tv shows and lots of new projects to dive into. We have a lot to cover so I’m not even gonna ask for you to hit the thumbs up button…which you should and let’s get into it.
Now the entire slate will be part of a DC’s first phase which will be known as Chapter One. There may be more announcements that come with this, and I’ll try and keep you updated if we get any further drops over the next couple of days. Titled Gods and Monsters this spells out the kind of direction that the first phase will be, and we have a mixture of both big name and obscure characters.
DCU – Chapter One: Gods and Monsters
The name Gods and Monsters actually pulls from a DC animated movie released in 2015 that featured Elseworlds versions of the Trinity. They were darker versions of the characters, but I think the name is just picked cos it sounds cool rather than actually having a secret meaning behind it.
We will however have an Elseworld set of films and this will be set outside of the DCU. The first one to be confirmed as part of this is The Batman 2 which we all knew was coming. As always DC will do films that aren’t connected to this main timeline, and we of course have a second Joker coming out as well. I think that what Gunn is probably gonna do is that he’s gonna see what the reception is to this main phase whilst also potentially branching off into multiversal stories down the line. This was hinted at by The Rock who said there may be multiversal stories with Black Adam coming at some point.
I kinda do hope that we see Henry Cavill back as Superman in some form or another as I think it would be a shame to completely waste the guy.
Either way Superman is going to be a big part of the upcoming slate and the first movie announced is Superman: Legacy. This was the movie that Gunn announced a couple of weeks back as he had to say why he was getting rid of Henry Cavill so with that came with the reasoning behind it. The title Superman Legacy pulls from a Superman Animated episode that featured Superman being brainwashed to be believed that he was the leader of Darkseids army. I highly doubt we’re gonna get anything along those lines and Gunn has said that it’s gonna be a story set in the early years of Clark moving to Metropolis and becoming a reporter at the Daily Planet. The title Legacy probably refers to him just building his own Legacy that can then usher in other heroes in this new DCU.
Superman, Supergirl, Batman and Wonder Woman
Now following in the footsteps of Superman we have Supergirl.
Titled Woman of Tomorrow this is of course playing on the Man of Tomorrow Superman book. There was also a Woman of Tomorrow run released recently so it’s kinda pulling them all together.
At the time of making this video it’s unclear whether this will be a continuation of the Supergirl we meet in the flash or if it will be its own thing. I think as we get into the line-up, you’re gonna see that this isn’t a 100% reboot and that there are carry overs from other things.
The sporadic release of these titles means that I’ve had to jump back and forth between a lot of pages and reports and if we do miss any big things like castings then I’ll be sure to update the pinned comment.
Now next we have The Brave and The Bold. This is a big title, and it will reportedly be a brand-new Batman and Robin story featuring new actors behind it.
Brave and The Bold brings a lot with it, and it’s been used across a number of batman projects from comics to cartoons. It’s a more light-hearted Batman with its tongue in its cheek which will probably balance out the darker tone that the Reevesverse has.
Recently Gunn posted that he’d been reading through the seminal Grant Morrison Batman Run and this will likely be based around elements of that. That actually had Dick Grayson being Batman because Bruce had seemingly died during Final Crisis. His son Damien took on the role of Robin but I’m guessing that they’re just gonna get rid of that and base it more around the tone and some of the plot points in it.
Talia Al Ghul was a big part of it, and it also featured a part in which Bruce was seemingly sent insane. We learned that he’d actually created a backup personality called Zur-En-Arr which was trigged by his past trauma. The name Zur-En-Arr actually refers to his father saying ‘they should put Zorro in Arkham’ when he was a child, and this happened as they left the theatre. He was then killed in front of Bruce, so it wedged itself in his brain.
Now no new slate would be complete without the Trinity and the Wonder Woman part of this will come in the form of a TV show called Paradise Lost. This title is based on the Phil Jimenez two-part storyline that sees Diana facing off against Queen Hippolyta. I’m guessing it’s gonna be heavily based around a civil war on Themysceria that sees Diana wanting them to potentially branch out to the rest of the world whilst they want to stick to their old ways. The series will be produced by Gal Gadot and It’s gonna be interesting to see how things change up with Wonder Woman going to tv instead of being a movie.
Other titles: Booster Gold, Creature Commandos and more
Now the next announcement that dropped was Booster Gold. Bear in mind some of these may not be in release order as lots of different trades got exclusivity and I’m just compiling these together in the order I saw them with them potentially moving about the slate. We also have potential production issues that could pop up and we’ve seen how certain marvel movies have switched release orders and so on.
Anyway, Booster Gold is a time traveller from the 25th century who grew up in Gotham. He stole several super powered items from a museum display and travelled back in time to make himself a superhero celebrity. Gunn has talked about potentially bringing across actors that he’s worked with in the MCU, and I think someone like Chris Pratt would be perfect for this if they don’t get him involved in something like the Green Lantern show. Gold is very much a flawed hero that is meant for a greater purpose and out of everything on the list I think that he suits Gunn’s style the best.
Now in what’s probably the most obscure line up on the entire slate we have a Creature Commandos project coming soon. Originally set during World War 2 this team of Super humans were created by the government in order to fight the forces of evil. Fitting Gunn’s style perfectly once more I think this will be in the same vein as The Suicide Squad with the team being a group of misfits that have to fight a major threat.
The most recent reboot in the New 52 brought them up to modern day and it had Frankenstein being their leader as part of a group called Agents of Shield. This is probably too close to Agents of Shield to bring into the DCU but it’s pretty much gonna be a big team up thing. The line-up has seen werewolves as part of it, Egyptian mummies, mermaids and so on. It’s basically Universals Dark Universe which…never forget and it of course also has similarities to the league of extraordinary gentlemen. This team really fits Gunn’s style to a T I think, and fingers crossed he can make another obscure group a big hit.
This is definitely the group that I see the monster’s part of the Gods and Monsters referring too along with another character that we’ll talk about in just a bit.
Now going back to this not being a full reboot we have an Amanda Waller show in development. Waller has appeared in several DCU projects and Viola Davis is perfect for the role so I can see why they didn’t want to recast. I chalk this up as being similar to JK Simmons playing J Jonah Jameson and she’s someone that you can’t really find better than. Unfortunately, I think this could potentially complicate the universe as we have got carry overs in some sections and not others.
This could build upon the relationship with her daughter and it’ll no doubt feature Harcourt. Ey I’m not even mad, if my wife was an actress she’d be fuming if I wasn’t putting her in every movie. My wife’s gonna be fuming when she finds out he’s putting his in all the films when I won’t even let her do a short on the clips channel.
Also subscribe to our clips channel yeah.
Now from what I was able to put together of the breaking announcements Peacemaker Season 2 wasn’t part of it but I’m pretty sure it’s in development. This could kinda branch off from that and most of these movies won’t release until 2025 at the earliest so they can easily drop it in the interim.
Either way I really think they need to do some reshoots in the Flash if they haven’t already to just explain the reset Universe and I hope that we get in universe reasons for this stuff instead of it all being announced on twitter. Now following on from this we also have a Green Lantern Show. This is something I’d describe as being in development hell and for what feels like a decade now, we’ve heard that it’s being worked on. There’s been numerous casting announcements, but nothing has ever really materialised and hopefully we finally get it. I’m guessing it’s gonna be based around the Green Lantern Crop and be like an episodic cop procedural show in space. Mandalorian sort of did something similar in season one and every week we could see the corps travelling to new planets to tackle new villains.
Now Swamp Thing is also going to be a big project that I’m excited to see get off the ground. It sucks that we had that TV show that they announced was cancelled before they even finished it and I think that put off a lot of people from jumping onboard. Swamp thing is a big monstrous character again and this could even help to usher in more supernatural people like Poison Ivy into Batman and so on. The character is iconic and hopefully they lean into the Alan Moore run which I think would be a great way to adapt this.
Alan Moore would obviously love it too, know the guy loves his adaptations but as of the last couple of years there’s actually been some good ones of them.
Now the last project I could find across the twitter verse is The Authority. OOOOOOOO we are in for a big one with this and this team up movie is easily gonna be one of the goriest comic book movies of all time. Created by Warren Ellis at the turn of the Millennium this group was also picked up by Mark Millar and Frank Quietly. They’re very much your reverse Justice League and they’re the kind of team that will rip off your head and s**t down your neck. The most well-known character from them is probably Midnighter who I’m guessing will be a big push when it comes to marketing this movie.
A lot of the work had to be censored in the aftermath of 9/11 and also for just how over the top everything was in it. They also had to colour panels completely red to censor them and they’ve got so many messed up characters. I think this is gonna kinda build off the success of The Boys and out of all the line up here this is the one I’m probably looking forward to the most.
Now that’s all I could muster from the announcements today and as for my thoughts on it, yeah, I’m pretty hyped. I’d say I’m weighing in at an 8 out of 10 on the hype hype meter and I just hope that these titles are done the justice they deserve.
Now some of them I think might be a bit too obscure to really do well and there are a couple on here I was like ‘hmmmm really.’ I got sent some announcements privately after the event yesterday and I was like, Creature Commandos….hmm ok. I think what Gunn is doing though is that he’s leaning into his strengths here and trying to deliver good movies that all feel like they build off each other. I think you definitely see his style in the choices that he’s made, and they all do kinda fit together nicely going from your more standard films and shows to the extreme ones.
Now the reason I was really surprised at some of them is because unlike Marvel, DC own all their characters. So, I was really expecting there to be the home run stuff of like The Justice League, you know, Batman Returns 2: subtitle Batman Returns Returns, Batman Returns 3 and so on. Those kinds of films. Though we have the trinity it’s interesting that characters like The Flash, Shazam and Aquaman are missing off here. I did think we might get a lobo announcement with Jason Momoa but stuff like that is completely absent. Again, we have the potential that they release new titles throughout the week, and this might not be the full line up we get.
I also think it’s weird we’re gonna have about 5 different Batmen in the space of 4 years. Had Ben Affleck, Robert Pattinson, Michael Keaton and whoever the new guy is which should…. now I think about it actually be me.
Anyway, yeah, I am pretty hyped for this I think that we just kinda needed to see something like this that makes it clear he’s taking things in a new direction. I’m not sure how many of these are billion-dollar blockbusters but they just need to get the footing in place first to get a number of critically acclaimed things and then branch out from there. I suppose you don’t wanna blow your load and bring the entire Justice League across into the first couple of films, but it is interesting to see how they’ve angled this.
With the Flash, Aquaman and Shazam all coming out this year I think they probably wanna see how they do before decide whether to bring them into this new universe or not.
Zachary Levi has had a bit of controversy surrounding him the last couple of days, but it’ll probably blow over I think and then they’ll go from there. There’s the whole ongoing situation with Ezra Miller and Amber Heard on Aquaman 2 as well so who knows how they’re gonna handle things.
I think the slate feels very James Gunny if that makes sense and for better or worse this is the line-up we’ve got. I do hope we get some multiversal projects down the line that have people like Cavill involved and maybe even a tv show set in the nightmare timeline.
That’s something I think has very little chance of happening but yeah that’s the line-up.
Now obviously I’d love to hear your thoughts on it so make sure you comment below and let me know.
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If you want something else to watch, then make sure you check out our breakdown of perfect scene in Spider-Man Homecoming. We break down the entire thing so it’s definitely worth checking out if you wanna know more.
With that out the way thank you for sitting through the video, I’ve been Paul and I’ll see you next time. Take care, Peace.
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