James Gunn Backtracks Again, This Time On Interconnectivity Of DCU

John F. Trent |

Feb 13, 2023

James Gunn seemingly can’t get out of his own way as he has once again either backtracked or contradicted himself; this time on the interconnectivity of the DCU.

When Gunn first announced the first chapter of his DCU slate, he begins saying, “So as many of you know DC has been disconnected in film and television for a long time. And it’s one of our jobs, mine and Peter’s, is to come in and make sure the DCU is connected in film, television, gaming, and animation.”

“That the characters are consistent, played by the same actors, and it works within one story,” he asserted. “And if something is outside of that like Matt Reeves’ Batman or Todd Phillips’ Joker, or Teen Titans GO! that it is clearly labeled as DC Elseworlds, outside of the mainstream DC continuity.”

However, while responding to a Twitter user questioning how he plans to connect video games to his films, television, and animated projects for the DCU, Gunn first revealed that the DCU is actually planned out beyond at least four years and maybe even six years.

The user asked, “Do you realise top tier AAA games take 6yrs of development. And films take how long? How are you going to join them up in same universe?”

Gunn answered, “First of all, that’s an overstatement of time – it’s closer to four years if you’ve got everything lined up. Secondly, we’re planned out beyond that far already, so we’re good!”

However, another user then asked a follow-up, “For those of DC fans who don’t play video games, will we still be able to follow the storytelling of the DCU via just the films and shows only? Please let me know James!”

Gunn answered, “Yes.”

While this is most certainly the right decision as there’s plenty of evidence that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is already struggling to try and connect just its films and TV series together on top of the overall quality problem they have, it is another piece of evidence that Gunn is talking out of both sides of his mouth.

If indeed films, TV, animated, and video games are supposed to be interconnected how would a video game not affect how people would follow the storytelling in a film and/or TV series? What’s the point of even saying they are going to be connected if indeed they seemingly aren’t.

As noted above this isn’t the first time Gunn has had to backtrack or contradicted himself. Gunn initially claimed as part of his DCU slate announcement that the upcoming The Flash film starring criminal Ezra Miller would reset the DCU.

As part of his Chapter 1 announcement video, Gunn said, “First, we have Shazam! Fury of the Gods. Shazam has always been off kind of in his own part of the DCU so he connects very well. That moves directly into The Flash, a fantastic movie that I really love, that resets the entire DCU universe.”

However, in an Instagram post trying to hype up the newly announced Creature Commandos animated series, Gunn was asked by a user, “James I’m seriously confused. How is Viola Davis still playing Amanda Waller? Aren’t you rebooting the DCEU 100%? That includes peacemaker, the whole suicide squad and the Snyder Verse. Like you said Robert Pattinson’s Batman & Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker is else-worlds story.”

Gunn answered, “Flash resets many things, not all things. Some characters remain the same some do not.”

What is really interesting is that this backtracking on interconnectivity does seem to lend credence to a recent rumor that the whole DCU slate announcement is part of a gambit to try and rejuvenate DC to make it more interesting for a potential buyer.

That rumor recently made the rounds courtesy of WDW Pro who detailed, “Warner Bros. Discovery with both DC and Harry Potter is to soft reboot the franchises in order to make them seem more viable and healthy. However, rebooting them with projects that are highly interconnected and/or episodic in chronological consistency is not desired at this time.”

He explained, “The reason might surprise. Warner Bros. Discovery allegedly expects to be purchased within the next three to five years. Therefore it is not in Warner Bros. Discovery’s interest to craft huge franchise worlds like seen in the MCU because such a thing would make a potential buyer beholden to this new roadmap/story narrative.”

“Instead, Warner Bros. Discovery allegedly feels the more lucrative option is to rejuvenate the franchises with non-connected properties while still unloading bad inventory so that when a company like Apple or Amazon when they purchase them potentially they get the benefits of a refreshed franchise plus the ability to craft their new cinematic universe in whatever way they choose,” WDW Pro stated.