The DC Universe is in a state of turmoil, which is undeniable after the reports and rumors of the past few days and weeks. For example, work on “Wonder Woman 3” has already been halted and a new Superman film without Henry Cavill has been announced. Does that also mean that all other known heroes will be recast and that Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa and Co. be out?
James Gunn, who recently co-led the fate of the DC movie and series universe with producer Peter Safran (“Aquaman”) and is in constant dialogue with fans and the trade press on Twitter, has now commented on this and denies reports and attempts to calm the mind. Gunn’s statement: “We’re not recasting all characters except Suicide Squad.”
This takes a bit of context: many fans now assume (and reports from various insiders and scoopers back this up) that Gunn is merely continuing the characters he mentors from the old DC Universe. So the Suicide Squad from “The Suicide Squad” and the characters from the spin-off series “Peacemaker” (Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn and John Cena as Peacemaker, among others).
Gunn explicitly contradicted that. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that Gal Gadot and Co. also be part of the new DC Universe. Because Gunn’s statement is – probably not without reason – formulated in such a way that there is a lot of room for interpretation.
What exactly does that mean?
For example, “not all characters except the Suicide Squad” could mean in an extreme case: that only the all-new cast of the DC movie announced for 2023″Blue beetleremains part of the new DC Universe curated by Gunn. With that, the previous Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Co. still being out and being recast at some point just like Superman.
On the other side of the interpretation spectrum Gunn’s statement is also understandable as Cavill’s Superman exit remains the only big goodbye and Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa, Ezra Miller, Zachary Levi and Ray Fisher remain Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Flash, Shazam and Cyborg. The only question then is when and in which movie they will appear next.
But our guess is that the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Individual characters are likely to retire, others have been newly cast, and others have continued with the well-known cast.
Is the DC multiverse coming?
we can imagine that Gunn and Safran – similar to what is currently happening with Marvel – have some kind of DC multiverse in mind with multiple parallel worlds. For example, parts of the old DCEU could continue as well as the separately existing “The Batman” and “Joker”, while at the same time building a new DC universe.
And at the same time, you keep open the possibility for characters from different franchises to clash with each other, as Marvel effectively demonstrated with Spider-Man: No Way Home.
It’s just too early to make hard guesses, and Gunn and Safran’s official plan isn’t expected to be revealed until early 2023.