James Gunn Finds a “Pretty Good” DCU Timeline He Can Work With

Posted in: HBO, Max, Movies, TV | Tagged: dc studios, dcu

Though admitting that “timelines give me anxiety,” a fan shared one for the DCU that DC Studios’ James Gunn actually found “pretty good.”

Whether it’s Marvel Studios’ MCU or DC Studios’ DCU, canon, continuity, and timelines will always be hot-button issues for their respective fandoms. And yet, one brave soul took on the task of examining DC Studios’ film and television lineup and devising an in-universe timeline for the DCU: beginning in 2016 with Lanterns episodes 1-5 and ending in 2027 with Man of Tomorrow (with The People vs. Gorilla Grodd still a question mark). Though readily admitting that “timelines give me anxiety,” DC Studios’ James Gunn did tag it with an official, “I think this is pretty good.” Hmmm… I wonder where Mister Miracle will fit?

Late last month, it was announced that filmmaker and DC Studios co-head James Gunn was teaming up with Jennifer Holland (Emilia Harcourt) and Steve Agee (John Economos, King Shark) for a special one-off podcast that explains what is (and isn’t) canon for the DCU in Gunn’s feature film The Suicide Squad. Considering the film came out (much like the first season of Peacemaker) during that weird pre-DC Studios limbo period, it’s worth examining. But for some reason, that ignited the fires among many Marvel Studios’ MCU tribalists, prompting them to engage in some serious revisionist history.

On Threads, someone claimed that “Marvel has never had to clarify continuity this much.” Of course, that’s not true. Your head would explode if you tried counting up all the “playlists” and recaps that Marvel Studios has shared over the years, making sure you understood where things stood with MCU continuity. And while it’s nice to see Marvel Studios finally show some love to the Netflix-Marvel shows, question marks still remain over just how well those shows’ canons translate into the MCU. And what about shows like Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Marvel’s Runaways, Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger, Marvel’s Helstrom, Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K., and others? Did Marvel Studios explain how those fit into MCU continuity, and did we miss it? And didn’t Marvel Studios just fiddle with Avengers: Endgame so that it would make sense with Avengers: Doomsday? Thankfully, Gunn made it a point of dropping a reality check on MCU fans, noting, “I was asked this shit constantly at Marvel.”

“You can look at my quotes from January ’23 when we started and I said we were going to do exactly what we’re doing. I said some stories would be standalone like the Guardians movies were (which is what Clayface is) and some stories would have part of a larger narrative structure, which is what the Superman Saga is. All that said, each piece of the larger story should work on its own with or without having to see everything else,” Gunn shared in the first of a series of three Threads posts, addressing a comment (since removed) that looked to call into question how Gunn defined his and Peter Safran‘s vision for their DCU in early 2023 regarding standalones versus interconnected films and shows.

“ALSO, some things get conflated here. The often cited ‘8 to 10 year roadmap’ originally pitched wasn’t only story points (although that was a part of it), but also the plan for DC as a whole, including focusing on diamond characters (Superman, Batman, WW) as well as smaller characters we could turn into diamonds (Krypto, John Stewart, Peacemaker), how we would foster filmmaker freedom & allow for multiple tones & ratings, the influences of Star Wars & George RR Martin, and so much more,” Gunn continued, adding about the evolution of the DCU, “It’s exciting seeing things START to come together and all that makes me even more excited for what we have in store for everyone in Man of Tomorrow.”

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