James Gunn’s DCU is already getting its canon confused as new ‘Peacemaker’ spin-off is announced, and Marvel must be laughing

We’ve not even had the debut project of the rebooted DC universe yet and already the state of its canon is leaving fans confused. After the slow decline of the Snyderverse turned audiences away, the era of DC Studios — as headed by co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran — is intended to bring them flooding back and to create a genuine rival to Marvel Studios for the first time.

One of Gunn’s biggest, most exciting promises is that the DCU’s shared universe aspect will be even more ambitious than the MCU. For example, we’ve been assured that pretty much all DC films, TV shows (both live-action and animated), and even video games will be set in the same continuity. The characters of the upcoming Creature Commandos, for instance, will return in 2025’s Superman.

Then again, certain holdovers from the old DCEU will live on, most notably Gunn’s own Peacemaker, set to return for its second season soon. Season 2 of the John Cena vehicle is confirmed to be DCU-canon, so that’s why it’s causing our heads to ache that its newly announced spin-off somehow isn’t.

Peacemaker‘s Vigilante and Eagly spin-off is on its way, but don’t count on it being canon

This October’s New York Comic-Con delivered a few exciting DC-related revelations, including the announcement of the very first Peacemaker comic book in the form of Vigilante/Eagly Double Feature, a five-issue limited series set to bridge the gap between seasons 1 and 2 of the Max show. This was an intriguing development as it indicated that the DCU’s canon would even be spreading into the comics medium, too.

Unfortunately, Gunn followed the announcement by clarifying on Threads that this comic, and any other upcoming Peacemaker books that might be on the way, are not officially part of DCU. “They are amazing and fun books by wonderfully talented folks,” Gunn explained, “but they are not in DCU continuity. Sorry!”

We probably shouldn’t be all that surprised by this turn of events as Gunn took a similarly head-scratching approach to Guardians of the Galaxy canon, as well. Although Disney Plus miniseries I Am Groot is confirmed to be part of the MCU, Gunn himself doesn’t consider it part of the continuity of his Guardians trilogy, which doesn’t entirely add up. Basically, it seems Gunn only includes projects that he’s directly involved with as part of his official canon.

Then again, there may be a big twist to come at the beginning of Peacemaker season 2 that fully explains why these prequel comics can’t be DCU canon. Maybe Cena’s Chris Smith falls through an interdimensional wormhole and travels from the DCEU to the new universe, where everything is pretty much the same except Superman looks like David Corenswet now.

For a brand-new franchise, though, the DCU already has a lot of wrinkles in its world-building, but hopefully these will only prove to be a problem for the hyper-hardcore fans out there and won’t put off the wider audiences that DC so desperately needs to win back.