The DC history of James Gunn and J.J. Abrams, two of Hollywood’s premier populist filmmakers, could not be more different. In Abrams’ case, he was working on and off with Warner Bros. for two decades as he attempted to get his own reboot of the franchise off the ground — first with his Superman: Flyby script in the early ’00s and then more recently with another Superman reboot and a glut of other projects that came to nothing. Meanwhile, Gunn makes his first DC movie in 2021 and is running the whole show two years later.
And, yes, Gunn’s DCU will kick off in summer 2025 with Superman: Legacy, the relaunch of the Man of Steel’s cinematic adventures that Abrams failed to deliver twice over. But The Suicide Squad director’s chances to show Abrams up don’t end there, either. As those on the r/DC_Cinematic subreddit have reminded us, there’s still the opportunity for the Justice League Dark TV series, that Warner Bros. was once developing with Abrams at the helm, to materialize as part of the DCU.
For those not familiar with the team, Justice League Dark is pretty self-explanatory — they are the supernatural counterpart of the regular JLA, consisting of characters such as Swamp Thing, John Constantine, Zatanna, and Deadman. Considering that Swampy is getting his own movie from James Mangold and DCU Chapter One is literally called “Gods and Monsters,” it’s clear that Gunn is a big fan of DC’s darker side so a revitalized JLD show really doesn’t seem off the table.
What’s next, is Gunn going to partner with Paramount to finally make Star Trek 4 happen?
