This last week of December 2022 is reportedly when Gunn and his Co-CEO at DC Studios Peter Safran will have the big presentation for the future of the DC Universe. Anticipation is high among fans and the industry to finally learn what the duo will have in store for the next few years. But it seems there will be room for the alternate reality line inspired by DC Comics’ Elseworlds. What could a separate slate of Elseworlds films entail for the DC Universe? Check out the details revealed and theories speculated below for more.
Responding to a Twitter question, DC Studios Co-CEO and filmmaker James Gunn seems to confirm that Elseworlds projects are going to be part of the DC Universe slate:
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) December 20, 2022 This comes from the post where Gunn acknowledges he and Dwayne Johnson had discussions regarding Black Adam’s future, given that the DC Extended Universe seems to be coming to a close and being replaced wholesale. However, this seems to be contradictory to a previous statement made by Gunn’s boss, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav. In November during the Capital Markets’ Technology, Internet, Media and Telecommunications Conference, the head honcho of WBD stated that: DC fans are anticipating what James Gunn will reveal about the details for the new DC Universe being developed with Co-CEO Peter Safran. The two CEOs, whose roles began November 1, have been publicly vocal about steering DCU in a new direction for television, film, and animation. But just two months later, reports emerged that the DCU as it stands will almost be completely rebooted. Gunn went out of his way to debunk some of these reports, but that only led to more confusion, particularly with conflicting statuses of DCEU stars such as Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot, Dwayne Johnson, Jason Momoa, and Zachary Levi, whether they will be retained or replaced.
With Gunn confirming that the slate of the new DC Universe will be revealed in January 2023, fans are eager to know what will happen. On that note, there is a growing number of speculations on the Reddit thread r/DCEUleaks, with users sharing many theories about the announcements that Gunn and Safran will reveal in 2023:
Many shared their predictions that at least 3-6 movies will be revealed by DC Studios, including the Elseworlds projects. Superman is one of the heroes fans believe will be among them, based on Gunn’s recent comments on the Man of Steel being a top priority. Elseworlds is a popular sub-category of stories from the DC Comics Multiverse. It is often used as a means of telling out-of-continuity stories with their stable of characters, explaining them away as occurring in alternate realities and/or timelines. Notable examples of these include Batman: Gotham by Gaslight (with Batman existing in the Victorian era), Speeding Bullets (with Kal-El being adopted by the Waynes in Gotham), and the famous Kingdom Come (where an older Superman returns after the world becomes overrun by careless and corrupt superhumans). It should be noted that the concept of Elseworlds has already been previously explored in live action. The DC CW shows (also referred to as the Arrowverse) had a crossover event in 2018 titled Elseworlds. It was the fifth Arrowverse crossover which had altered timelines, with Barry Allen becoming Green Arrow and Oliver Queen becoming the Flash. It is also the first crossover that included Superman and Lois (played by Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch, respectively). Could Elseworlds be the way that DC Studios would be able to forge an entirely new film franchise, while still having room for alternate takes? Would this mean the upcoming projects like Joker 2 and the sequel to The Batman (as well as its spinoff series), and the remainder of the DCEU such as The Flash, Blue Beetle, and the Aquaman and Shazam sequels will be folded under the Elseworlds umbrella? And if true, then this could be the means by which fan-favorite actors like Henry Cavill and Gal Gadot could still have their own films in the future. The next DC Studios movie releasing in theaters for 2023 will be Shazam! Fury of the Gods on March 17, 2023.
