Supergirl has massively flopped at the box office. At a $37M domestic opening, the movie pulled in 70% fewer DC fans than Superman did last summer, when it opened with over $125M.
That drop was not a one-off. After Superman, Gunn’s Peacemaker Season 2 lost nearly 40% of its audience from Season 1, even though Gunn billed it as the direct sequel. Even worse, those fans stopped watching when the show was essentially free through an HBO Max subscription, which added nearly 15 million subscribers in the year.
Gunn’s approach to the DCU can only be viewed as a colossal mistake. It followed the same playbook as Hollywood’s most recent failures, including Marvel, where Gunn came from and should have known better, and Disney Star Wars, which similarly lost 85% of its viewers on the theatrical side and 70% on the streaming side.
It also follows DC’s downward path, which included less-than-stellar releases for Birds of Prey, Shazam!, Black Adam, Aquaman 2, The Flash, and Blue Beetle.
Following our own reports, the trades are now playing catch-up and questioning Gunn’s DC future. Gunn has lost an overwhelming majority of the DC audience. So what comes next?
Lanterns Is Next For Gunn’s DCU On HBO Max
Lanterns is the next project in the DCU. The series consists of 8 episodes and will be released on HBO Max on August 16th.
The first trailer received massive backlash. HBO, for some unknown reason, yanked the trailer. A new trailer was then released, and that one seemed to please fans more.
The series is a True Detective take on Green Lantern. It grounds the Lanterns, who are primarily known for being epic space cops. I have heard the series is good and that it eventually plays into those bigger cosmic elements.
Clayface Has A Smaller Budget, But No Batman
Clayface opens October 23. What it has going for it is the budget, which is nowhere near Supergirl‘s $200M waste case, but reportedly something around $40M.
So if Clayface can get the last remnant of DC fans who are still out there, it should at least break even at around $100M.
What could hurt it is that there are no big stars. There is also no Batman. The movie has also basically already been done before with The Substance. It also lost its IMAX screenings.
At least test screenings reportedly went well.
It should also be questioned how much Gunn even has to do with it, as Matt Reeves is on as a producer. Was Clayface originally supposed to be a part of the ReevesVerse and Penguin?
Jimmy Olsen And Gorilla Grodd Sound Like More Gunn Goofiness
Gunn continues pivoting to his Super Family with a Jimmy Olsen / Gorilla Grodd series. Skyler Gisondo’s Olsen was actually pretty funny in the Superman movie, and the Daily Planet cast is great.
Is Rachel Brosnahan going to be in the series? She’s the real draw. Or is Gunn saving her for Man of Tomorrow?
What is worrisome is that Gunn is reportedly looking for comedic actors to play Grodd. It is also thought to potentially be a legal show of some sort. Sounds similar to She-Hulk. More of the same.
Creature Commandos Season 2 Has The Same Audience Problem
Creature Commandos actually launched Gunn’s DCU. It was generally well received; however, it never charted on Nielsen, meaning it was not watched by a lot of fans.
Animated series rarely are. Even Marvel’s X-Men ’97 Season 1 never charted.
Creature Commandos was full of Gunn’s divisiveness, which was muted in Superman but expanded in Peacemaker and Supergirl. Which ones saw the big audience drop?
Man Of Tomorrow Is Gunn’s Last Best Hope
Man of Tomorrow is Gunn’s last best hope to get things right. He’s been in the hot seat since the lukewarm turnout for Superman. Now that Supergirl mega-bombed, it’s open season on Gunn.
His wife, Jennifer Holland, who also stars in the DCU, just said she thinks it will be Gunn’s best movie ever. Of course.
I’ve been told that it’s looking like Man of Tomorrow will be Gunn’s last hurrah, so he will be allowed to have big cameos and fan service. Adria Arjona is Wonder Woman, and rumors point to Gunn finally being allowed to use Batman.
However, the big question is whether the DCU Batman will just pop up as a cameo or go on to The Brave and the Bold.
Bane And Deathstroke Could Be Another Villain Movie Without Batman
Before we get to Brave and the Bold, if Gunn’s DCU is allowed to move forward, reportedly, Bane / Deathstroke is next after Man of Tomorrow.
Similar to Clayface, it is another DC film featuring villains and not starring Batman. More likely, it will be a comedic buddy movie.
The Brave And The Bold Is Still Missing In Action
The Brave and the Bold was announced as part of Gunn’s “Gods and Monsters” Part 1 DCU slate. Again, that’s all in the garbage, and Gunn’s DCU is now the Super Family stuff.
While Gunn has constantly said The Brave and the Bold is waiting on the script to be good enough, we know that’s all BS because Supergirl is so bad.
I’ve been told Matt Reeves doesn’t want Gunn to use Batman because he is concerned it will interfere with his own movies. I have also been told there are concerns at WB over what Gunn will do with Batman, as Batman is among their biggest IPs, and they don’t want Gunn to do a goofy Batman.
In Gunn’s defense, he said he would do a “f’n awesome” Batman. We have yet to see anything “f’n awesome” out of Gunn’s DCU.
Mister Miracle Sounds Like Another Animated DCU Project Few Will Watch
A Mister Miracle animated series is in the works by Tom King. They “adapted” King’s Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow for the Supergirl movie, if you can even call it that. That didn’t turn out well.
Likely, similar to Creature Commandos, this won’t be watched by a lot of people.
Some DCU fans have been promoting this as the path to a live-action Darkseid, as I believe a younger version of Darkseid is supposed to show up in the animated series. Gunn previously said the animated voice actors will also play their live-action parts. We have already seen that with Rick Flag Sr. and Frank Grillo.
However, it’s my understanding there will be no live-action DCU Darkseid because Zack Snyder might be coming back to finish his Justice League movies once Paramount buys WBD.
Booster Gold / Wonder Woman
A Booster Gold script was turned in for the pilot. It could potentially move forward, assuming Supergirl hasn’t completely curtailed the DCU.
Following last year’s release of Superman, the trades reported a Wonder Woman movie was being fast-tracked. However, the Supergirl writer said it’s “so early.” Again, we’ve been told Adria Arjona will show up as Wonder Woman in Man of Tomorrow.
The DCU Animation Slate Is Not The Main Draw
I also believe there are a couple of other animated DCU shows in the works, but who’s watching them?
On the animation side, what has been announced and has been getting big traction has nothing to do with Gunn’s DCU. That would be Scott Snyder’s Absolute Batman animated series, which also came with the announcement of a Joker: Laugh Riot anime.
A Krypto animated series was also announced, but again, who cares?
The DCU Needs A Real Course Correction
So that is where Gunn’s DCU stands after Supergirl. A TV-heavy slate, villain movies without Batman, animation most fans will probably skip, and a Superman sequel that now has to do all the heavy lifting.
The problem is obvious. Gunn did not expand the DC audience. He shrank it. Superman underperformed. Peacemaker lost viewers. Supergirl collapsed. The follow-up slate does not look like a major course correction. It looks like more of the same, just spread across HBO Max, animation, and cheaper theatrical swings.
DC does not need more quirky side characters, more goofy villain projects, or more Super Family spinoffs while Batman sits on the bench. It needs its biggest characters treated like the biggest characters in comics.
That means Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Aquaman, and the Justice League. Not eventually. Not after three more experiments. Now. And not goofy.
And that reset may already be in motion. As we’ve exclusively reported, once Paramount closes its acquisition of WBD, Gunn is expected to be out, with Zack Snyder returning to finish his Justice League movies. Safran has already dodged the Justice League question.
It would explain why Man of Tomorrow is being stacked with Wonder Woman, Batman rumors, and fan service: less a launching pad, more a last hurrah.
If Man of Tomorrow hits, Gunn might buy himself one last extension. If it doesn’t, the answer to “what’s next?” becomes a lot easier.
A real reset.
