Why Is This DC Universe Show Releasing Before SUPERMAN?
By Movieguide® Contributor
While James Gunn has been clear that SUPERMAN will kick off his DC Universe, the studio head recently revealed the show CREATURE COMMANDOS will serve as a teaser for his vision for the revamped franchise.
“SUPERMAN is the true start of everything, it’s a humungous epic,” Gunn told Entertainment Weekly. “[CREATURE COMANDOS] is a way for people to just take a little nibble and see what it tastes like. There are a ton of fun references to other DC stuff, a bunch of hints for things that are coming. So I think it’s just an extraordinary fun way to start.”
CREATURE COMMANDOS is a lesser-known comic series that features a cast of monstrous characters. Gunn believes that the show’s differences from SUPERMAN will highlight the way the DCU will be more complex than the MCU.
“The thing I’ve always loved about DC Comics was that you had your mainstream comics that always ran, but they also had these tonally different comics like WATCHMEN and THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS and ALL-STAR SUPERMAN,” Gunn said. “It was different from Marvel in that way. That’s something that I really want to retain within the studio, that every project is going to bring a different vision by the artists who are creating it.”
While CREATURE COMMANDOS will take a darker tone and feature characters who are not explicitly good, SUPERMAN will be a traditional feel-good superhero epic featuring the stars of the franchise, which is why Gunn wants SUPERMAN to be the start of the new DCU despite CREATURE COMMANDOS releasing before it.
CREATURE COMMANDOS will be one of five TV shows included in phase one of the DCU. All of them will stream on Max and be canon to the new storyline. The show will star Viola Davis, Anya Chalotra, Russ Bain, Sean Gunn, Alan Tudyk, Maria Bakalova, David Harbour, Indira Varma, Zoë Chao and Steve Agee.
Season 1 of the show will premiere on Dec. 5 and feature seven episodes, while SUPERMAN is slated to hit theaters on July 11, 2025.
Movieguide® previously reported on the DCU:
James Gunn thanked Cleveland for being such a great host while filming took place in the city and revealed that the shoot for the movie has almost been completed.
“Today we are leaving you (Cleveland) after six amazing weeks of shooting,” Gunn wrote on social media. “From the moment we first came here on a scout a tad less than a year ago and Terminal Tower was lit up with the colors of Superman, I knew you were a special place. I would walk down your streets and someone would stop me and tell me how grateful they were we were shooting in their city – not once, not twice, but dozens of times.
“The wonderful background actors on the film were always so fun and funny and they clapped after takes, something that reminded us Hollywood cynics why we make movies in the first place,” Gunn continued. “The pride you feel in being the city where Jerry and Joe first created Superman was invigorating. You exemplify his spirit. But just as much it’s the pride you have in your community, your hometown, your radio stations and restaurants and gathering places that touched me.”
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