What DC isn’t bringing to SDCC, but could have

After a disrupted 2023 edition, San Diego Comic-Con is back — maybe not with the full force of its glory days, but hey, there’s a Marvel panel! But while Kevin Feige promises to take Hall H by storm — not once, but twice, with a first-ever Thursday panel (dedicated to Deadpool & Wolverine) — one major outfit won’t be there to rumble. DC Studios, another comic book universe on the precipice of a major reboot, is giving Hall H a pass this year.

The decision to skip a major launchpad for comic book entertainment doesn’t appear to be motivated by a lack of confidence. In fact, DC might be too busy actually making stuff to show up for a hype circus. Currently, James Gunn, DC Studios’ co-CEO, who likely would have been the one holding court in Hall H during a theoretical DC-focused panel, just wrapped a six-week stint filming his 2025 film Superman in the great city of Cleveland. From the sound of it, there’s more to come. When asked if he would stop by Comic-Con, he told a fan, “I will be shooting.”

In January 2023, Gunn and his producing partner Peter Safran officially took over DC Studios, sunset the “Snyderverse” Justice League, and announced a full slate of movies and TV shows all set in a new, cohesive timeline called the DCU. (In the same breath, he explained how the upcoming Joker: Folie à Deux and The Batman: Part II were now part of Elseworlds canon, pure catnip to Gunn’s target audience.) Gunn has only shared a few updates since the grand call-my-shot announcement, the biggest of which was that he would personally write and direct the new Superman movie for release in 2025. He’s also tasked himself with being Fan-Responder-in-Chief, answering even the most bullish and anonymous DC fan questions via Threads. Who has time for Comic-Con when you’re running an entire universe?

The swell of DC activity has left fans champing at the bit for information. (Just look at Gunn’s mentions on social media.) The man is gracious about the confusion: Recently, he had to calm down folks excited for the proposed Wonder Woman-adjacent HBO series Paradise Lost by saying there’s no news to share, any rumors floating around are just vaporware, and he has bupkis to report. “Nothing is “in production” unless it’s been greenlit,” Gunn posted on July 17. But there is plenty in production. And according to Gunn, the projects will roll out in “chronological” order in the new DCU timeline.

So what would DC have previewed if the studio had made its way to Hall H for SDCC? According to Gunn, here is what is really, really, real in the DCU right now — and what isn’t.

Happening: Creature Commandos

Image: DC Studios

The first DCU project, and the opening salvo for an era dubbed “Chapter One: Gods and Monsters,” is an animated series coming to Max before the end of the year, according to Gunn. The show focuses on a black-ops team of monsters assembled by Amanda Waller to fight superpowered villainy. “People aren’t going to be surprised by what it is,” Creature Commandos executive producer Dean Lorey recently told The Wrap, suggesting the series is tonally similar to Gunn’s The Suicide Squad — “but I think they’ll be really encouraged to see how completely it’s going to inform this new version of the DCU.”

The show has a locked-and-loaded roster, including Rick Flag Sr., (Frank Grillo), Princess Ilana Rostovic (Maria Bakalova), Bride of Frankenstein (Indira Varma), Nina Mazursky (Zoë Chao), Doctor Phosphorus (Alan Tudyk), Eric Frankenstein (David Harbour), G.I. Robot (Sean Gunn), Weasel (also Sean Gunn!), and Steve Agee’s John Economos from Peacekeeper.

Happening: Superman

Originally titled Superman: Legacy, the first tentpole blockbuster of the DCU era stars David Corenswet (Twisters) as Clark Kent, Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) as Lois Lane, and Nicholas Hoult (Mad Max: Fury Road) as Lex Luthor, plus a battalion of Gunn regulars who will play heroes ranging from Hawkgirl to Green Lantern to Mister Terrific. The film began production earlier this summer, and by all accounts, it’s on track for its July 11, 2025 release date. As Gunn has said many times over the last year, the whole thing is a dream come true.

Happening: Peacemaker season 2

Filming on season 2 of the grandfathered-in DCU series Peacemaker started in April, with John Cena back under the chrome helmet. Almost all the series regulars are back from season 1, with a few new additions, including Frank Grillo, who will jump from Creature Commandos to live-action playing Rick Flag Sr. Gunn has yet to reveal a premiere date for the second season, but clarified that it will take place after Superman and deal directly with the movie’s events.

Happening: Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow

Gunn confirmed this month that DC’s adaptation of the banger comic Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow is zooming forward with House of the Dragon season 1 star Milly Alcock in the lead role. Adapted by actor-writer Ana Nogueira for director Craig Gillespie (Dumb Money, I, Tonya), the movie recently locked down a release date of June 26, 2026. Rumor on the street is that fan-favorite space biker Lobo might show up (played by Jason Momoa?), which would have been a very SDCC thing to reveal, but not this year!

Happening: Lanterns

Image: DC Entertainment

After years in development, Gunn, Safran, and HBO finally announced that the Green Lantern-focused TV series Lanterns finally got the… heh… green light. Chris Mundy (True Detective: Night Country) is set as showrunner and executive producer, with Damon Lindelof (Watchmen, The Leftovers, Lost) and famed comics writer Tom King (Mister Miracle, Supergirl) co-writing and executive producing. While Nathan Fillion is set to play Green Lantern knucklehead Guy Gardner in Superman, Lanterns is a two-hander between Hal Jordan and John Stewart.

Happening in Elseworlds: Penguin, Joker: Folie à Deux, The Batman: Part II

One DC project that is headed to SDCC is The Penguin, HBO’s spin-off of Matt Reeves’ The Batman, set in Gotham’s criminal underbelly. Colin Farrell returns as Oswald Cobblepot, who’s picking himself up after the events of Matt Reeves’ 2022 film. Later this fall, we’ll get the Joker sequel movie, and all the way in 2026, Reeves’ theatrical The Batman sequel.

Not happening… yet: Paradise Lost

In the initial DCU announcement, Gunn laid out plans for a Wonder Woman spin-off series that would essentially be Game of Thrones, “but with all the inhabitants of Paradise Island.” But it’s only an idea on paper at this stage — not even SDCC-worthy, yet.

“Paradise Lost like many other titles known and unknown is still in very active development,” Gunn said on Threads. “It will be in production once we have a script or scripts we think are great and ready to shoot, never before. As an aside, we aren’t officially cast on anything that isn’t greenlit.”

Not happening… yet: Waller

A proposed spinoff theoretically following Viola Davis’ character from the Suicide Squad movies and Peacekeeper series has been floated without meaningful updates over the years. But Gunn assured a fan on Threads that it is “wonderful and [in] very active development.” Last we heard, Doom Patrol creator Jeremy Carver was on board to write the scripts.

In limbo: The Authority, The Brave and the Bold, Swamp Thing, Booster Gold

A few the projects Gunn listed in the original DCU announcement have gone mostly dormant as Gunn ramped up production on Superman. The Flash director Andy Muschietti remains attached to direct The Brave and the Bold, the DCU’s official take on Batman, while James Mangold was supposed to direct the Swamp Thing movie. (But we’ll see whether a Star Wars prequel movie takes up his time instead.) Where might we learn more, with DC skipping SDCC 2024? As always, we must hold out hope for a new DC FanDome.