Summary
While fans weather the drought period untilSupermandebuts and brings the DCU back to the big screen, one iconic part of the brand’s media empire will be left firmly in the rearview mirror, and one of the names behind it is okay with that.
Supermanis DCU co-head James Gunn’s brainchild, written and chosen by the executive to be the first salvo in the live-action relaunch of the franchise post-Zack Snyder. While there are a lot ofgreat comic adaptations that aren’t from the two main companies, Marvel and DC have understandably been the leaders in the genre. The MCU has always had a leg up in the theaters, which is the main driving force behind the relaunch. However, DC has been largely unchallenged on the small screen in both animated work and live-action adaptations. This dominance on the small screen is thanks in no small part thanks to the Arrowverse, a collection of DC shows and their related properties that headline the CW for years.
While the Arrowverse ended for many afterthe last heartfelt conclusion episode of CW’sThe Flash, that legacy could still live on in the new DCU. Speaking toDeadlinein an interview centered on a career retrospective, Berlanti Productions head Greg Berlanti, whose company was responsible for the Arrowverse shows, discussed his feelings around what the shows did, and his ideas about the spiritual succession of their work. “It was a moment in time for me, and one plan, the size and the scope of which we were altogether able to achieve,” Berlanti said. “The closeness that I had with many of the actors, and still have, and other writers and directors and the family that we built over that time. And the opportunity where every year we were doing these big crossover episodes and all the different showrunners would come in from all the different shows. To create in that way was such a joy and incredibly challenging.”
But it is nothing I would try and replicate again at this moment. That felt very singular. I love Warner Bros. I wish them all the best with these amazing characters. We had a credo that I would say to everybody all the time, which is, we’re so lucky to have these characters. Let’s return them to the shelf more valuable than when we took them off. It was very much about that, and trying to build a world and a place where everybody who loved them as much as we did could come and tell stories. Now I think it’s time for new; the torch has been passed beautifully, and I’m really excited by all they’re doing there now.
This passing of the torch, presumably with fans of those shows now turning their attention to the mainline DCU as it unfolds in the coming years, is similar in some ways to what’s unfolding across the pond at Marvel Studios. Where DC had the Arrowverse on the CW, Marvel had the Netflix era shows that cumulated in theDefendersteam-up. Where Marvel Studios frudgingly added that slate into its continuity and started onDaredevil: Born Again,it’s not clear what Gunn will be taking from the Arrowverse. Berlanti’s attitude is admirable, and contrasts starkly with the statements made by his fellow Arrowverse architect Marc Guggenheim, withGuggenheim admitting that he feels like he wasted time on DC’s showsdue to the lack of recognition and an invite to collabnorate in some way with Gunn on his upcoming reboot. This position is also fairly easy to understand, as the Arrowverse succeeded in returning many characters to the shelf with more value than when they took them off, as Berlanti put it. In fact, the Flash might serve as the best example of a character that garnered a ton of value via the Arrowverse, a feat that DC Studios failed at with 2023’sThe Flash.
With almost nothing to be salvaged from the DCEU andJames Gunn’sSupermansetting up a different Justice League, there’s hope yet that some of Berlanti and Guggenheim’s work really does receive its flowers when things really get rolling at DC Studios.
Supermanis currently set to usher in the rebooted mainline DCU with a theatrical release on June 16, 2025.
Superman
Written and directed by James Gunn, Superman is the first movie in Warner Bros.' rebooted DC Universe to center around the titular comic book hero. It introduces a new version of the Man of Steel after Henry Cavill’s departure from the role, honoring the character’s roots as “the embodiment of truth, justice and the American way.”
