I like James Gunn’s work. Quite a bit. I think he’s done great work with Guardians of the Galaxy and his Suicide Squad variant. Peacemaker was great. Hell, I even love Slither. But his messaging on his new takeover of the DCU has been…confusing to say the least.
We’ll start with the main line, according to which Gunn has named 3 quick actors who will indeed maintain their long-term roles in the DCU. We’ll start with John Cena’s Peacemaker, which is unexpected given that it’s Gunn’s show. is Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller from various Suicide Squads and also Peacemaker, the actor who goes back furthest in the DCEU. And then there’s newcomer Xolo Maridueña, the Cobra Kai star turned Blue Beetle in the newest DC movie. It’s hard to know whether to call it DCEU or DCU right now because of Gunn’s following quote.
Gunn has now said that “nothing is canon” at DC until Creature Commandos and Superman Legacy arrive, the aforementioned actors will retain their roles. So, this means that what happened in the projects they starred in is unlikely to continue, nor does it guarantee the return of more actors. So even if Peacemaker and Amanda Waller arrive, that doesn’t mean we deserve to canonize Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn or Jared Leto’s Joker, alongside those characters.
Here’s Gunn’s full quote that’s meant to provide “clarity,” but God love him, I’m not sure the guy knows how to talk to himself coherently, even if it all works out in the end:
“Nothing is canon until Creature Commandos next year, kind of a DCU-style appetizer, and then a deeper dive into the universe with Superman: Legacy after that. It’s a very human preference to have to perceive everything all the time, but I think it’s general to talk about what’s going on in the DCU since no one has noticed anything about the DCU yet. And yes, some actors will play characters they’ve played in other stories and some plot issues may just be consistent with the story. Plot issues of dozens of animated movies, shows, and projects that have come out of DC in the past, but nothing is canon before CC and Legacy.
What Gunn turns out to be describing is. . . Basically, how comics work. We see the same characters but with other variants in which some things are saved and others are not. Bruce Wayne’s parents are (at most) murdered, for example. But, Let’s just say that they will undoubtedly miss out on other DCEU plot threads, probably adding as many Snyder-era elements as possible with Darkseid and the core Justice League. And that’s even if we see some of those actors proceeding to play roles. like Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman or Jason Momoa’s Aquaman. We know for a fact that Superman and Batman are at least starting from scratch.
Again, it does seem like it would be the better path to do “clean slate” casting at this point, especially with the DCEU era Justice League, and that still could happen. I can see carrying over Cena and Davis. And there’s nothing in Blue Beetle that really “needs” to be canon, other than Xolo himself playing the role. So so far, this seems fine, however weird that explanation is.
I guess it probably wouldn’t be as confusing as it’s presented now, as long as Gunn doesn’t take a bunch of major DCEU characters and re-canonize old events. But it will be a while before the DCU gets off to a serious start, and we likely won’t know until then.
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