When it was announced that James Gunn and Peter Safran would be the new co-heads of DC Studios, the excitement for the new DCU was palpable. Gunn and Safran's introduction as the co-heads of DC Studios stirred up a lot of drama in the past few months as it meant the fate of current in-production films was in flux. During a press conference, Gunn and Safran laid out their extended plan for the DCU, but also clarified just how similar and dissimilar this new universe would be to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Gunn splashed onto the mainstream scene as the director of The Guardians of the Galaxy and since then, his style has been seen both in Marvel and DC properties, with the writer/director responsible for further Guardians sequels, a holiday special, as well as The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker. But with Gunn's experience at both companies, the fear that some DC fans had was that the DCU would slowly morph into a new version of the MCU.
Gunn clarified his stance on this in the press conference. He clarified the differences between the DCU and the Marvel Cinematic Universe by saying:
"A lot of people think this can be Marvel 2.0. And definitely, I learned a lot of stuff at Marvel. You know, I think that we have a lot of differences. I think that one of the reasons why I love DC is it really is another universe. It's an alternate world. In Marvel, generally, it's, you know, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and then everyplace else in the world is a fictional universe for some reason. Here at DCU, we have Metropolis and Gotham and Themyscira, and Atlantis, and all of that is another fictional universe."
While the DCU takes place in its own original universe, one where "superheroes exist and have existed for some time, in one form or another," it seems that the bones of the DCU's future will follow the Marvel formula. The MCU coined the term "Phases" when it kicked off the Infinity Saga, breaking down their movies and clustering them together. However, despite the success of the MCU, the organization of the phases has not always been perfect. Gunn emphasized that the DCU would have a leg-up in this regard because it will be planned from the beginning, he said:
"We are telling a big, huge central story that is like Marvel, except for, I think that we're a lot more planned out than Marvel from the beginning, because we've gotten a group of writers together to work that story out completely. But we're also creating a universe that is like Star Wars, where there's different times, different places, different things, or like Game of Thrones, where characters are a little bit more morally complex."
Pulling inspiration and learning from the mistakes of other, more successful franchises, seems to be the way forward. The MCU has been criticized in recent years for becoming stale in terms of tone, and it seems like Gunn plans to deviate from a grand visual and tonal standard. How successful the DCU will be with this new formula will depend on its execution. Look for a lot more DC news soon.