It’s been 2 years since DC Studios’ opening slate was revealed. How are those projects coming along?

James Gunn and Peter Safran gave us the first peek behind the DC Universe curtain back in January 2023, and since then, the only full emergence has been the first season of Creature Commandos, with Gunn’s Superman film set to properly introduce the franchise later this summer.

The initial reveal was packed to the brim with projects, and several more have popped up since then. But Gunn, famously taking a storytelling-first approach with this new DC Universe, has no intention on shuffling them all to the finish line before they’re ready. As such, the announcement-to-development-to-production timelines for all of these projects will vary greatly, as may the talent attached to them.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, Gunn and his DC Studios co-chair Peter Safran touched on the status of every DC Studios project at this moment in time, sans the finished Superman. At the front of the pack is Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, which is halfway through production, alongside the Green Lantern-centric television series Lanterns, which is currently filming. Both projects were part of the initial January 2023 announcement.

One of the fresher go-getters is the Mike Flanagan-penned Clayface movie, which was only greenlit in December 2024, but has since found a director in James Watkins and will begin filming this summer. Meanwhile, season two of Peacemaker will be hitting Max in August, and the Themyscira-set Paradise Lost remains in development.

Sgt. Rock has become an especially high-profile prospective film, but, per Variety, Gunn pointed out that it was never actually officially announced, despite the studio’s reported “bullishness” on Justin Kuritzkes’ script, per another Variety report back in November. The scribe’s frequent collaborator Luca Guadagnino nevertheless became attached as a director, as did Daniel Craig for the title role. Safran, however, pointed out that no official talks ever happened with Craig. Whether Sgt. Rock will be officially greenlit upon finding a leading man remains to be seen, and it frankly remains unclear if Guadagnino will or would be involved.

Also in the conversation is a live-action Teen Titans film, buoyed by a script from Supergirl writer Ana Nogueira that Gunn referred to as “amazing,” but “not ready.” Three animated series, My Adventures with Green Lantern, Dynamic Duo, and Starfire, have also been announced,

As for the initial reveals that have fallen down on the list of priorities, those include Waller, Booster Gold, The Authority, and Swamp Thing. Various reasons are attributed to the pivoting from these projects, including scripts that still need work and the simple lack of consistent conversation around them. For Swamp Thing in particular, Gunn notes that he and James Mangold, who was and currently still is occupying the writer-director slot of that project, only talk about it “occasionally.”

Moreover, DC Studios’ Batman/Damian Wayne-centric film The Brave and the Bold is still having its script developed by a writer that Gunn has declined to name. Andy Muschietti, who’s been earmarked as that film’s director and a producer, does not appear to be involved in the development of it.

Unsurprisingly, the mainline DC Universe seems to be taking priority over the Elseworlds efforts. According to Safran, The Batman mastermind Matt Reeves has yet to turn in a script for the sequel to his $772 million noir juggernaut, despite what Safran calls encouraging glimpses at the material. No light was shed on a potential second season for the film’s award-winning spinoff The Penguin, either.

In short, Gunn and Safran aren’t playing hard and fast with canon here, and seem to be prioritizing compartmentalized storytelling that just happens to take place in the same universe. By all appearances, this means project status will be up-and-down, but it also means that a project will only go into production if Gunn — a tried-and-true maestro of superhero storytelling — believes the script is worthy of being produced. We’ll have to wait and see if it pays off, but it’s certainly a refreshing approach in the wake of Marvel’s free-falling content machine.