The next incorporates minor spoilers for Superman.
As any person who grew up with the unique Christopher Reeve Superman motion pictures and who thinks the Guardians of the Galaxy are the perfect a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, to say I had been trying ahead to seeing James Gunn’s Superman was actually an understatement. I used to be excited not just for a brand new Superman film however for the big-screen launch of the brand new DC Universe.
If I had any main considerations, it was how the brand new movie would stability its Superman story with no matter world-building it will have to do to correctly arrange the franchise and all of the upcoming DC motion pictures we’re anticipating. Little did I do know that James Gunn would fully promote me on your entire new DCU with a single sentence, which was actually the primary sentence of the film.
Superman opens, like so many motion pictures do, with a little bit of on-screen textual content that helps arrange our backstory. Generally it will merely be too sophisticated or take too lengthy to construct all of the backstory you want into your plot and dialogue. And so, within the first piece of on-screen textual content, the film tells us that metahumans (superpowered individuals) have been a part of Earth’s civilization because the first ones have been found…300 years in the past.
Minimize. Print. No Notes. 300 YEARS? I’ve so many questions now that I’m going to wish the brand new DC universe to reply. I don’t want all of the questions answered instantly, however I’m going to wish a number of these questions answered over the following decade or so of upcoming DCU TV collection and films.
Did metahumans combat within the Revolutionary Warfare? The Civil Warfare? Did they march for civil rights? Did they not march for civil rights? The Marvel Cinematic Universe has at all times been introduced as being, roughly, our world, however with superheroes in it. All the things in historical past occurred just about like we bear in mind it, apart from this Captain America man throughout World Warfare II, however then he disappeared, so he didn’t affect historical past. All of it strikes in a single course, ahead.
The DCU is stating from actually the start that that’s not how issues occurred right here. Metahumans aren’t only a factor that occurred, however they’re a factor that is been occurring for thus lengthy that they’re not even novel anymore. However actually, these metahumans’ existence would have induced giant parts of historical past to occur in a different way. Appears like an ideal film.
I’m Manner Extra Excited For The New DC Now
I’d have been enthusiastic about a brand new DC Universe beneath any circumstances. With the likes of Superman, Batman, and Marvel Girl, DC really has a bigger pool of worldwide recognizable heroes than Marvel did when the MCU obtained began. That mentioned, since we have already got one large superhero film universe that, regardless of current stumbles, I nonetheless suppose is completely entertaining, I used to be actually curious how DC would attempt to differentiate itself.
I feel that is the reply. Even when we don’t see each element of the modified timeline on display screen, we might nonetheless see the ramifications of these adjustments manifest within the tales we do get. It received’t merely be a case of seeing our personal world, however with superheroes excessive of it. It’s a completely completely different world.
Because of this future DCU motion pictures and collection don’t have to solely transfer the story ahead. They’ll additionally take issues again in time. A interval story a few metahuman from 100, 200, or 300 years in the past is completely acceptable. This opens up prospects for various types of tales in a approach that the MCU has largely needed to depend on the multiverse to inform.
For the brand new DCU, it could possibly be rather more natural. If the MCU needed to introduce a brand new character in an upcoming collection or film that existed 100 years earlier than the occasions of Iron Man, it will require a big script writing faucet dance and sure, greater than a little bit within the retcon division, however DC has already established that such a factor just isn’t solely attainable, it already occurred.
And there are nearly actually expectations to do one thing with this 300 years of historical past. If the aim of the opening strains was merely to arrange a world the place Superman and different metahumans ‘ existence wasn’t novel, the film might have advised us that metahumans had already existed for 10, 20, or 30 years. By making the quantity 300, choices for future movies and collection are being saved vast open.
It Might Be A Whereas Earlier than 300 Years Of DCU Historical past Begins To Be Explored
Whereas the 300 years of metahuman historical past have me excited, there’s one factor that’s tempering that pleasure. Whereas there could completely be plans to inform tales inside this in depth time interval, it doesn’t look like there are plans to take action anytime quickly.
Virtually every thing that James Gunn has specified by his Gods & Monsters chapter of the DCU appears to be set in the identical interval in and round Superman. The initiatives which might be already completed or in manufacturing embody the second season of Peacemaker and Supergirl. Since we all know that Nathan Fillion’s Man Gardner will seem in Lanterns and the deliberate Authority film will embody the Engineer, who debuted in Superman, then these initiatives will clearly be set in the identical time interval.
The one potential exception could be Paradise Misplaced. The deliberate HBO Max collection is meant to be set on Marvel Girl’s residence island of Themyscira, however in a time predating Marvel Girl. Since we count on Marvel Girl’s eventual look will put her alongside Superman, then Paradise Misplaced can be set earlier, and it could possibly be set 300 years earlier.
I’m actually hopeful that even when it takes a while, we get some DCU set within the earlier 300 years and never merely the years to come back. It’s an unbelievable alternative for some distinctive tales that can set DC aside. I can’t wait to see what occurs.