James Gunn’s DCU Slate Has Learned From the MCU’s Mistakes

In February 2025, DC Studios co-heads James Gunn and Peter Safran hosted a bunch of reporters for an informal update on the DC Universe film and TV slate. The session was essentially Gunn and Safran’s spin on a Marvel Cinematic Universe roadmap reveal, with one big difference: no dates.

Okay, there were some dates – but none of them were new. Gunn’s Superman reboot is still on track for July 11, 2025. Craig Gillespie’s Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow should still hit its June 26, 2026 slot. The Mike Flanagan-penned Clayface flick will (as previously reported) likely arrive on Sept. 11, 2026. But the rest of the DCU’s initial wave of movies and TV shows (which carries the subtitle “Chapter One: Gods and Monsters”) is lucky to have a release window, much less an actual premiere date.

Like I said: it’s completely at odds with how Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige has historically approached the MCU’s “Phases,” with a concrete release schedule announced years in advance. And honestly? That’s a good thing, because it suggests that Gunn and Safran learned from the MCU’s mistakes when they were building their revamped DCU.

Why James Gunn’s DCU Is So Release Date-Lite

Admittedly, the idea that Gunn and Safran have one up on Feige and Marvel because they seemingly have less of a plan for the DCU sounds counterintuitive. Surely, the studio with the clearer idea of where its interconnected web of superhero franchises is headed has the edge? Certainly, the MCU’s far greater consistency at the box office compared to the legacy DC Extended Universe over the past 17 years lends credence to this position.

But it takes more than just a series of premiere dates to make a successful cinematic shared universe. If your movies and TV shows don’t strike a chord with readers when they finally arrive, the best long-term strategy in the world is meaningless. We’re seeing this now, with several MCU blockbusters – including recent release Captain America: Brave New World – underperforming financially, despite tying into Feige and Marvel’s grand vision.

That’s why Gunn and Safran aren’t fussed about release dates: because working backwards from a pre-determined debut is infinitely harder than making that call further down the line. They’d rather wait until their DCU movies and shows are in good shape and then make the release date public. That way, they avoid the potential dilemma of kicking off principal photography with an unfinished screenplay. “It is hard enough making a good movie with a good script,” Gunn observed at the recent press event. “It’s almost impossible making a movie with a script that you’re writing on the run.”

Related: Could Robert Pattinson’s Batman Joining the DCU Work?

The Drawbacks of James Gunn’s DCU Approach

Now, that doesn’t mean there aren’t downsides to Gunn and Safran’s less date-driven approach to the DCU Chapter One. Chiefly, it lacks the immediate “wow factor” of Feige getting up on stage at San Diego Comic-Con and unveiling a raft of MCU movies and shows and when they’ll drop. It’s akin to being a kid in a candy store: you’re not just getting one or two locked-and-loaded Marvel adventures, you’re getting five or six. Whether you end up liking all of these MCU entries is almost irrelevant; in the moment, it’s exciting.

Related: James Gunn Is Already Having to Defend the Power-Scaling in the DCU

More importantly, a concrete slate like Marvel’s gives fans a sense that there’s a master plan afoot – even if said plan is, in reality, more of a vague trajectory. The MCU Phases One to Three were so huge partly because of the anticipation that gradually intensified the more the so-called “Infinity Saga” came into focus. Heck, it’s what kept some Marvel fans hanging in there whenever a given MCU title didn’t live up to their expectations. Slogging through an Avengers: Age of Ultron or a Thor: The Dark World is that much easier when you’re convinced they’re necessary bumps on the road to somewhere better (in this case, Avengers: Endgame).

James Gunn and Pete Safran Learned the Right Lesson from the MCU’s Biggest Mistake

Yet for all the good Marvel Studios’ philosophy of ultra-transparent timelines has done, it’s arguably become the production company’s greatest weakness in recent years. The up-and-down critical and commercial performance of Phases Four and Five – collectively, two-thirds of the “Multiverse Saga” – indicates that (with rare exception) Feige and his team have started sacrificing quality to guarantee they hit publicly announced milestones. And when the priority becomes the bigger picture and not the story at hand, it’s no wonder that audiences become jaded.

Related: James Gunn Explains the Inconsistency in Rick Flag Sr.’s Appearance in the DCU

Gunn and Safran clearly get this. For his part, Gunn’s lived through it; before he landed the top job at DC Studios, he directed the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy for Marvel Studios. So, he knows all too well what it’s like to craft a film with strict deadlines tied to a wider line-up of projects hanging over your head. It’s punishingly difficult and risks ruining the story you’re trying to tell – and (if the current state of the Multiverse Saga is any guide) doesn’t necessarily result in a rewarding uber-narrative, either. That’s why Gunn and Safran aren’t repeating the MCU’s biggest mistake, and why whatever the ultimate fate of the DCU Chapter One may be, it won’t be decided by a calendar.

The next entry in James Gunn’s revamped DCU, Superman, arrives in cinemas on July 11, 2025.