To say that DC‘s live-action and animated canon could do with a bit of streamlining would be an understatement, especially when the co-CEO of the entire studio is having to make sure people that work for the exact same company don’t end up stepping on his toes.
At the moment, the embers of the SnyderVerse are just about burning with The Flash having arrived on VOD to try and make an impact with an audience that resolutely refused to pay for a ticket to catch it on the big screen, while Blue Beetle is technically part of the old DCEU but also the first superhero to be officially acknowledged as part of James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DCU.
In addition, the DC Animated Universe will exist independently of James Gunn’s DC Universe, which is itself a reinvention of the existing DC Extended Universe. That’s fairly confusing as it is, but the upcoming Crisis on Infinite Earths adaptation being branded as “A DC Universe Movie” muddied the waters even further, forcing Gunn to step in.
When asked – understandably, it should be noted – if the feature-length animation was part of his canon, Gunn responded on Threads with a blunt “They messed up. It’s been corrected.” It’s easy to see why all these acronyms featuring the letters D, C, and U are resulting in crossed wires, but that’s just one of the many issues the Guardians of the Galaxy director has to address as he settles into his new executive role while simultaneously helming Superman: Legacy and trying to stop the tide of box office disaster that’s blighted the franchise for years, and isn’t even over yet.