What James Gunn Could Learn from the Arrowverse

On January 31^st, James Gunn revealed his plans for the DC Universe now that he is in full creative control of it. Along with recent comments that (assumedly some) games will also be tied to the film universe as well as television, there has been a lot of discussion around what is known so far. Personally, as a DC fan myself I think it is important to acknowledge that DC’s real success in the past decade (aside from Wonder Woman) has been largely due to the Arrowverse / CW TV universe.

While the Arrowverse flagged and faltered toward its end, it made great strides in a lot of ways. It was a pioneer not only in making certain DC heroes household names but also in championing diversity and building up strong character-based stories. Arrow itself was the basis for a lot of series, providing the first live-action television appearances for a lot of characters, including Suicide Squad members.

Supergirl introduced Dreamer towards the end of its run, which was the first transgender superhero portrayed on network television. On top of that, Supergirl also showcased a strong coming-out story from Kara’s sister Alex Danvers. Arrow introduced Sara Lance, who had multiple romances with women across Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow.

In fact, Legends of Tomorrow boasted a diverse cast which included John Constantine toward the end of its run, as well as several other characters of varying sexualities. Let’s not forget Batwoman, which was a series that wasn’t only built on a Lesbian hero (Kate Kane), but it also eventually went on to showcase a multicultural, racially diverse cast as well.

Beyond that quest for diversity though, the Arrowverse achieved strong crossover experiences that weren’t just mild guest spots or references. Prior to COVID, the Arrowverse tackled large “feature-length” crossovers across multiple shows. Before that, it started with the introduction of Barry Allen, which led to the backdoor pilot of The Flash during Arrow’s early run.

Introducing Barry as a character in Arrow allowed fans of the comics to be prepared for a possible spinoff, opening narrative opportunities. This happened along the way with the official crossovers as well, such as Supergirl’s inclusion in the Arrowverse after the CBS series’ first season run, the creation of the Legends of Tomorrow, and even the introduction of Clark Kent who would go on to lead the still running Superman & Lois series.

While your mileage may vary on whether you enjoy each of the series or not, the Arrowverse allowed people to get to know characters in the context of the world they were in. It was similar to the MCU in its early days, allowing seeds to be planted slowly instead of immediately jumping into climactic, intense comic concepts. It allowed story developments to take place over time, and for characters to grow and change. In a way, it also allowed actors to grow into their roles in a way that film franchises don’t often allow.

Whether you like James Gunn’s work or not, his beginner’s slate of film and TV projects is somewhat suspect. For example, not only are we getting yet another Superman reboot with a new iteration of Superman (called Superman: Legacy), but we are also getting a new Batman film that will be separate from the Matt Reeves’ Batman films which are now part of a “DC Elseworlds” universe of movies along with the sequel to Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker.

The issue that arises with the new Batman film dubbed The Brave and the Bold, is that it will showcase Batman and introduce Damian Wayne for the first time on film in a father-son story. Normally I wouldn’t mind this on its own, but as part 1 of a newly established DC film universe, there’s a very large problem with the concept. Batman collects children and teenagers like I collect RPGs and Roguelikes.

By starting with Damian Wayne, his biological child with Talia Al-Ghul, not only are you skipping Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, and other adopted children, but you’re also skipping every iteration of Batgirl and the rest of the “Batfamily” in the process. It’s like starting a book from chapter 20. Never mind the fact that I highly doubt the film will have time to effectively develop Bruce’s relationship with Damian and his combative, mostly off-again relationship with the villainous Talia Al-Ghul. This isn’t the only issue though, there are more projects in the works, some of which are suspect.

Among the other series, Amanda Waller will feature in two of them, Creature Commandos where she forms a team of monsters, and Waller in which she will likely be the focus as she leads a government task force. Waller is a spinoff of the already existing Peacemaker series, which is one of the few series that wasn’t destroyed by the Warner Bros. change up of leadership. Booster Gold will be getting his own series, which will only possibly excite fans of the comics.

Supergirl will get a new movie called Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, and there will be a “Game of Thrones”-esque series about the origins of Themyscira called Paradise Lost. It is strange to me how DC thinks most of these things are going to connect to each other. I’m excited about the upcoming Green Lantern series at some point, but the rest of this feels like they’re tossing darts at a board hoping they’ll land on something good.

The MCU and the Arrowverse both started at the character level. They picked out a few characters that were either already recognizable or would be easy for people to get into. Then, once people were invested, they got more experimental with it and added new characters fewer people were aware of. While I hope I’m wrong, Warner Bros. has squandered most of the goodwill it had with people over the last few years as it carried forward with Ezra Miller’s Flash film, canceled beloved series, and has geared more toward this new slate.

It feels as though the people at Warner Bros. haven’t learned what made the Arrowverse so successful. Not only were the individual shows interesting, but the crossovers were also events that people tuned into in order to see fascinating ideas and climactic stories. James Gunn should be looking at what came before. He should look at what worked and what didn’t work, and then move on from there.

I worry that by trying to tell too many separate stories with small connections across film and television, James Gunn is spreading things too thin. How are you going to build a cinematic universe (that apparently connects to games too) if you’re starting late in one character’s story, starting Superman over, and focusing on other properties that few people know or care about?

That doesn’t even take into account the logistical nightmare of connecting video games to a cinematic universe when some people watching films and television series have absolutely no interest in games. Start small, work your way up, and once it all takes off then showcase a grand vision full of wild and crazy stories. Even the MCU didn’t start out with Infinity War in mind.

James Gunn was correct to say that DC’s history of film and television has been “messed up”. With that said, he would be heavily misjudging things by not taking the contributions of the Arrowverse into account. His current “Chapter One” slate feels underwhelming, and I’m not so sure that DC made the right call here. Only time will tell whether or not this new DCU manages to get off the ground.