DC Studios Lays Out Plan for Multiple Projects Per Year – Here’s How Many

Warner Bros. is once again taking a big swing at rebooting its DC Comics universe, and this time, they’re putting everything behind a new Superman movie. The studio has struggled for more than 25 years to get its DC characters to match the success of Marvel’s superhero films. Each plan kept falling apart because of studio politics, power struggles, and clashing creative visions. Now, with James Gunn and Peter Safran in charge, Warner Bros. is starting fresh again.

The new Superman film, opening this week, isn’t just another superhero movie. It’s the start of an entirely new DC universe. Gunn, who wrote and directed the movie, is now running DC Studios alongside Safran. They’re in charge of every DC project going forward, movies, shows, animation, even games. That’s never happened before at Warner Bros., and the company is hoping this change will finally bring some consistency.

Fans can expect more from DC than just one big movie every now and then. Gunn and Safran have a clear plan: they want to release two live-action movies and one animated film each year. On top of that, they’re working on several TV shows that will stream on HBO Max. This means a steady flow of new DC content every year, something fans haven’t seen before.

Some of the projects already in the pipeline include a Supergirl movie, a Green Lantern TV series, and new Batman films. There’s also talk of expanding characters introduced in Superman, like Mister Terrific and Jimmy Olsen, into their own TV spinoffs. According to a source with knowledge of the plans, Gunn is already considering those ideas.

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav is betting big on this new direction. He’s called DC “one of the biggest value creation opportunities for us” and says it “could and should be a game changer.” The company is in a tight spot after merging with Discovery, and now that it’s preparing to spin off its cable networks, DC has become its most valuable franchise. Zaslav knows how important it is that this plan works.

The new Superman film stars David Corenswet, with a cast of mostly lesser-known actors. The movie cost around $225 million to make and features classic characters like Lois Lane and Lex Luthor, along with some new faces like Hawkgirl, Mister Terrific, and even Superman’s dog, Krypto. It sets the tone for what’s coming next.

“If Superman is working, the feeling from the audience is that DC overall is working,” said Dan DiDio, a former DC Comics executive.

James Gunn didn’t jump into the project right away. At first, he wasn’t sure how to make Superman feel modern without losing what makes him special. “How can you take this character who’s perceived as old-fashioned by so many [and] do it for a modern audience?” Gunn said. But he came up with a story he described as “both utterly human and utterly fantastic,” and that changed his mind.

Zaslav had already been thinking about how to fix DC. In 2022, he decided to put one team in charge of everything, something midlevel Warner Bros. employees had been suggesting for years. But before that, no one had the authority to make it happen. DC had long been split up across different departments and filmmakers, making it hard to build a connected universe like Marvel’s.

“There was always friction pulling DC together because there were a lot of individual ideas, rather than one overarching vision,” DiDio said.

Gunn and Safran stopped most of the DC projects that were already in development, including a third Wonder Woman movie, so they could build their own version of the DC universe from scratch. They want the new DC to feel more connected. In the past, there were too many different styles, from dark films like Joker to TV shows like Watchmen and Arrow, so it was hard for audiences to understand what DC was supposed to be.

Now, with Gunn steering the creative direction and Safran handling the business side, there’s finally a single vision. They’re working with a small 13-person team in an office at the Warner Bros. lot, where a glowing Superman “S” lights up the lobby. Gunn summed it up pretty clearly when he said, “The history of DC is pretty messed up. No one was minding the mint.”

That’s changed. The new plan promises a steady stream of movies and shows, three films a year, more TV content, and a long-term goal of bringing back all of DC’s biggest names like Batman and Wonder Woman. It’s a big challenge, but Warner Bros. is all in. Fans should expect a lot more DC content, and hopefully a more united universe, starting now.

This information was first reported by WSJ.

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