James Gunn’s DC will officially ignore DCU canon with its next project. Gunn and his partner Peter Safran took charge of DC Studios in late 2022 and made it clear that the new DC Universe would run as a single connected story, while plenty of other DC films and shows stayed completely apart from it. The connected side, the DCU, features Superman, Supergirl, and the upcoming Man of Tomorrow, plus HBO Max shows like Peacemaker and Lanterns. The separate side keeps churning out Batman and Superman stories that share none of that history.
With Supergirl now in theaters as the newest canon entry in James Gunn’s DCU, the next wave of DC releases takes the franchise straight back outside that timeline. Two of them arrive within weeks of each other this summer, and neither counts toward the events David Corenswet’s Superman set in motion. These projects, which do not influence the official DCU timeline, have been given an Elseworlds label.
We’ve already seen some of the best projects come out from that corner of DC, including Matt Reeves’ The Batman,which has a sequel on the way, as well as Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie à Deux. This banner exists to give creators the freedom to make good DC stories without worrying about the main universe. The next two DC Studios-branded projects will ignore DCU canon because they fall under this catalog.
Upcoming DC Projects That Will Ignore James Gunn’s DCU Canon
Batman: Knightfall Part 1
Warner Bros. Animation adapted one of DC’s most punishing Batman stories off the shelf for Batman: Knightfall Part 1, the first chapter of a planned multi-film saga. The studio announced it last year at New York Comic-Con, with Jeff Wamester directing and Jeremy Adams writing. The full title runs a little long as Batman: Knightfall Part 1: Knightfall, since the larger story breaks into separate arcs the way the 1990s comic did.
The plot pits Bruce Wayne against Bane, the masked powerhouse who frees every inmate of Arkham Asylum to wear the Dark Knight down before moving in for the kill. Fans who have read theBatman, and the film looks set to follow the comic closely. Christopher Nolan borrowed pieces of this story for The Dark Knight Rises, but this version aims to tell the whole thing
None of it connects to Gunn’s DCU, where The Brave and the Bold will introduce the canon Batman and his son Damian Wayne further down the line. Knightfall is a standalone animated feature headed for digital and home release, and it keeps its own continuity. The movie had its world premiere at the Annecy International Animation Festival in France this June, with a wider release expected later in the year.
Batman: Caped Crusader Season 2
Prime Video’s Batman: Caped Crusader returns for its second season on July 31, with all 10 episodes arriving at once. Executive producers Bruce Timm, J.J. Abrams, and Matt Reeves are still running the show, and Hamish Linklater is back as the voice of Bruce Wayne. The first season reimagined Gotham as a 1940s noir city with Batman fighting some of the worst rogues in his history.
Season 2 digs deeper into Gotham’s underworld and finally brings in the Joker, whose arrival the first season teased in its finale. New faces include Mad Hatter, the Riddler, and the stunt-cycle thief Roxy Rocket. Jamie Chung also returns as this continuity’s Harley Quinn, a take that already looked nothing like the comics.
Like the animated Batman before it, this show falls outside the DCU. DC Studios gets a producer credit, so the branding can confuse people, yet nothing here ties to Gunn’s universe or to the live-action Batman that Robert Pattinson plays for Reeves. Caped Crusader runs its own Gotham, free to kill off or rewrite characters however the writers please, which is the whole appeal of an Elseworlds project.
BONUS: My Adventures With Superman Season 3
My Adventures with Superman came back for its third season on June 13. The show is already airing, so it’s a bonus addition here. Jack Quaid voices Clark Kent, with Alice Lee as Lois Lane and Ishmel Sahid as Jimmy Olsen, and the new season features a more confident and settled Superman.
Season 3 is inspired by the 1993 comic story Reign of the Supermen, the arc that flooded Metropolis with rival versions of the hero after a major loss. The show brings in Kara Zor-El and a young Superboy as it widens its cast. There’s also a Cyborg Superman this season, and the L logo on his chest gives an eerie connection to Lex Luthor.
This Superman owes nothing to David Corenswet’s. The Adult Swim series tells a found-family origin story with its own designs and villains. With Gunn’s DCU climbing toward Man of Tomorrow in 2027, the animated Man of Steel keeps flying in a sky of its own.
