Many fans were hoping for a triumphant return to Hall H for beloved genre filmmaker JAMES GUNN, especially since he’s the co-head of one of the biggest comic-book movie studios in town: DC, part of Warner Bros Discovery. But the film slate just doesn’t seem to be lining up. The highly anticipated SUPERMAN—which Gunn wrote and directed—premieres July 11, just a couple weeks before San Diego Comic-Con. So, according to The Hollywood Reporter, which attended a recent DC films press event, “Right now… the focus is back on Superman. Gunn is returning to Atlanta this week to continue the post-production process on the movie. And while there aren’t any major plans for DC Studios to be at San Diego Comic -Con, the division plans on making a splash at CinemaCon, the annual gathering of theatre owners at the top of April.”
The operative word in that quote is “major.” In other words, perhaps the giant Hall H panel won’t be on tap for this year, but that doesn’t preclude some smaller, more targeted panels or activations. And while it’s disappointing that one of the historically biggest and most exciting panels probably won’t be at SDCC this year, the larger picture is a lot rosier, because DC and Gunn have many, many cool films and TV shows coming out: Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow is halfway through production in London. Lanterns, an HBO series featuring Hal Jordan and John Stewart, is now shooting. This August, season two of The Peacemaker will debut on Max. (Which, in our humble opinion, will likely make some sort of appearance at SDCC—it was one of the only entertainment properties to bring talent, aka John Cena, to Comic-Con Special Edition).
The goal for the company is to make two live-action films and one animated movie per year while also producing two live-action and two animated series for Max per year. And although there’s nothing announced yet, Gunn and his co-chief Peter Safran said they did have a six-year plan that would include an Avengers: Endgame-style culmination. Whether that’s another Justice League team-up or something else remains to be seen.
But for now, we’re excited that DC Studios seems to finally be back on its feet again. And fingers are crossed they might just decide to share some of that excitement with us in San Diego.
