With Superman officially soaring — pulling in over $22 million in previews and landing a stellar 95% on Rotten Tomatoes — DC Studios co-head James Gunn is already looking to expand his new cinematic universe. According to a new report from The Wall Street Journal, Gunn is exploring spin-off series for two breakout characters from the film: Edi Gathegi’s Mister Terrific and Skyler Gisondo’s Jimmy Olsen.
If it sounds ambitious, that’s because it is — but it’s also on brand. Gunn and fellow DC Studios boss Peter Safran previously outlined a plan to deliver two live-action films and two TV series per year under their revamped DC Universe banner. Superman, written and directed by Gunn, is the first feature in this reimagined continuity — and its success may have just greenlit a small-screen boom.
Gathegi’s Mister Terrific, a brilliant tactician and fighter, stood out with some of the film’s slickest action beats and wryest one-liners. Meanwhile, Gisondo’s Jimmy Olsen quickly became a fan-favorite thanks to his sweetly awkward, Gen-Z-coded charm — a Daily Planet intern who felt right at home next to Superman‘s more seasoned cast. Both actors only had limited screen time, but enough to tease a lot of potential.
It’s unclear how far along these spin-offs are, but with Lanterns (starring Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre) deep into post-production and Peacemaker Season 2 set to premiere August 21, DC Studios is rapidly filling out its schedule. And Gunn’s enthusiasm hasn’t dimmed one bit. “There’s another TV show that’s my favorite thing in all of this, that is hopefully getting made soon,” Gunn teased recently in a Q&A with Entertainment Weekly. He also confirmed that Paradise Lost, the Wonder Woman prequel series set on Themyscira, is “moving along. It’s slow-moving, but it’s moving.”
Why Was ‘Superman’ Successful?
It wasn’t long ago that fans questioned whether Gunn, known for his irreverent genre films like Super and Slither, was the right fit for Superman — a character long considered too square or too perfect to be compelling. But that’s precisely why the pairing worked. Rather than rebel against Superman’s mythos, Gunn embraced it while stripping away the character’s invincibility complex. We meet Clark mid-defeat. He bleeds, he doubts, and for the first time in years, he feels real.
That sense of vulnerability extends across the ensemble. Superman introduces a rogues’ gallery of DC characters, including Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner, and Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho. The plot spins out into international politics, internet smear campaigns, multiversal threats, and even a solar-powered kaiju — and somehow, it works. Critics have called it “optimistic, playful, ludicrous, and downright fun,” and audiences clearly agree.
Superman is in theaters now.
via Collider