Is James Gunn's Superman linked to Justice League and the rest of the DCEU? The new superhero movie's canon, explained

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Credit: DC Studios/Warner Bros

James Gunn's Superman won't just see the titular Kryptonian bearing a different face (hi, David Corenswet!), the upcoming movie is set to usher in an entirely new franchise based on some of DC's most popular characters.

Dubbed the DCU, the "soft reboot" will shake up all that we've known about the likes of Kal-El, Batman, Wonder Woman, and more so far, as familiar do-gooders start afresh and other heroes step into the limelight for the very first time.

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While it's not technically an origin story, Superman centers on a younger Kal-El than we've seen before, as he struggles to juggle his real-life job as a reporter at The Daily Planet and his cloak-sporting, city-saving escapades. It'll also see him strike up a romance with Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) and face off against Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult).

So it's not connected to the DCEU, which was largely spearheaded by Zack Snyder, at all? Got it. Well, actually, it's a little more complicated than that because apparently some existing titles are still canon and some aren't – though we get the impression that Gunn and his fellow DC Studios boss Peter Safran are still kind of figuring all that out.

In an interview with Collider back in November 2024, Gunn somewhat flippantly joked that "whatever" titles are mentioned in the likes of Creature Commandos, Superman, Supergirl, and all the other DCU titles are yet to come are canon. If not, fans need to pay them no heed. For now...

Credit: HBO Max

"Listen, Peacemaker is pretty easy. Peacemaker season 1 is basically canon outside of the appearance of the Justice League at the end, which you'll see something about that in Peacemaker season 2," he went on. "Suicide Squad is probably a little bit looser. We know that Rick Flag Sr. is angry because his son was killed by Peacemaker, so we know that situation happened in the past, we have something to refer to to think of what it might be like that that happened, but that exists as canon because it was mentioned in Creature Commandos, not necessarily because it existed in Suicide Squad. I think of Suicide Squad and Peacemaker as pretty unreliable memories of what happened in the DCU."

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One clear indicator that Superman isn't really linked to any big screen offerings that have come before is the fact that Jason Momoa, who rose to fame portraying the DCEU's Aquaman, will be seen as Lobo, a totally different DC character, in Supergirl. Both DCU titles, Supergirl and Superman are linked, though, ergo...

While we obviously know Corenswet is the DCU's Superman, following in the red-booted footsteps of Christopher Reeve, Tom Welling, Brandon Routh, Tyler Hoechlin, and Henry Cavill, Batman and Wonder Woman are two big names yet to be cast. It's only a matter of time before they get the revamp treatment too, though, with Gunn recently confirming to Deadline that we'll see the trio together at some point down the line.

As it stands, Matt Reeves' Batman universe is set to remain outside of the DCU continuity, so we shouldn't expect Robert Pattinson's Bruce Wayne to ever rub elbows with Corenswet's Clark Kent. Instead, fans will just have to suspend their disbelief like they did when Pattinson and Ben Affleck wore the cowl simultaneously onscreen, in The Batman and The Flash respectively. That said, there's always a chance...

"It really comes down to whether or not it makes sense," Reeves replied. "What's been great is there was a story that I wanted to tell with what we're calling The Epic Crime Saga and all that, which is the thrust of what we want to do. And it's been important to me to be able to play that out. And [DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn] and Peter [Safran] have been really, really great about that and they're letting us do that.

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"What the future brings? I can't really tell you. I have no idea right now except that my head is down now about getting The Batman Part 2 shooting and to make it something really, really special which, of course, is the most important thing."

Superman releases in cinemas on July 11. While we wait, check out our guide to DCU Chapter One: Gods and Monsters or our picks of the best superhero movies of all time.