The DC Studios co-CEO recently took to Bluesky to explain why The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker Season 1 are not considered canon even though events from both projects are referenced or followed up on in Creature Commandos, which is the first entry in the DCU. “Short answer: Only Creature Commandos forward is pure canon. For instance, Rick Flag Jr was killed because we heard Rick Flag Sr talking about it in Creature Commandos, not because we saw it in The Suicide Squad,” Gunn wrote. “Long answer: Only CC forward is pure canon; Peacemaker is almost entirely consistent with that canon other than the Justice League; The Suicide Squad has a lot of consistencies but I think of it as an imperfect memory.”

  • @MimicJarEnglish
    2•17 hours ago

    I feel like you didn’t read the article and just want to be angry. That’s not even close to the answer.

    The answer is James Gunn considers Creature Commandos and anything after that as canon. Creature Commandos introduced characters, Creature Commandos killed characters. Their introductions and deaths are canon. This will hold true for Superman and all future projects.

    The “issue” is that The Suicide Squad was born in the former canon that was the DCEU. The story about characters like Harley Quinn are based on the existing DCEU established lore. Amanda Waller had an existing backstory. Rick Flag Jr had an existing backstory. Gunn did an excellent job weaving those stories into The Suicide Squad. He saved those characters.

    But you know who he didn’t save? Deadshot. The Joker. Killer Croc. Enchantress. Those characters are fucked. Gunn was handed the keys to the DC kingdom and you’re going to say “but the Joker has to be Jared Leto and edgy”. That would be fucking stupid.

    No, the answer is in Creature Commandos we go “after Project Starfish, we need a new plan”. Project Starfish was the suicide mission featured in The Suicide Squad.

    We establish that in general the events of The Suicide Squad happened. Did Harley Quinn stab a giant alien starfish in the eye in the new canon. Possibly. But if James Gunn wanted to say, actually she wasn’t on that mission, that’s ok too. It’s not the direction we’re likely even headed given the plan for Batman Brave and the Bold but he’s saying he wants the freedom.

    In fact, let’s talk about Peacemaker season 1. That’s an excellent show. However at the end of season 1 there is a brief cameo of The Justice League. They do not affect the plot. The joke is that they arrived too late. But we do see Jason Momoa as Aquaman. Should James Gunn be forced to continue the Aquaman story with Momoa?

    No. Momoa is Lobo now and that’s an excellent choice. What about that slight inconsistency? It’s not a big deal at all. If you are super attached to canon make that Universe A and the new canon Universe B and just say we’ve left Universe A behind but Universe B is similar.

    But also, do you realize how petty this all is? If James Gunn just said, “Nothing before Creature Commandos is canon” and then changed absolutely nothing about his plan, we’d all be fine. We would pickup the Creature Commandos story and go “Hey, the problems Amanda Waller is dealing with sounds pretty similar to what would have happened as a result of The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker”. If you wanted to just pretend that’s the truth, that’s fine. However if you’re sick of the characters you’re following be reset, well good news, some of them aren’t.

    Yes, Superman is being reset. Superman is a big fucking deal. Superman has been reset before. We had Christopher Reeve as Superman. Great Superman. But one day that story ended. Eventually we’re telling stories about a new Superman.

    We had Michael Keaton as Batman. He got to play Batman twice. But then it was Val Kilmer and things got a bit cheesier. And then it was George Clooney and things got very cheesy. Did those films hold canon to each other? Not really.

    Well we’ve got Cinematic Universes now. An infinitely expanding universe is tricky and complicated. Even comic books canon have had massive resets. Sometimes you get one of stories. Sometimes you get the universe. Some adaptations are faithful and some sew the characters mouth shut and give him teleporting powers.

    James Gunn and Peter Safran are starting a new universe. It’s going to have some familiar things. It’s going to have even more new things. Someday we’re going to have a new Superman, but for now they’re saying this is where we’re starting. (And by starting I don’t mean this is where the universe starts, this is just where the camera picks up.)