As we count down the remaining weeks until James Gunn’s Superman arrives to the 2025 release schedule, there are two other upcoming DC movies that Gunn, who’s running the creative side of DC Studios, has prioritized figuring out. The first is The Brave and the Bold, which will introduce the DC Universe’s Batman and see him fighting alongside his son Damian, and the second is the recently-confirmed Wonder Woman movie for the same franchise. But one is proving harder to crack than the other, and I liked Gunn’s take on why this is the case.
Why James Gunn Is Having Difficulty Figuring Out Batman For The DCU
The Brave and the Bold was announced as part of the opening DCU slate in January 2023, and by the following June, The Flash’s Andy Muschietti was unveiled as its director. But updates for this project have been few and far between since then, and here’s what James Gunn had to say about where things stand with The Brave and the Bold while speaking with Rolling Stone:
Batman’s my biggest issue in all of DC right now, personally. And it’s not — I’m not writing Batman, but I am working with the writer of Batman and trying to get it right, because he’s incredibly important to DC, as is Wonder Woman. So outside of the stuff that I’m doing in the projects that are actively going, our two priorities are finishing our Wonder Woman and our Batman scripts.
Although it was reported in February 2025 that a writer had been tapped to pen The Brave and the Bold, their identity hasn’t been revealed yet. Still, it should come as no surprise that James Gunn is working with this writer to try and crack The Brave and the Bold given his leadership position at DC Studios. With Batman being one of the DCU’s four “pillars,” it’s all the more important that this take on the Caped Crusader be handled as carefully as possible, especially given how many other interpretations of the character have come before. As Gunn explained:
Batman has to have a reason for existing, right? So Batman can’t just be “Oh, we’re making a Batman movie because Batman’s the biggest character in all of Warner Bros.,” which he is. But because there’s a need for him in the DCU and a need that he’s not exactly the same as Matt’s Batman. But yet he’s not a campy Batman. I’m not interested in that. I’m not interested in a funny, campy Batman, really. So we’re dealing with that. I think I have a way in, by the way. I think I really know what it’s — I just am dealing with the writer to make sure that we can make it a reality.
Even setting aside how many live-action versions of Batman we’ve gotten over the decades, we’re in an interesting time where two cinematic versions of the superhero will exist simultaneously. While Robert Pattinson’s Batman will continue doing his own things in the universe launched by Matt Reeves, James Gunn and this unnamed writer are hard at work figuring out to make their yet-to-be-cast version unique. Just don’t expect in the DCU’s Batman to be funny and campy to offset the overwhelming dark nature of Pattinson’s.
Why James Gunn Thinks Wonder Woman Is Easier To Pull Off For The DCU
Meanwhile, we don’t know anything about the DCU’s Wonder Woman movie other than it’s being developed. And yet, James Gunn finds cracking Diana of Themyscira to be a less difficult prospect compared to Batman, saying:
Wonder Woman I think is actually easier for me, because there haven’t been so many infinite portrayals of Wonder Woman — definitely not in movies, but really anywhere — that there have been of Batman. Every single Batman story has been told. It seems like half the comics that have come out of DC over the past 30 years have Batman in them. He’s the most famous superhero in the world and the most popular superhero in the world. And people love him because he’s interesting, but also having so much of him out there can also make him boring. So how do you create that property that’s fun to watch?
Wonder Woman may comprise DC Comics’ core Trinity next to Batman and Superman, but she definitely hasn’t been adapted outside of the comics nearly as much as her two cohorts, especially in live-action. Gal Gadot is the only actress who’s brought Diana to life on the big screen in this way, so there’s not quite as much pressure with the DCU’s version stand out compared to Batman. Regardless, James Gunn is making sure the proper amount of time and care is also put into Wonder Woman since she’s also one of the aforementioned pillars of this franchise.
Neither The Brave and the Bold nor this Wonder Woman movie have release dates yet, but we’ll take our first step into the DCU in the cinematic realm when Superman is released on July 11. Then Supergirl (previously known as Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow) will follow on June 26, 2026, and Clayface is set for a September 11, 2026 release.
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