Two Months After Superman’s Release, James Gunn Has Righted A DCEU Wrong

The DC Universe has rectified a decade-long mistake that the DC Extended Universe made in under two months. After the success of Creature Commandos, Superman, and Peacemaker season 2, it is hard to imagine a time when the DCU’s potential was not so potent. However, the DCEU’s movie timeline only ended a few years ago.

Superman‘s ending may have fully ushered in the DCU’s beginning, but Aquaman and the Last Kingdom only ended the DCEU’s reign less than two years ago in December 2023. When looking back at the DCEU as opposed to the upcoming DCU movies, the biggest issue with the former becomes evident.

This issue was prevalent throughout the entirety of the DCEU’s tenure, with the franchise often having a lack of cohesive storytelling vision. Zack Snyder’s departure from Justice League in 2017 split the franchise in two; one half of the franchise dealt with characters Snyder implemented, while the other focused on standalone adventures in the DCEU, resulting in narrative friction.

This fractured creative direction saw the DCEU fizzle out, leading to James Gunn’s rebooted DCU Chapter One: Gods and Monsters. This officially began with Superman, despite Creature Commandos releasing before it. Now, less than two months after Superman truly started the DCU, Gunn has already fixed a DCEU issue linked to its incohesive narrative that lasted a decade.

James Gunn’s Man Of Tomorrow Comes Only 2 Years After Superman

James Gunn directing David Corenswet and Nicholas Hoult in Superman

At the beginning of September 2025, under two months after Superman was released in theaters, James Gunn announced Man of Tomorrow. Man of Tomorrow is the sequel to 2025’s Superman and will be the character’s next major appearance in the DC Universe.

In a world where wait times between movies or seasons of TV are ever-increasing, this is a mᴀssively exciting update. Rarely do we get sequels to major comic book movies less than two years after their predecessors. With Man of Tomorrow being released on July 9, 2027, the sequel to Superman breaks this trend.

The Lack Of A DCEU Superman Sequel Was A Big Problem For The Franchise

Henry Cavill's Superman looks down while flying in Man of Steel-1 — Henry Cavill’s Superman looks down while flying in Man of Steel

Regarding how this links to the DCEU, James Gunn is fixing a big problem that this franchise had. Despite being the first DCEU movie in 2013 and introducing Henry Cavill’s Superman in the process, a sequel to Man of Steel was never made before the DCEU ended.

Eventually, this became one of the biggest talking points and disappointments of the DCEU. The lack of a Man of Steel sequel had several negative impacts on the wider DCEU, not least the sidelining of what should have been a mᴀssively important character in the franchise. Superman is one of the pillars of DC Comics and should have been front and center in the DCEU.

Sadly, the response to Batman v Superman and some personal issues resulted in Snyder’s aforementioned departure from the franchise before 2017’s Justice League became critically panned. Under the DCEU’s new leadership, Cavill’s Superman was sidelined, and an outright sequel to Man of Steel, despite being toyed with several times, never came to fruition.

Beyond sidelining Superman in the DCEU, the back and forth surrounding a Man of Steel sequel was emblematic of the DCEU’s wider issues. The franchise’s higher-ups could not commit to a clear, cohesive narrative with a certain group of characters at its center. If anything proves this, it is the fact that only one Superman movie was released in 10 years of the DCEU.

James Gunn’s DCU Has Fixed The DCEU’s Superman Mistake In Under 2 Months

David Corenswet As Superman Looking At A Crack In The Wall

All of this brings me back to Man of Tomorrow, and how James Gunn has rectified this big DCEU Superman mistake already. Superman was released in theaters on July 11, 2025, with the announcement for Man of Tomorrow coming on September 3, 2025.

In under two months, James Gunn has allowed the DCU to fix the DCEU’s mistakes. A Superman sequel has been confirmed and will be released in July 2027, only two years after the first movie. Evidently, this was something the DCEU failed to do, leading to the aforementioned issues the franchise faced and the frustrating tenure of Henry Cavill as the Man of Steel.

Another DCU Movie Makes The DCEU’s Superman Mistakes Worse

Milly Alcock as Supergirl in James Gunn's Superman movie — Milly Alcock as Supergirl in James Gunn’s Superman movie

If the speedy announcement and production of Man of Tomorrow were not enough to prove the DCEU’s mistakes, another DCU movie compounds them. The story of Supergirl will be released in June 2026, less than a year after Superman‘s DCU debut. Although Supergirl is considered a standalone DCU story, it has strong links to Superman.

For starters, Milly Alcock’s Supergirl made a cameo appearance in Superman. Then there is Krypto, who had a big role in Superman and will have a similar role in Supergirl. By the time of Supergirl‘s release in June 2026, the DCU will have provided the Superman and Superman-adjacent mythos with more attention than the DCEU did in 10 years.

Supergirl did not even appear in the DCEU until 2023’s The Flash, a decade after Man of Steel‘s release. Even then, this version of Supergirl was from an alternate dimension, and the movie itself was highly divisive.

Thanks to Superman, Supergirl, and Man of Tomorrow all being released within three years, though, the DCU is changing this completely. Finally, a character as big as Superman and his supporting heroes are front and center of a live-action DC Universe, fixing perhaps the biggest individual mistake the DCEU ever made in record time.