The move from the old DC Extended Universe (DCEU) to the new universe imagined by James Gunn and Peter Safran continues to leave a few marks. With DC Studios’ new bosses having decided to start again almost entirely from scratch, several important figures from the previous generation are starting to speak up and look back on a particularly turbulent period. The latest: Gal Gadot, who feels the transition wasn’t handled very elegantly. A guest on the Happy Sad Confused podcast with Josh Horowitz, the Israeli actress looked back on how things unfolded after James Gunn and Peter Safran took charge of DC Studios.
“It wasn’t handled elegantly, to say the least”, she explained, referring to that transition period.
To understand the situation, you have to go back to the end of 2022. At the time, DC Studios was going through a genuine period of rebuilding. After several years marked by Zack Snyder’s films, sometimes disappointing box-office results and a franchise strategy that had become hard for the general public to follow, Warner Bros. decided to hand the reins to James Gunn and Peter Safran. Their mission was to put the DC universe back in order and build a new foundation capable of rivalling Marvel over the long term. The problem is that this new strategy necessarily meant turning the page on part of the previous cast.
Henry Cavill, the first symbol of the great clear-out
The most obvious case remains Henry Cavill’s. Because after years of rumours and fan campaigns, the actor had officially announced his return in the role of Superman following a surprise appearance in Black Adam’s post-credits scene. On 24 October 2022, Cavill even confirmed that he would genuinely be back in the Man of Steel’s suit. But a few weeks later, change of plan. James Gunn announced he was working on a new Superman film devoted to a younger period of the character’s life, with a new actor, one David Corenswet, who has since been chosen to play the new Man of Steel.
For Gal Gadot, what happened around Henry Cavill says a lot about this particularly brutal transition. But the actress went through a similar situation with her own character. According to her, James Gunn and Peter Safran had initially told her they wanted to develop a third Wonder Woman film with her. She therefore thought the adventure could continue despite the change of direction at DC Studios. At the same time, she was watching what was happening around Henry Cavill and Patty Jenkins, the director who had made the first two Wonder Woman films and who was attached to that third instalment, which will now never see the light of day.
Patty Jenkins had in fact publicly denied reports that she left the project because she refused to change her script or to follow Warner Bros.’ requests. The film was ultimately abandoned, even though only a few months earlier Gal Gadot still seemed set to continue her adventure in the role of Diana Prince. Gal Gadot does make clear, however, that she personally holds no particular grudge against James Gunn or Peter Safran. Her comment is more about how that whole period was handled than about the personalities of DC Studios’ new bosses.
From scratch
Since then, the new DC Universe has begun to take shape. James Gunn has clearly stated that he wants to build a coherent universe around several characters, with a new generation of actors and directors. Superman, led by David Corenswet, is one of the first big building blocks of this new architecture. The Wonder Woman question, for its part, remains far more mysterious. No official casting has yet been announced to take over the role of Diana Prince, even if Adria Arjona’s presence in the cast of Man of Tomorrow (the Superman sequel) has already fuelled fan speculation about her character’s identity.
Whatever happens, the choice to start again almost entirely from scratch was probably necessary to let DC Studios build its own vision. But it also meant accepting that certain doors would be slammed shut. Henry Cavill as Superman, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Ben Affleck as Batman and Zack Snyder’s work now belong to another era of DC cinema. And that’s not such a bad thing.
