James Gunn Reportedly Plans Spinoff Shows for Two ‘Superman’ Movie Characters

Warner Bros. is once again hoping to fix its DC movie universe, and this time, it’s all riding on a brand-new Superman film. Directed and written by James Gunn, the movie isn’t just a reboot; it’s supposed to launch a whole new connected world of heroes, shows, and stories. Gunn is also running DC Studios now, alongside producer Peter Safran.

CEO David Zaslav is betting big on this plan. He’s called DC “one of the biggest value creation opportunities for us” and believes it could be a real “game changer” for Warner Bros. The company is hoping the new Superman movie makes at least $500 million around the world. But more than just the money, they need fans to get excited for what comes next.

Gunn’s Superman introduces David Corenswet as the new Clark Kent and brings back some familiar names like Lois Lane, Lex Luthor, and Superman’s loyal dog, Krypto. It also brings in heroes that most people don’t know much about, like Hawkgirl and Mister Terrific. These characters might have smaller parts in the movie, but that could change soon.

According to someone close to the project, Gunn is thinking about making TV spinoffs based on characters from the film. Two names being talked about are Mister Terrific, played by Edi Gathegi, and Jimmy Olsen, the young Daily Planet reporter played by Skyler Gisondo.

Nothing is confirmed, but it shows that Gunn wants to dive deeper into the DC world and shine a light on characters outside of the usual big names.

Mister Terrific, in particular, is already getting more attention. Writer Al Letson recently shared that before Gunn announced the character for the movie, he had actually written a TV pilot for a Mister Terrific show. But because of the writers’ strike, he wasn’t able to pitch it.

“This was before James Gunn putting him [Mr. Terrific] in Superman,” Letson said. “I thought, you know, people know him but they don’t KNOW him. And I could take him and do something with it.” He added that he wanted to show he could write superheroes in a grounded way, so he wrote the pilot just as a writing sample.

“I loved it, I thought it was great, my team loved it, they thought it was great, and right when I finished it, the writer strike was going on,” Letson explained. As a union member, he didn’t submit the pilot. Instead, the idea turned into a comic book series: Mister Terrific: Year One, which DC eventually approved. Letson said the project had to be adjusted from his original vision, but the core story stayed.

After Gunn posted an image of Mister Terrific from the movie, Letson got back in touch with DC and pitched an official origin story for the comic. Even though it’s just a rumor for now, a Mister Terrific show doesn’t seem too far off, especially with Gunn already building around the character in the film.

All of this is part of a bigger effort to fix the long-troubled DC universe. For years, different parts of Warner Bros. worked separately on DC projects, movies, shows, animation, licensing, and nothing really fit together. Now Gunn and Safran are in charge of everything. They’ve stopped many of the old projects and are starting fresh.

Gunn said it clearly when he first took the job: “The history of DC is pretty messed up. No one was minding the mint.”

The plan now is to build a world where all the stories connect. That means superhero films, horror spin-offs, animated series, and maybe even shows about side characters like Jimmy Olsen. It’s a big job, but Warner Bros. is putting all their faith in Gunn to finally make DC work.

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