On the 14th of this month at the Annecy Film Festival in France, James Gunn debuted a sneak peak at the next DCU animated TV show Creature Commandos - alongside some odd news regarding how he plans to tackle future casting decisions across the majority of DC media.
“Since taking the reins, our true north has been to bring DC film, TV, animation and gaming into alignment under a single banner and bring a sense of unity and consistency into the DCU as a whole", Gunn explained during a video message prior to the screening.
As he went on to clarify, James Gunn's plans to create a "united DCU" means that actors likenesses and voices will remain the same across several different forms of media.
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“What this means in practical terms is that our characters can move in and out of animation or jump into a game or onto the big screen," he continued, "but they will remain consistent throughout: same character, same history, same actor.”
The reaction to this news has been, predictably, mixed.
"Excited for the new DCU but not very interested in this idea. Voice actors and actors aren't the same, even if some can do both", noted one Twitter commenter.
One Reddit commenter had an equally ambivalent response, stating "I think it’s a cool move, but trying to connect video games and movies/shows is a pretty bad idea. Game development cycles are extremely long, while movies don’t take less than half the time. That inherently will cause continuity issues."
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In theory, it does sound like a cool idea. Keeping actors consistent across mediums will definitely help create a sense of a more cohesive DC universe and potentially even steer fans of one medium towards a different, less familiar medium. It's also feels like a complete 180 when compared to Warner Bros previous haphazard attempt at forming a coherent DC universe.
Logistically however, it sounds incredibly difficult to pull off. Scheduling issues alone could lead to problems down the line, and future actors might not be comfortable with the amount of time they would be expected to dedicate to the universe as a whole.
We'll have to wait and see how it all pans out, and whether or not it'll have any affect on Monolith Production's upcoming Wonder Woman game, but at the very least it seems like Gunn's heart is in the right place.
Topics: DC, Superman, Warner Bros