James Gunn has always been a storyteller who hides deeper meaning beneath the jokes. He is someone who knows exactly where his worlds are heading, even when the audience doesn’t. And now, with the DC Universe officially in motion under his guidance, Gunn has finally let slip what ties it all together.
During an interview with Brandon Davis following ‘Peacemaker’ season 2, Gunn revealed something that, curiously, few fans picked up on: every DCU movie and series is connected by one grand idea, a struggle for power. At its core, the new DC Universe is about three forces locked in a constant, uneasy war: governments, corporations, and metahumans.
The New DCU Is Defined By Power And Paranoia
It’s an idea that sounds deceptively simple, but in James Gunn’s hands, it becomes something profound. His DCU isn’t about capes and villains in the traditional sense. It’s about what happens when extraordinary power enters a world built on fear and ambition. In his telling, the arrival of Superman doesn’t just mark the birth of a superhero; it marks the beginning of a new political era. Suddenly, the most powerful beings on Earth aren’t governments or corporations, but individuals who can rewrite the rules of physics.
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This is why ‘Superman’, the first film in the DCU slate, is more than a story of a savior. It’s the story of a shift. Gunn’s comments suggest that Superman’s emergence triggers a deep unease across the planet. For centuries, humanity’s systems of control rested on the assumption that no one could act outside their reach. Superman shatters that illusion. He becomes both an ideal and a threat. What follows is an inevitable reaction. Governments begin to fear their own irrelevance.
Intelligence agencies like ARGUS scramble to retain order, developing new weapons, new science, and even new alliances with figures like Lex Luthor to counterbalance this metahuman uprising. Moreover, in ‘Peacemaker’ season 2, we see that tension in full swing. The paranoia and the desperation to maintain control are in full form. Gunn’s storytelling thrives on this chaos. The sense that even the most powerful institutions are quietly terrified of the new world is both unsettling and intriguing.
James Gunn’s DCU Isn’t About Heroes, It’s About Who Really Holds The Power
What makes Gunn’s vision distinct from other cinematic universes is how human it feels, even when it’s cosmic in scale. Metahumans may stand as symbols of hope or destruction. However, Gunn never lets them float above consequence. In this new order, corporations play just as sinister a role as any costumed villain. LuthorCorp, LordTech, and Stagg Industries aren’t simply background names; they showcase how money and influence can rival even godlike strength.
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When Lex Luthor funds “peacekeeping” teams of engineered metahumans, it’s not out of altruism; it’s out of a desire to own power, to commercialize it. Similarly, Maxwell Lord’s LordTech turning superheroes into branded icons reveals how even heroism can be bought and sold. Governments want to regulate power. Corporations want to profit from it. And metahumans, caught somewhere in between, are left to decide whether to play along, fight back, or rise above.
That tension is what James Gunn is crafting. Moreover, what’s remarkable is how subtly Gunn has built this. He doesn’t preach it. Instead, he lets it bleed through his characters’ actions. Whether it’s through Rick Flag Sr., Peacemaker, or Clark Kent, this message is very clear. Each of them represents a response to the same question: What do you do when power stops belonging to the people who used to have it?
