Posted in: DC Universe, HBO, Opinion, streaming, TV, TV | Tagged: dc studios, dcu, hbo max, james gunn, opinion

James Gunn Confirms St. Louis Toasted Ravs Now DCU Canon? (Spoilers)

If you thought for one second that we weren't going to have a little fun with Peter Safran's DC Studios partner-in-crime, James Gunn, and his Instagram post from earlier today, then you're sadly mistaken. First, we're hoping that the two of them are getting some serious downtime during the holidays because the first (almost) two months have been… not exactly boring? And that's before they formally roll out their game plan for a new DCU (though announcing a few things, like the Gunn-penned "younger Superman" film), reportedly sometime in early 2023. Of course, since the duo was formally announced, they haven't exactly been lacking in folks willing to offer their friendly (and not-so-friendly) advice on what the DCU should look like. And then we have those waves of "sources" claiming to know anything & everything that Gunn & Safran have planned. Of course, 99.637% of the time, they're wrong… but who's counting? When you have random speculation dumpster fires raging far & wide, folks are going to start reading into anything that you post on social media. It's like if he posts a meme of a cat dangling from a tree branch, that "suddenly means" Gunn's confirming a Catwoman series. So when Gunn posted how much he enjoyed being back home in St. Louis to see his mom and "brag" (we're jealous because we're hungry) about having toasted ravioli… well… you're read the headline above. You know we couldn't resist. And yeah… there aren't really any "spoilers," either (but it looked cool).

Just to be clear? The image that Gunn posted below was more than enough to get us drooling. But when two of our writers' eyes lit up in the middle of our Zoom staff meeting after hearing "St. Louis" & "toasted ravs," we dove right into Door Dash & Uber Eats to see who could deliver us the closest thing possible:

On Monday, Gunn took some time out from the holidays to push back on "sources" spreading the word that HBO Max's John Stewart-focused Green Lantern series had been "scrapped" and that Gunn was eyeing Stewart's Green Lantern for the film side instead. Taking to Twitter, Gunn clarified in a pretty blunt way that the project was still moving forward, responding to the article's tweet with a very straightforward "Fake." Meanwhile, Gunn had gone on record as saying that DC Studios should have some new projects to announce after the start of the new year. Now, here's a look back at the recent timeline tracking recent developments with Green Lantern:

August 2022: HBO & HBO Max CCO Casey Bloys sends out an email that lays out the changes that will be taking place on the executive levels moving forward. While describing HBO Max Head of Original Content Sarah Aubrey, Bloys says they will be working with Joey Chavez, EVP Programming, to build up "tentpole IP series such as 'Peacemaker,' 'Dune,' 'The Penguin,' and 'Green Lantern.'" Those series would include James Gunn's John Cena-starring Peacemaker; the upcoming "Dune" prequel series, Dune: The Sisterhood; Matt Reeves' Colin Farrell-starring "The Batman" spinoff, The Penguin; and Greg Berlanti's Finn Wittrock-starring Green Lantern. You can check out Bloys's email in full here).

October 2022: Though Warner Bros. Discovery and HBO Max remain committed to Greg Berlanti and his Warner Bros. TV-based Berlanti Productions' take on a Green Lantern series, The Hollywood Reporter reported that the series was going through a ground-up refocusing that saw writer & showrunner Seth Grahame-Smith departing the project after having completed scripts for a full, 8-episode season (with Grahame-Smith reportedly choosing to depart after leadership changes at the multimedia company). The series will now focus on John Stewart and not on Guy Gardner (Finn Wittrock), Alan Scott (Jeremy Irvine), or the ensemble of Green Lanter Corps characters as originally envisioned. The decision was said not to be connected with the recent news that Gunn and Safran were set to lead film, TV, and animation at DC Studios.

November 2022: In an interview, Aubrey also stressed how Warner Bros. Discovery IPs were as an essential part of the streamer's future, having this to say about Green Lantern: "We remain very excited by the opportunity to make a big four-quadrant space opera with Greg [Berlanti] and Sarah [ Schechter] for HBO Max."

December 2022: In a tweet confirming that Superman was "a huge priority, if not the biggest priority" in his and Safran's DCU plans (this was before the Gunn-penned Superman movie was announced), Gunn also said that Green Lantern was "important" as the DCU moves forward.

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