Darkseid, one of DC Comics’ most iconic villains, is a character fans have been waiting to see arrive in James Gunn’s DCU. They’re going to have to keep waiting, though, as Gunn says he’s not touching that character for now, even if he’s the father of Mr. Miracle, who’s getting his own DC Studios show. The news came during a roundtable with YouTubers including New Rockstars and ScreenCrush.
When asked about the Mr. Miracle show and the potential introduction of Darkseid, Gunn first confirms that he has the script for the Mr. Miracle pilot but has yet to read it. But he does warn fans not to get their hopes up for Darkseid, explaining, “Using Darkseid as the big bad right now is not necessarily the thing.” There are two very important reasons he cites for that answer, both of which make a lot of sense.
“There are aspects of Darkseid and Thanos that are obviously very similar,” he says in reference to the big bad of the MCU’s Infinity Saga. And he’s not wrong; both are gigantic, all-powerful alien creatures with a desire to destroy the universe. What’s more, Thanos co-creator Jim Starlin has previously admitted that the character’s look was inspired by Darkseid.
While that alone is enough of a reason to simply not touch Darkseid for a very long time, there’s another even more pertinent reason. “Zach did it so cool in his way,” Gunn says, referencing Zack Snyder’s Justice League.
We’ll leave commenters to debate how “cool” Snyder’s take on Darkseid was, but either way, that short-lived universe of movies is still fresh in a lot of fans’ minds. Introducing him now or anytime soon would simply invite comparison to Snyder’s work, Gunn suggests, as well as potential comparisons to the filmmaker’s former MCU home.
More than that, the DC Comics universe is so jam-packed with interesting heroes and villains that there’s not really a need to rely on Darkseid to do all of the heavy lifting. As it stands, Lex Luthor remains the most villainous character in the DCU, though that might be changing in Man of Tomorrow, the next Superman film.
In an interview with The Ringer-verse, Gunn says that Man of Tomorrow will allow viewers to get “to know more of Lex as a human being.” Meanwhile, during an appearance on the Howard Stern Show [via EW], Gunn called the upcoming film “a story about Lex Luthor and Superman having to work together to a certain degree against a much, much bigger threat.”
Thankfully, we already know who the likely candidate is for that much bigger thread. Gunn, who wrote and is directing the film, shared an image of the script cover, featuring an image of a human brain. Almost immediately, fans assumed that meant Superman was going to fight Brainiac in the film. While Gunn hasn’t confirmed that, he clearly knew what he was doing.
“I wasn’t unaware that when I posted the cover of the script that there was going to be discussion around that particular topic,” he tells EW.
While there’s been no official confirmation regarding Brainiac, the villain would make perfect sense for a film where Superman and Lex are forced to work together. First introduced in 1958, the character is most often presented as a superintelligent synthetic human that also has a bunch of special powers like flight, superhuman strength, and telepathy.
He’s basically one of the most powerful villains in DC canon, and if anyone was going to cause Superman and Lex to work together, Brainiac is the best bet. Don’t lose hope, though, Darkseid fans. While Gunn says that character isn’t in the cards at the moment, there’s no way we don’t see him again sometime down the road — well, as long as Gunn’s DCU survives new corporate ownership.
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Author: 360 Technology Group
