How Star Wars will influence James Gunn’s DC Universe

The DC Expanded Universe is committing to one centralized “canon” across its TV shows, movies, and video games, according to its new leaders.

James Gunn and Peter Safran are in the process of building a new future for the DCEU, which will function more like Star Wars TV shows and movies than the MCU in terms of its attention to story-wide canon.

When asked on Twitter if future DC video games will connect to the rest of the cinematic universe, Gunn confirmed everything, not just shows and movies, would be connected. Sound familiar?

When Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012, the decision was eventually made to create a new storytelling continuity moving forward. While the previous movies and certain TV shows remained in-line with the “new canon,” stories told in books, comics, and other published works released prior to 2014 fell under a different continuity now called “Legends.”

Since 2014, every movie, animated series, live-action TV show, book and comic released under the larger Star Wars umbrella have been part of the same connected universe. While some story beats have been altered slightly between mediums, overall, a continuous thread runs through every new Star Wars story released over the past decade or so.

Until now, the DC cinematic universe has not followed this model, similar to the way the MCU remains largely separate from Marvel’s comics. But it appears to be time to try something new … that’s already been tried, and has mostly seemed to work for another mega-franchise. So far.

In various fandoms, a lot of people care about continuity and “canon” more than most things. So the decision to shift the DCEU into one continuous stream of content will surely, over time, please everyone with every small detail for the rest of forever. Surely.

Follow Dork Side of the Force  for all your Star Wars news, reviews, and more!