DCU boss/professional talker James Gunn has once again taken to the internet to casually reveal major news about the DCU, namely the entire arc of its first stage here. In an interview with New Rockstars, Gunn was candid about which huge DC villain they are not progressing toward.
That would be Darkseid, despite the fact that Peacemaker just introduced Salvation, a “training planet” for Darkseid’s forces, indicating he may be on the horizon. Here’s Gunn:
In Zack Snyder’s Justice League variant, he got to move further into what was going to be his ultimate Darkseid plotline before the DCU went sideways. It was an admittedly cool introduction, but ultimately went nowhere. I do see why Gunn would not want just to try to redo a different version of that with the DCU, especially given his range of options.
Gunn also seems to think this is too much like the MCU building toward Thanos, who he deems too similar of a villain. I’m not entirely sure that’s true, but a massive all-powerful bald guy I guess has some overlap. We also know that Gunn likes pulling characters you might never expect into his projects. I mean, half the DCU is centered around Peacemaker at this point, so that broadens a range of options.
There are obvious big guns, however, that could be in the mix besides Darkseid, such as:
- Anti-Monitor (maybe the most logical option)
- Trigon
- Perpetua
- Doomsday
- Braniac
- Parallax
- Lucifer Morningstar
- The Batman Who Laughs (I doubt it)
- Black Adam (hahaha)
With DC, the most prominent villains are often not universe-ending threats. For instance, Lex Luthor is probably the second most-famous villain in DC, and we’ve gotten him already. The most famous, the Joker, is not going to be built up in a multi-year arc as a grand threat. It feels like it has to be someone huge. Then again, I would not want to predict anything when it comes to James Gunn, as he’s taking a pretty non-traditional path to assembling this universe and its larger threats. I would be surprised if we were able to guess where all this was going, especially if the Salvation reveal just ruled out Darkseid. In any case, I really love how Gunn does surprise us, and I’m looking forward to whatever he’s got up his sleeve.
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Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2025/10/22/james-gunn-reveals-who-the-main-villain-of-the-dcu-is-not/
