Summary
- Uncertainty surrounds Gal Gadot's return as Wonder Woman in the DCU, with conflicting reports about the development status of Wonder Woman 3, but other characters are returning.
- John Cena's Peacemaker will ignore the DCU reboot and continue with a second season, raising questions about those Justice League cameos.
- Viola Davis's Amanda Waller will also appear in her own series, Waller, and Creature Commandos, solidifying her presence in the DCU. And there's more...
You could be forgiven for thinking James Gunn's DCU reboot is a reboot in name only. While the Guardians of the Galaxy director confirmed that 2025's Superman: Legacy will be the first movie in the new DCU slate of movies and TV shows, David Corenswet's Clark Kent will be far from the first DCU character. Even the new DC superhero Gunn himself claimed would be the first DCU character can't be, because there are already several characters carrying over from the old DCEU into the rebooted timeline.
Actors surviving reboots to play the same character is nothing new: Ryan Reynolds famously survived the comparative disaster of X-Men Origins: Wolverine to revive Deadpool for his own movies, while Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Jai Courtney and Amanda Waller all survived Suicide Squad to reappear in The Suicide Squad. Nicolas Cage also played two different versions of Ghost Rider, just 4 years apart. The DCU timeline is more confusing, though, because it includes sequel seasons and spin-offs from projects that are seemingly being left on the other side of the reboot. So while Henry Cavill and Ben Affleck are definitely out, some of their shared universe co-stars will reappear in the DCU reboot...
Wonder Woman - Gal Gadot?
Last Seen: The Flash (2023)
Next Up: Wonder Woman 3 (maybe)
The hardest DCEU return to call right now is Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman. According to Gadot, Wonder Woman 3 will happen in the DCU, after positive talks with Peter Safran and James Gunn. Subsequent reports have poured doubt on the situation, with Wonder Woman 3's active development status debunked. At best, Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman return should be considered uncertain but still confusing. While Wonder Woman 3 is reportedly not in development, James Gunn has previously said there have been conversations with Gadot, as her own statements reflect. Whether that will actually lead to a release is up for debate, but Wonder Woman 3 being off the table for now doesn't mean as much as might be presumed about Gadot's DCU return as Wonder Woman.
8 Peacemaker - John Cena
Last Seen: Peacemaker (2022)
Next Up: Peacemaker season 2 (TBC)
After debuting in The Suicide Squad in 2021, John Cena's Peacemaker became the most unlikely spin-off character for James Gunn's first HBO Max series, unsurprisingly titled Peacemaker. Even more surprisingly, Cena will return for a second season of the show that will apparently ignore the DCU reboot entirely. That obviously raises questions about Peacemaker's infamous Justice League cameos but James Gunn has been here before with confusing timelines, and The Suicide Squad wasn't hurt by its weird links to David Ayer's Suicide Squad. So maybe it's all fine. There's a good chance Cena will return in Amanda Waller's solo Max show, but for now Peacemaker season 2 seems a lock. There's also a very high chance Dee Bradley Baker's Eagly also returns alongside his anti-hero master.
7 Amanda Waller - Viola Davis
Last Seen: Black Adam (2022)
Next Up: Creature Commandos (TBC)
DC's answer to Nick Fury, Amanda Waller is set to return in her own series at the very least, spinning off from both The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker. Before that, Viola Davis' terrifying DC supremo will appear in Creature Commandos, once more pulling the strings behind a Black Ops team, having learned precisely nothing after the public reveal of Task Force X in Peacemaker. Creature Commandos will mark Davis' fourth DC movie outing after debuting in 2016's Suicide Squad, reappearing in sort-of-sequel The Suicide Squad and cameoing in Black Adam. She's also set for her own show Waller, which should release before Superman: Legacy in July 2025.
6 Weasel - Sean Gunn
Last Seen: The Suicide Squad (2021)
Next Up: Creature Commandos (2024)
As part of The Suicide Squad's ending, Sean Gunn's monstrous Weasel was confirmed to be alive, despite seeming to drown early in the movie. Apparently, Weasels are durable. Gunn's next appearance - in voice only - will explore just how durable as Weasel s Creature Commandos, the animated "apéritif" to the DCU releasing sometime before Superman: Legacy. Swapping the DC Comics' setting of World War 2, the new iteration of the Creature Commandos will once more be assembled by Amanda Waller, for further Black Ops missions. Weasel will be ed by supernatural DC characters like Eric Frankenstein (David Harbour), Nina Mazursky (Zoë Chao) and Alan Tudyk's Doctor Phosphorus.
5 Vigilante - Freddie Stroma
Last Seen: Peacemaker (2022)
Next Up: TBC
While it makes sense that Freddie Stroma's scene-steaking Vigilante will appear again in Peacemaker season 2 as part of John Cena's ragtag group of "heroes", James Gunn has thrown a spanner into the works. Gunn says Vigilante will probably return before Peacemaker season 2, which suggests he could be one of the established superheroes in the background of Superman: Legacy. Alternatively, he could be set to appear in Amanda Waller's spin-off show as she faces repurcurssions (or not) from Peacemaker season 1.Originally played by Chris Conrad in Peacemaker season 1, the outrageous street-level anti-hero was replaced by Game of Thrones alumnus Freddie Stroma in what proved to be an inspired move.
4 John Economos - Steve Agee
Last Seen: Shazam! Fury Of The Gods (2023)
Next Up: Creature Commandos (TBC)
Comic relief and frequent whipping boy John Economos appeared first in The Suicide Squad (with Steve Agee pulling double duty as King Shark's on-set stand-in) before reprising his role in Peacemaker more substantially and for a cameo in Shazam! Fury of the Gods. Before returning for Peacemaker season 2, Agee will lend his voice to an animated version of Economos in Creature Commandos, presumably suggesting he still works for Amanda Waller during that point of the timeline.
3 Blue Beetle - Xolo Maridueña
Last Seen: Blue Beetle (2023)
Next Up: Unknown
Even before Blue Beetle's 2023 release, James Gunn confirmed that Xolo Maridueña's Blue Beetle is the DCU's first hero, setting up a return in the reboot that may or may not be a sequel. Gunn's qualification that "the first DCU character for sure is Blue Beetle, and the first DCU movie is Superman [Legacy]" suggests that Maridueña will return in the new timeline in the same way Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn and some of her original Suicide Squad team-mates returned for The Suicide Squad. Who needs timeline logic? Blue Beetle is basically a mash-up of Marvel's Iron Man and Spider-Man, who finds himself body-jacked by an alien scarab granting him an intelligent super-suit and the power to basically do anything he can imagine. There's huge potential in the new hero, and if Blue Beetle does well enough, his return should be made more concrete.
2 Emilia Harcourt - Jennifer Holland
Last Seen: Shazam! Fury Of The Gods (2023)
Next Up: Peacemaker Season 2 (TBC)
Like Steve Agee, Jennifer Holland is something of a casting favorite of her husband James Gunn, with her role as Emilia Harcourt in The Suicide Squad kicking off multiple DC movie appearances. She was back quickly for Peacemaker season 1, and then appeared in a cameo alongside Agee in Shazam! Fury of the Gods. At this stage, she'll be returning in Peacemaker season 2 along with the rest of John Cena's cohort of weirdos, but there's a possibility she could also appear in Waller before that.
1 Leota Adebayo - Danielle Brooks
Last Seen: Peacemaker (2022)
Next Up: Peacemaker season 2 (TBC)
Peacemaker's breakout character, Leota Adebayo was arguably the real main character of John Cena's show. Introduced as Amanda Waller's secret daughter, she also did a lot more to take down her mother by the end of the season than the other misfits in her group. Like the rest of the Peacemaker cast, Danielle Brooks will return in Peacemaker season 2, and seems the most likely of the cast to appear in Waller, given the DCU show is about her estranged mother, who will probably be out for revenge.
