It sounds like DCU movie The Authority is in trouble after DC Studios co-chief James Gunn admitted it had been put on the “back burner.”
The Authority was one of the surprise projects announced as part of Gunn and Peter Safran’s overarching Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters DC Universe reboot two years ago. The Authority is the infamously brutal superhero team from the WildStorm Universe. At the time, Gunn described the project as a “big movie,” but it appears to have run into significant issues since.
Speaking at a DC Studios presentation attended by IGN, Gunn called The Authority the “hardest” of the announced Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters projects, and pointed to Amazon’s smash hit adaptation of The Boys as one of the contributing factors.
“Honestly, Authority’s been the one that’s been the hardest, both because of the shifting overall story and because of getting it right in a world with The Boys and a world with all the things that The Authority influenced that came out after it,” Gunn admitted.
“And also having a lot of characters that we’ve fallen in love with that we’ve already filmed and have that we want to continue their stories and see them meet each other. So I will admittedly say it’s a little bit more on the back burner right now.”
One character from The Authority is set to appear in DCU kickstarter Superman: electronics prodigy The Engineer / Angela Spica. The Engineer is arguably the most powerful member of the group as she can self-duplicate, is a technopath, and has a genius-level intellect and radio-induced telepathy. Check out IGN’s article, Who Are the Authority: The WildStorm DCU Characters Explained, for more.
The Authority isn’t the only Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters project to have run into trouble. Gunn said Waller, a spinoff of Gunn’s own HBO Max hit series Peacemaker, “has had a couple of setbacks, frankly.” However, HBO Max series Booster Gold “is going pretty strong,” and Paradise Lost is “totally, still important and we’re working heavily on it,” Gunn said. “It seems to be going pretty well.” “The pilot’s being written right now,” Safran confirmed.
As for Swamp Thing, Safran said DC Studios is willing to wait for Logan and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny director James Mangold to be ready to make it.
“Our writer-director went off to make another little movie, A Complete Unknown, and we hope that he’ll come back to Swamp Thing when he’s ready, because again, that was one of those ones that we love him as a filmmaker, so we’re happy to wait for him,” Safran said of Mangold, referring to his upcoming Star Wars movie, Dawn of the Jedi.
However, “Swamp Thing is not integral to the larger story that we’re telling.” “Right. Yeah, it was always outside of that,” Gunn added. “I mean, it was because James came to us with it, frankly.”
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
