DCU Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters – The Complete Guide
James Gunn and Peter Safran's rebooted DC Universe: every confirmed film, series, and animated project in one place. Watch order, ratings, and the definitive guide to Chapter 1.
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The Reboot Nobody Expected to Work This Well
DC fans have been burned before. The old DCEU spent ten years alternating between genuine greatness and studio-compromised disappointment, never quite deciding what kind of universe it wanted to be. When Warner Bros. Discovery hired James Gunn and Peter Safran as DC Studios co-chairmen in 2022 and announced a complete reboot, the reaction was somewhere between cautious optimism and exhausted scepticism.
Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters is, to the surprise of many and the vindication of a few, working.
It’s working because Gunn has a coherent creative vision, because he’s been given genuine autonomy to execute it, and because the early projects — Creature Commandos, Superman, the integrated Peacemaker Season 2 — all demonstrate a consistent tone and a consistent interest in specific broken people operating in an extraordinary world. This is not a franchise assembly line producing content to schedule. It feels, so far, like a creator building something.
The comparison to Marvel’s Phase 1 is obvious but useful: like the MCU from 2008 to 2012, Chapter 1 is a universe where the foundation-laying is genuinely exciting rather than obligatory. Whether it holds over a longer run remains to be seen. For now, DC is making things worth watching.
AdSuperman (2025) (4K Ultra HD) (opens in a new tab)
The theatrical cornerstone of Chapter 1. David Corenswet's Superman is the best entry point to the new DCU and the right way to start.
Series Content
Explore all articles, reviews, and guides in this series.
#1Superman (2025) – A Fresh Start for the Man of Steel
“*Superman (2025)* reintroduces the iconic hero for a new generation. Directed by James Gunn, this reboot balances heart, humor, action, and visual spectacle. With a strong cast, especially the new Superman and Lois Lane, and a villain that actually delivers, it's a crowd-pleasing launch for the DC Universe.”
#2Creature Commandos Season 1 Review – The DCU Starts in a Monster Closet
“Creature Commandos is the first official output of James Gunn's rebooted DC Universe — and it launched not as a big-budget Superman film but as a seven-episode animated series about Amanda Waller's team of monsters. It is exactly as strange as that sounds, and exactly as good as it isn't supposed to be. The show starts cautiously, finds its confidence by episode 3, and peaks with a genuinely outstanding episode 6 that demonstrates what the whole DCU could be.”
#3Peacemaker Season 2 Review – Slow Start, Explosive Finish
“Peacemaker Season 2 picks up Christopher Smith in James Gunn's fully launched DC Universe — same absurdist DNA as Season 1, but now properly woven into the wider DCU fabric. It stumbles out of the gate with an opening stretch that had me wondering if the magic was gone. Then episodes 6 and 7 happen, and everything catches fire again. The ending genuinely makes you want Season 3 immediately.”
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The Gunn Continuity: What Chapter 1 Actually Is
Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters is James Gunn’s specific name for the first phase of the rebooted DCU — a unified continuity spanning every medium. Films, series, animated projects, and confirmed video games all exist in the same world. A character who appears in Creature Commandos is operating in the same reality as Superman. Amanda Waller’s operation crosses formats.
This is more ambitious than the MCU’s Phase 1, which was largely film-only. It’s also more potentially coherent, because Gunn is acting as a genuine showrunner for the entire universe rather than delegating to independent creative teams. Every project reflects a consistent vision.
The two key structural principles of Chapter 1:
The animated projects are real continuity. Creature Commandos is not a side project or a promotional extra — it is the first official DCU release, predating Superman by several months, and its events are canonical. James Gunn has been explicit that animated and live-action projects share the same universe in Chapter 1.
Characters carry across formats. Viola Davis’s Amanda Waller appears across Creature Commandos and connects to the wider operational world. The Peacemaker team from Season 1 (technically a transitional project) is formally integrated in Season 2. These aren’t brand licences; they’re the same characters, same continuity.
The Old DCEU vs. The New DCU
The relationship between Chapter 1 and the old DCEU (2013–2023) is a clean break. There is no narrative continuity — no multiverse bridge, no subtle hand-off. David Corenswet is Superman. Henry Cavill’s Clark Kent is over. The old universe ended with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom in December 2023; the new one began with Creature Commandos in December 2024.
The one genuine exception is structural rather than narrative: James Gunn’s own characters. The Suicide Squad (2021) is the film that introduced Gunn’s specific register to DC — R-rated, absurdist, emotionally grounded, character-first — and several of its cast members carry directly into Chapter 1. Peacemaker (John Cena), Weasel (Sean Gunn), John Economos (Steve Agee), and Viola Davis’s Waller all bridge the gap. The film itself is not DCU canon, but its creative DNA is.
For viewers coming fresh to the new universe: Superman (2025) requires nothing. Creature Commandos benefits from having seen The Suicide Squad. Peacemaker Season 2 requires both The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker Season 1. The barrier to entry is low and the order is clear.
AdThe Suicide Squad (4K Ultra HD) (opens in a new tab)
Essential context for the new DCU: James Gunn's R-rated Suicide Squad introduces the creative voice and several characters who carry forward into the new universe.
What Chapter 1 Still Needs to Prove
Two projects in, Chapter 1 is promising rather than proven. The universe has a consistent tone, a confident entry point in Superman, and genuine emotional depth in Creature Commandos. What it doesn’t yet have is the kind of cumulative payoff that made the MCU’s Phase 1 compelling in retrospect — the moment when the projects start speaking to each other in ways that reward watching all of them.
Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow (2026) is the next test. A film built around Alan Moore’s landmark comics run, with a lead character who is explicitly not the warm, optimistic version of the character the public knows best — this will tell us a great deal about whether Chapter 1 is willing to take creative risks once the foundation is laid. Based on the casting of Milly Alcock (House of the Dragon) and the source material, the signs are good.
The animated arm needs more projects. Creature Commandos Season 2 is confirmed. The universe will be richer if animation is a genuine creative pillar rather than a single experimental series.
For now: three projects, three rated-8 results, a coherent creative voice, and a clear direction. After a decade of the old DCEU, that’s enough to be genuinely excited.
The Dadnology Take: Finally a DC Universe Worth Investing In
The old DCEU asked for investment across sixteen films, delivered genuine greatness in perhaps five of them, and ended without a completed arc. Chapter 1 is, so far, asking for investment across a more carefully designed system of projects and, so far, making good on it.
Superman (2025) is the kind of superhero film that works as a family watch because it’s built around values rather than spectacle. Creature Commandos is emphatically not a family watch, but it’s a show with genuine emotional intelligence about what it costs to become a weapon. Peacemaker Season 2 is the bridge between Gunn’s old DC work and the new universe, and it navigates that transition with real skill.
For dads who burned out on the old DCEU’s inconsistency: Chapter 1 is worth a second look.
All reviewed DCU Chapter 1 projects are below, in release order.