James Gunn did not announce a new master plan this week. He repeated an old one, in public, because a slice of DC fandom keeps insisting no plan exists.
That is the most useful way to read the DC Studios co-chief’s latest Threads post, which circulated Tuesday and quickly became a headline: Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are the DCU’s “diamond characters.” Krypto, John Stewart and Peacemaker are “smaller characters we could turn into diamonds”.
The line reads like a fresh classification. It is closer to a reminder. Gunn said as much in the post itself, telling a user to check his January 2023 quotes from the launch of Chapter One: Gods and Monsters. At that presentation, he described the strategy in blunter terms: “One of our strategies is to take our diamond characters, which is Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and we use them to prop up other characters that people don’t know”.
That is the actual thesis. The diamonds are not just priorities. They are audience magnets and credibility transfers. The rough stones are the upside bet.
The Post Was a Rebuttal, Not a Reveal
Gunn was replying to a now-deleted post when he wrote that the “often cited ‘8 to 10 year roadmap’ originally pitched wasn’t only story points,” but also “the plan for DC as a whole”. The plan, as he described it, includes diamond characters, smaller characters who could become diamonds, filmmaker freedom, multiple tones and ratings, and the influences of Star Wars and George R.R. Martin.
That is a strategy memo compressed into a social-media reply. It also explains why Gunn is repeating it now. The DCU has released Superman, Supergirl, Lanterns and Clayface, with Peacemaker’s second season also in the mix. Only one of the three named diamonds, Superman, has carried a live-action DCU project. Batman has not been cast. Wonder Woman has a writer but no director or star. The gap between the label and the output is the story.
The Rough-Stone Scorecard Is Uneven
Gunn’s three growth candidates are at very different stages, and that is where the metaphor becomes concrete.
Krypto is the easiest sell on paper. The superdog appeared in Gunn’s Superman and returned in Supergirl, which opened in June to about $38 million domestically, well below projections, on a $170 million production budget. Warner Bros. was expected to lose $100 million to $120 million on the film. Krypto also headlines an animated HBO Max series, but Gunn has said that show is not DCU canon. The character works as a scene-stealer. The commercial test around him at the feature level did not.
John Stewart is the clearest success of the “turn into diamonds” idea so far. Aaron Pierre played him in Lanterns, which became one of HBO’s most successful shows of the year and drew strong reviews. Stewart is confirmed to appear in Man of Tomorrow, and DC Studios co-chief Peter Safran has said a decision on Lanterns Season 2 will come by the end of 2026. That is the pipeline working as designed: television introduces a character, the character graduates to film, and the film can send audiences back to the show.
Peacemaker is the stranded one. The second season ended with Christopher Smith captured by Rick Flag Sr. and exiled to Salvation, a dimension A.R.G.U.S. uses to imprison metahumans, with no Season 3 in development. John Cena has said he will put the helmet on whenever Gunn needs him. He has also described the hierarchy without flinching:
“Because you get the whole box of toys, you have to address the really valuable ones first, and I understand that. I got to step back. Let Superman and Batman get their due.”
That is the diamond strategy stated by the talent. It is not a demotion. It is triage.
Batman and Wonder Woman Are Diamonds in Development
The two diamonds missing from the screen are also the two with the least public progress. The Brave and the Bold, Andy Muschietti’s Batman film, remains in early development with Christina Hodson writing and no release date. No actor has been cast as the DCU’s Bruce Wayne. Gunn has confirmed that the creative plans have changed since the 2023 announcement, and he has declined to say whether Damian Wayne is still central.
Wonder Woman has a writer, Ana Nogueira, who also wrote Supergirl and is working on Teen Titans. The film is being developed for the Gods and Monsters slate, but no director or star has been named. A Wonder Woman movie is on the runway. It is not on the calendar.
That does not mean the diamond label is empty. It means the label describes intent, not scheduling. Gunn’s post was a defense of the plan’s logic, not a promise that every piece would arrive in order.
Why the Metaphor Matters Beyond DC
The diamond framing is a portfolio strategy, and it is not unique to comic-book movies. A studio uses a small number of proven, expensive characters to underwrite cheaper experiments with lesser-known ones. If one of the experiments hits, the studio has a new franchise at a lower entry price. If it misses, the loss is contained.
The problem is that theatrical economics are less forgiving than streaming economics. Supergirl was not on Gunn’s list of diamond candidates or diamond-to-be candidates, but it was part of the same broader bet that DC’s library can support female-led and lesser-known leads. It cost $170 million and did not find an audience. That result does not invalidate the diamond strategy, but it shows its limit: a diamond can open a door for a smaller character. It cannot guarantee the audience will walk through.
Clayface, which opened October 23 to $24 million domestically, is the counterexample. It is a standalone body-horror film with a mid-size budget and no Batman in it. Gunn has said it exists because it is a good horror movie, not because it sets up a crossover. That is the “multiple tones and ratings” half of the plan, and it is already in the market.
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The next real test is Man of Tomorrow. The Superman sequel is dated July 9, 2027, and Gunn has already screened a first cut for Safran. If it works, it validates the diamond-led model and creates room for Stewart, Peacemaker and whatever comes next. If it does not, the rough stones get harder to sell.
For now, the useful read is not that Gunn has ranked DC’s characters. It is that he has admitted, in plain language, which ones are carrying the financial weight and which ones are still being tested. That is a more honest ledger than most franchise architects offer in public.
Also Read: James Gunn Confirms The Suicide Squad Is Mostly DCU Canon; Harley Quinn Remains the Big Question
James Gunn’s Threads post is a reminder that the DCU’s plan is older than the backlash against it.
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