The DCU is underway with the release of James Gunn’s Superman and the soon-to-be-released second season of Peacemaker, with both providing yet another ray of hope for fans of Zack Snyder’s DCEU. Gunn’s DCU is a reboot of sorts of the DC Universe cinematically, with the 2024 animated series Creature Commandos providing an introduction to the DCU while Superman acts as its proper launching point. Despite this, the legacy of Snyder’s DCEU remains heavily on the minds of many, including both Snyder fans and detractors. It’s also worth noting that the DCU itself is playing a role in the Snyderverse’s longevity, with some as yet unexplained connection between the two that will gain further clarity in Peacemaker season two.
A major factor in that is the role of many parallel DC universes, a staple of DC Comics as a brand, in the DCU. Gunn’s Superman movie includes a plot element of a pocket universe that becomes a significant factor in the movie’s story. Arguably even more significant is the role of the multiverse in Peacemaker season two, with the two combined giving continued life to the hopes of many fans for the Snyderverse’s revival and intended conclusion to be realized.
The Pocket Universes In James Gunn’s Superman & Peacemaker Season 2 Explained
The pocket universe plot device in Superman is shown as an interdimensional prison of sorts created by Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor, who uses it to keep his enemies under his clutches. Luthor places Superman in his pocket universe to interrogate him after playing the video message of Superman’s Kryptonian parents revealing he was sent to conquer Earth. Ultimately, Superman escapes the pocket universe, but Mr. Terrific’s warning that tampering with the gateways of the multiverse can open unexpected rifts in reality proves true when Luthor’s pocket universe begins to literally tear open right through Metropolis. In the end, the Man of Steel successfully shuts Luthor’s pocket universe, but Gunn’s Superman film has seemingly teed up an even bigger role that the multiverse will play in the DCU through Peacemaker season two.
Peacemaker season two’s trailer clearly establishes multiple doorways from one reality to another, with the show’s plot seemingly focused upon John Cena’s Peacemaker finding a home in a new reality in which he is a more respected figure. At least one alternate Peacemaker will appear in Peacemaker season two alongside Cena’s primary Christopher Smith from season one, and it seems this is just the tip of the role the multiverse will play in the show. Peacemaker season two will reportedly include the revelation that a minimum of 100 parallel realities exist in DC’s multiverse (via Discussing Film). From these details of pocket universes featured in Superman and Peacemaker season two, a few details are already readily apparent about the multiverse’s role under DC Studios.
Superman and Peacemaker Season Two’s Pocket Universe Immediately Introduces The Multiverse As A Major Component Of The DCU & DC Studios
With some 100 alternate realities to play with under the DC umbrella, it probably isn’t a big stretch to presume that any DC movie or TV property featured in the 2019-2020 crossover mini-series Crisis On Infinite Earths is most likely included under that vast roof. However, between the Arrowverse, DC’s streaming shows like Titans, Doom Patrol, and Swamp Thing, the Christopher Reeve/Brandon Routh Superman movies, the Michael Keaton Batman movies, and the DCEU, it doesn’t even come close to reaching a total of 100 alternate DC universes. Even adding in Matt Reeves’ Batman universe, Todd Phillips’ admittedly most likely two-and-done Joker universe, the new DCU, and other DC properties like Keanu Reeves’ Constantine movie and the ‘80s Swamp Thing films, still brings the total to well under two dozen. Theoretically, Gunn might also be including the various animated DC movies and TV shows in the established DC multiverse, but even that probably wouldn’t bring the total to 100. By establishing a minimum of 100 Elseworlds realities in the DC multiverse, Gunn is quite clearly giving himself a LOT to DC material to dive into, utilize, revisit, and conclude.
With that large of a canvas to work with through all things DC, there is, in theory, nothing off the table as one reality of many as established under DC Studios and through Peacemaker season 2. This is also where the Snyderverse enters the conversation of DC’s multiverse, with Zack Snyder’s Justice League and Andy Muschietti’s The Flash being relevant pillars of that as the first live-action DC movies to establish the multiverse as a part of DC’s on film DNA. Moreover, per Gunn himself, there will be an explanation of sorts for the continuity changeover from the DCEU to DCU, a necessary measure to account for various castings and plot elements from the former being brought into the latter, along with the Justice League’s cameo in Peacemaker season one being somehow explained as exclusively canon to the first season and the DCEU. Between just how enormous the scale of the DC multiverse is shaping up to be revealed as in Peacemaker season two and the fact that the show itself is making an effort to account for elements of DCEU canon, that inevitably brings us back to just how impossible the Snyderverse has been for DC to truly leave behind.
As Long As The Multiverse Is A Part Of DC On Film, The Possibility Of The Snyderverse’s Revival Remain Alive
The doorways of DC’s multiverse, as they will be presented in Peacemaker season two, have only been fleetingly glimpsed in the show’s trailer, but even that establishes that something as wild as a universe populated by giant skull spiders is a possibility. And the fact that Elseworlds and the multiverse as a storytelling concept is seemingly as relevant as it appears going into the DCU means that, yes, the hope of many DC fans for the Snyderverse’s return and intended conclusion remain alive and well, especially because its return would be intended to explicitly conclude it.
The short version of Zack Snyder’s DCEU roadmap was that his story was intended to unfold over a five-movie arc consisting of Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and a trio of Justice League movies. While there would be various adjacent spin-offs like Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Flash, and Ben Affleck’s Batman solo movie, the foundation of the franchise nonetheless was built upon Snyder’s quintet of movies. When looking at the matter through an unbiased lens, Snyder fans have been essentially asking for the remaining third or so of what Snyder had intended to be finished. The interest in seeing the Snyderverse through undeniably blew up into the mainstream after the release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League with a colossal 1.5 million #RestoreTheSnyderVerse Twitter explosion on March 25, 2021. With Gunn seemingly exploding the scope of DC’s multiverse to an even greater scale and quantity than Crisis On Infinite Earths did, the introduction of 100 DC universes suddenly makes the questions of “Is the Snyderverse one of them?” and “Can we see the rest of what was planned with it?” seem relevant, reasonable, and arguably even pertinent.
The fact that Gunn also released a pretty overtly teasing social media photo with Snyder in the run up to Superman, along with the pair also voicing themselves in the episode of Rick & Morty aired just days before Superman’s release indicates that Gunn & Snyder alike are surely aware of the virtual immortality of the Snyderverse even as the DCU gets rolling. (Todd McFarlane would likely also concur after successfully crowdfunding a set of BVS and ZSJL based figures for McFarlane Toys in just five days). One way or another, the Snyderverse has defied every twist and turn thrown its way and remained as relevant and popular within DC as anything actively happening under DC Studios. With role of the multiverse, Elseworlds, and pocket universes seen in James Gunn’s back-to-back DCU kick-off of Superman and Peacemaker season two, he’s given Snyderverse devotees another strand of hope to latch onto for the Snyderverse’s potential return, and over 100 doorways in the DC multiverse behind which it could easily be hidden behind.
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