James Gunn has shared why big bad Darkseid won't be appearing in the DCU anytime soon, and there are two main reasons.
"Aspects of Darkseid and Thanos are obviously very similar," Gunn said in a YouTube roundtable. "They look very similar, and because of that I think that to give you probably more of an answer than you expected, using Darkseid as the big bad right now is not necessarily the thing, for a lot of reasons. Because Zack did it so cool in his way and because of Thanos and Marvel."
After being mentioned in a couple of DCEU projects, Darkseid finally appeared in Zack Snyder's Justice League, played by Ray Porter. The character shares a lot of physical traits with Thanos, including his large, muscular build. In fact, Darkseid is credited with being the inspiration behind Thanos, and the two characters also have similar goals: Darkseid aims to harness the Anti-Life Equation, which would eliminate hope and free will in the multiverse.
"It's the New Gods in general that is so interesting to me, which we're dealing with with Mister Miracle," he added. In the comics, Darkseid is the ruler of the planet Apokolips and the adoptive father of Scott Free, AKA Mister Miracle, who's set to be the subject of a new animated TV show from showrunner Tom King. Eventually, Scott escapes to Earth, where he takes on his superhero alter ego. Gunn also admitted that the show's teleplay was on his shelf right now, but he hadn't read it yet.
The show's logline reads: "No prison can hold him. No trap can contain him. He is Scott Free, the worldwide celebrity sensation known as Mister Miracle, and he is the greatest escape artist who ever lived. But can he pull off the ultimate trick – and escape death itself?"
Next up for the DCU is Lanterns, which will premiere on HBO in early 2026. In the meantime, get up to speed with the rest of the DCU Chapter One with our guide to all the other upcoming DC movies and shows.
