The DC Extended Universe is extending into the new DC Universe canon. Max’s Creature Commandos, the James Gunn written adult animated series billed as the start of the DCU, isn’t a start-from-scratch reboot of the continuity that began with 2013’s Man of Steel and ended with 2023’s Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Instead, the series grandfathered into the DCU started development under the DCEU — which is dead but not buried, to riff on an exchange between Henry Cavill’s Man of Steel and Ben Affleck’s Dark Knight in 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (a film that is decisively not canon in the new DCU).
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Creature Commandos‘ two-episode premiere referenced the events of 2021’s The Suicide Squad movie and 2022’s Peacemaker series, both of which were helmed by Gunn and set in the DCEU. Gunn, now the co-chief of DC Studios with producer Peter Safran, has since described those installments as being “light canon” with the DCU, with Gunn’s Superman movie marking the “true start” of this new universe.
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“Nothing is canon until Creature Commandos next year – a sort of aperitif to the DCU – and then a deeper dive into the universe with Superman,” Gunn announced last year. “Some actors will be playing characters they’ve played in other stories and some plot points might be consistent with plot points from the dozens of films, shows and animated projects that have come from DC in the past. But nothing is canon until [Commandos] and [Superman].”
While there’s a new Man of Steel in David Corenswet’s Superman and an as-yet-uncast Batman, characters carried over from the past include Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller, John Cena’s Peacemaker, and Sean Gunn’s Weasel. As explained by Gunn, nothing is canon until it is — when Creature Commandos referenced events that happened in the DCEU, those events then became canon in the DCU.
“There are references to things that happened in the past, and those references then become canon in the DCU because we mention them,” Gunn noted during a recent DC Studios panel at New York Comic Con.
It’s not unlike the DC Comics universe, which has relaunched its line of comics with canon-retooling events like Crisis on Infinite Earths and Flashpoint, at times erasing or restoring the parts of a continuity where some things change and other things stay the same (as seen in 2023’s The Flash movie).
Based on Gunn’s directive, here’s what from the DCEU is canon in the DCU so far:
Amanda Waller and Task Force X Exposed
In Peacemaker season 1 episode 8, Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) publicly exposed her mother, A.R.G.U.S. Director Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), as the head of Project Butterfly, a deep-cover government operation part of the black-ops program Task Force X. This so-called “Suicide Squad” — convicted criminals sent on dangerous missions for the U.S. for commuted sentences — was subsequently shut down by Congress between the events of Peacemaker and Creature Commandos.
“I thought Congress put a stop to all Task Force X activities since your daughter outed you,” General Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo) said when Waller took him underground to the Belle Reve Non-Human Internment Division in Creature Commandos episode 1, “The Collywobbles.”
Because Congress said they can no longer use human prisoners, Waller circumvented the restrictions on Task Force X with Task Force M — “M” for “Monster” — by recruiting the likes of the reanimated Bride (Indira Varma), the irradiated sociopath Dr. Phosphorus (Alan Tudyk), the fishbowl-headed Nina Mazursky (Zoe Chao), the Nazi-killing G.I. Robot (Sean Gunn), and the animalistic Weasel (also Gunn) who supposedly killed 27 children.
Project Starfish
The Suicide Squad saw Waller assemble a new Task Force X commanded by Colonel Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman).
Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), T.D.K. (Nathan Fillion), Blackguard (Pete Davidson), Mongal (Mayling Ng), Javelin (Flula Borg), Savant (Michael Rooker) and Weasel were sent to Corto Maltese, a small island nation off the coast of South America, on a mission to infiltrate Jotunheim and destroy Project Starfish: Starro the Conqueror, the starfish-like alien that Waller warned would be “cataclysmic” in the hands of the Luna regime.
Most of that team was killed, so a second squad was dispatched to the island: Bloodsport (Idris Elba), Peacemaker (John Cena), Rat-Catcher 2 (Daniela Melchoir), Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), and the man-eating King Shark (Sylvester Stallone).
Weasel seemingly immediately drowned upon reaching the island, but a mid-credits scene revealed he survived. In Creature Commandos, Waller introduced Weasel as “one of the few soldiers still alive from Project Starfish in Corto Maltese, so we know it has what it takes to survive.”
Rick Flag’s Death
Waller referenced the death of Rick Flag Jr. when she told General Flag his son “died a hero” in Corto Maltese. Later, in Pokolistan, Flag Sr. told princess Ilana Rostovic (Maria Bakalova) that his son “passed on about two years back.”
The Suicide Squad revealed that the American government was behind Project Starfish and the Thinker’s (Peter Capaldi) illegal experiments in Jotunheim, and Waller dispatched Task Force X to cover it up. Because Flag planned to leak that intel to the press, he was killed by Peacemaker, who Waller tasked with ensuring the records didn’t leave the island — no matter what.
While Task Force X saved the day and stopped Starro, Bloodsport blackmailed Waller into granting them their freedom by threatening to make the contents of the flash drive public. What happens if or when Flag Sr. finds out Waller was complicit in his son’s death will be explored in Peacemaker season 2.
What Isn’t DCU Canon?
According to Gunn, the general rule is that if something from the DCEU is mentioned in the DCU, it happened. Gunn has also revealed that the Justice League doesn’t exist yet, confirming that neither version of Justice League (2017) or Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021) happened. Because there’s no Justice League, it can be assumed that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and Suicide Squad (2016) didn’t happen: the DCEU Justice League and Task Force X formed as a direct response to the death of Superman (Henry Cavill).
For now, the only confirmed DCU canon consists of The Suicide Squad (altered), Creature Commandos, and the upcoming Superman and Peacemaker season 2.
New episodes of DC Studios’ Creature Commandos premiere Thursdays on Max.
