Is Creature Commandos the only true DCU canon so far? Details explored

Creature Commandos concluded its seven-episode run on January 9, 2025. Ever since its finale, people thought the animated series, Peacemaker Season 1, and The Suicide Squad were canonical to the DCU.

However, James Gunn's recent comments on his social media account throw the canonicity of The Suicide Squad under question again. However, James Gunn did confirm that Creature Commandos is "pure canon" in a thread on Bluesky.

The DCU canon question has been under question even before the first episode of Creature Commandos was released. Back in December, Gunn said this in an interview with IGN when he was asked about the DCU canon:

“One of the weird things to me is none of this is real. It may be alarming to people, but none of it is real. It's all just stories that we're telling about characters.”

---

What did James Gunn recently say about Creature Commandos and the DCU canon?

Recently, a fan reached out to James Gunn on Bluesky and expressed his appreciation for Creature Commandos. However, the same fan also asked Gunn a question regarding the canonical status of Peacemaker Season 1 or The Suicide Squad, as there are references to both throughout the seven episodes.

The Guardians of the Galaxy director replied:

"Short answer: Only Creature Commandos forward is pure canon. For instance, Rick Flag Jr was killed because we heard Rick Flag Sr talking about it in Creature Commandos, not because we saw it in The Suicide Squad. (1/2)"

Gunn further continued:

"Long answer: Only CC forward is pure canon; Peacemaker is almost entirely consistent with that canon other than the Justice League; The Suicide Squad has a lot of consistencies but I think of it as an imperfect memory. (2/2)"

These comments seem to suggest that as of now, the only project canonical to Peter Safran and James Gunn's DCU is Creature Commandos. While Project Butterfly and the majority of Peacemaker Season 1 might've played out the way we saw, the Justice League cameo is retconned as Ezra Miller is never returning as The Flash and Jason Momoa is the new Lobo in Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow.

By describing The Suicide Squad as an "imperfect memory", Gunn is implying that Rick Flag Jr. died at Peacemaker/Christopher Smith's hands. However, the characters and situations could've been different than the movie. This allows the DCU to recast some of these characters.

---

James Gunn also provided an update about his next DCU project after Creature Commandos and Superman

Another DC fan contacted Gunn through the social media platform Threads on January 20, 2025. The fan asked how Gunn was able to balance multiple DC projects.

Gunn replied to the fan saying that in addition to focusing on the post-production process of Peacemaker Season 2 and Superman, he is also watching dailies and even writing the next DCU project. He said:

"The bulk of my time is dealing with post-production on Superman and Peacemaker, but I’m also spending a fair amount of time pre-writing my next DC Studios project and watching dailies and offering ideas on the other projects. It’s much less overwhelming than when I was directing."

While we don't know which project it is a lot of theories are being thrown around fan circles. Some are saying that he might be writing the Superman sequel, Booster Gold, or The Authority.

A lot of fans are veering towards the last project as Gunn himself described it as a passion project. He described The Authority characters in an interview with DC as:

“They are basically good-intentioned, but they think that the world is completely broken and the only way to fix it is to take things into their own hands, whether that means killing people, destroying heads of state, changing governments—basically, whatever they want to do to make the world better”

---

Despite James Gunn's varying answers regarding the DCU canon, it is hard to refute that the upcoming DC projects look interesting. Also, it is to be noted that canon in comic books has always been flexible.

So, this is working in his favor. Now, all we need to do is wait for Superman and Peacemaker Season 2. Until then, you can binge all seven episodes of Creature Commandos on Max.