There is something rotten beneath the quiet fields of Nebraska. In Lanterns, a murder investigation becomes a grim trail toward an Earthbound secret, with two Green Lanterns following clues through a world that feels closer to True Detective than a traditional superhero adventure. But the case also opens into the wider DCU. A continuity born from the DCEU’s ashes without completely erasing everything that came before.

With James Gunn’s reset still taking shape, here is every essential movie and show to watch before the green light arrives.

Creature Commandos is the first released project from James Gunn and Peter Safran’s new DCU, making it the natural starting point for this watchlist.  The animated series follows Task Force M, a government unit assembled by Amanda Waller and led by Rick Flag Sr. Its lineup includes monsters, soldiers, and damaged outsiders who are sent on dangerous missions that conventional operatives cannot handle.

The show establishes several important ideas about the new continuity. The DCU is not presented as a completely isolated universe with no connection to previous stories. Instead, familiar characters and performers carry forward while certain events are adjusted or discarded. That flexible approach becomes especially important when watching Peacemaker, whose place in canon is clarified later.

The series also introduces Flag Sr., who appears again in the live-action DCU, and it reinforces Waller’s continuing influence over government operations involving metahumans and extraordinary threats. While Lanterns will focus on Hal Jordan and John Stewart, Creature Commandos helps establish the political and institutional world surrounding the DCU.

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Next, the guide turns to the show that exposes the DCU’s most complicated continuity change.

Watching both seasons of Peacemaker is essential because the series sits directly at the awkward crossroads between the old DCEU and Gunn’s DCU. Season 1 follows Christopher Smith, a violently committed patriot forced to confront the damage caused by his own beliefs. It mixes crude comedy, brutal action, family trauma, and unexpectedly sincere character development.

The season 1 finale originally featured a cameo from the Justice League, but season 2 revises that moment. The new season’s recap and dialogue replace references to the Justice League with the Justice Gang, allowing the series to fit more comfortably inside the new continuity. Gunn has explained that most of the story remains usable, while specific details that no longer fit have been changed.

Season 2 is therefore particularly valuable before Lanterns because it demonstrates how the DCU handles its partial reset. The world is not starting from zero, yet viewers are expected to accept that some history has been rewritten. The show also expands the DCU’s view of metahumans, government power, and public superhero culture.

Now, the watchlist reaches the film that officially launched the DCU’s theatrical era.

James Gunn’s Superman is the first theatrical film in the new DCU and provides the clearest foundation for the universe’s emerging status quo. David Corenswet plays Clark Kent, with Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor. The story presents Superman as an established hero whose ideals are already being tested by politics, public opinion, and the actions of other metahumans.

The film is important preparation for Lanterns because it establishes how extraordinary figures exist within this version of Earth. Superman is not treated as a secret anomaly. He operates in a world populated by heroes, villains, corporations, governments, and competing ideas about what power should mean.

The movie also introduces Guy Gardner, played by Nathan Fillion, as one of the Green Lanterns. Although Lanterns centers on Kyle Chandler’s Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart, Guy’s presence in Superman gives viewers an early look at how the DCU interprets the Corps and its personalities.

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Before the Lanterns investigate a rural murder, the next film shows how quickly the DCU can stumble.

Milly Alcock’s Supergirl is the next major DCU movie on this viewing path and introduces a very different corner of the Kryptonian mythology. Unlike Clark Kent’s more hopeful public identity, Kara Zor-El is depicted as a harder-edged figure shaped by loss, violence, and years of carrying anger.

The film expands the DCU beyond Earth’s most famous superhero while showing that not every major project in Gunn’s new universe will receive the same audience response. Commercially, Supergirl became a serious setback for DC Studios. It opened to approximately $38 million in North America and about $68 million worldwide, despite a reported production budget of roughly $170 million before marketing.

That disappointing performance does not make the film irrelevant to Lanterns. It demonstrates the breadth of the DCU’s cosmic and extraterrestrial mythology, while its reception offers useful context for the franchise’s broader challenge. 

Finally, one surviving hero from the previous era points directly toward the DCU’s future.

Ángel Manuel Soto’s Blue Beetle originally arrived during the final stage of the DCEU, but Jaime Reyes is now positioned to continue into James Gunn’s DCU. Xolo Maridueña plays Jaime, a young man who bonds with an alien scarab that gives him an advanced armored suit and a dangerous new responsibility.

The film is worth watching before Lanterns because it shows how the new continuity can preserve a character even when the status of his original movie remains complicated. Gunn previously described Blue Beetle as the first DCU character, and Maridueña is now set to reprise Jaime in Man of Tomorrow, the planned Superman follow-up scheduled for 2027.

Jaime’s story also adds a younger, more intimate perspective to the DCU. His heroism is closely tied to family, cultural identity, and the fear of losing control. Watching Blue Beetle completes the essential preparation for a DCU that is still rebuilding itself one survivor at a time.

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Are you excited for Lanterns, and which DCU project are you watching first? Let us know in the comments.