James Gunn addresses demands to reboot iconic DC animated series

James Gunn has finally addressed fans’ demands to reboot Justice League Unlimited due to the success of X-Men ’97.

With Marvel’s X-Men ’97 seeing so much success and being beloved by fans, many DC fans are hoping James Gunn’s new DCEU will follow in its footsteps and reboot Justice League Unlimited, but the CEO shut those claims down in a recent response.

X-Men ’97 is a continuation of  X-Men: The Animated Series, which ran from 1992 to 1997, and its adult storylines, coupled with the old-school animation, have made it one of Marvel/Disney+’s biggest hits.

Naturally, upon seeing the series’ success, many DC fans hoped the new DCEU headed by Gunn and Peter Safran would follow this trend by rebooting 2004’s animated series Justice League Unlimited.

Unfortunately, those hopes were dashed when Gunn responded to a fan’s inquiry about a JLU reboot, posting on Threads, “X-Men ‘97 is fun because it’s unique and not desperately trying to follow the trends of everything around it. So I’d rather just keep doing that.”

threads.net/@jamesgunn

It makes sense that Gunn wouldn’t want to bring Justice League Unlimited back as the show itself is technically a sequel series to Justice League, which ran from 2001 to 2004.

Much like X-Men ’97, Justice League Unlimited was praised for its handling of complex character stories, its groundbreaking use of overarching story arcs, and standalone episodes for individual character conflicts.

So, in retrospect, there’s not much more Gunn could do with JLU, as the show already accomplished what X-Men ’97 is doing now.

Gunn has been very vocal about his and Safran’s DCEU starting on a fresh note with no ties to previous movies/shows and with new actors coming in to take over iconic roles, like the upcoming Superman: Legacy cast.

However, if fans are looking for an animated DC property to get excited about, Creature Commandos will be debuting on Max later this year.

You can check out some theories surrounding the X-Men ’97 finale and keep updated on the upcoming DC projects.