James Gunn’s DC Universe is off to a solid start, but fans are convinced that one classic villain is the big bad after the director shut down the idea of using Darkseid.
Gunn told New Rockstars that the classic New Gods villain is too similar to Thanos, saying: “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 in Marvel.”
It’s a smart decision. Plus, it’s more important to lay groundwork for new characters. The next movies in the pipeline are Supergirl in June 2026, and Clayface in September 2026. After that, Gunn will get Man of Tomorrow off the ground in July 2027 — which will see Superman (David Corenswet) and Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) team-up to defeat a bigger threat.
Presumably this bigger threat will be the big bad of the DCU, and fans are convinced that a very specific villain will be introduced since Darkseid has been ruled out.
Fans think Brainiac is coming to the DCU
There’s been speculation that Brainiac is coming to the DCU since Gunn revealed the first look at the Man of Tomorrow script, which had an anatomical image of a brain on the front cover.
But following Gunn’s comments about ditching Darkseid, fans on Reddit are even more convinced that Brainiac will be the first big villain who threatens the DCU.
One user called him the “logical conclusion,” and explained their reasoning: “What other villain would pose such a massive threat to the heroes? We know it isn’t Darkseid, so it’s also probably not gonna be Doomsday because that’s a pure Superman thing. It won’t be Lex Luthor, as he’s just not a big enough threat to be a saga antagonist.”
Another added: “I still think Brainiac should be the big bad, but that’s just me.” Other DC fans on X also think Brainiac is coming, with a user calling him the “one correct choice,” while another wrote, “Braniac is a more interesting villain I ain’t going to lie.”
The character comes from the planet Colu and is a cyborg with supreme intelligence that is driven to collect every piece of knowledge in the universe. He does so by attacking different civilizations, miniaturizing their largest city, and storing it in a bottle inside his skull-shaped spaceship, before destroying the rest of the planet.
In some alternate versions of Superman’s backstory, he was the reason that Krypton was destroyed. So it’s fair to say that he’s definitely got the villainous gravitas to be the DCU’s big bad.
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