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James Gunn on casting DCU’s Batman and Harley Quinn

The DC Universe’s Batman hasn’t been cast yet, but James Gunn says “it won’t be too long” until it happens.

The filmmaker and DC Studios co-chief recently debunked a couple of rumors regarding the status of the superhero franchise’s new Caped Crusader, whose existence in the shared cinematic universe was confirmed in an episode of the animated “Creature Commandos” last year.

“Batman … isn’t cast yet, by the way, [to] all the people thinking he’s going to appear in this or that,” Gunn said in a one-off “official podcast” episode released Thursday about the status of his 2021 film, “The Suicide Squad,” in the DCU canon. “It’s all b—. But when we do cast the DCU Batman, which isn’t very far away … I want to get everybody into account.”

The DC Studios boss added that an actor having appeared in a small role on “The Suicide Squad” would not automatically disqualify them from being in the running.

“One of the things that excites me about casting Batman is being able to pick a Batman who’s actually the best actor for that role,” he said. “Supermans have always been chosen based on who the best actor for that role is. And for some reason, Batmans are always chosen [from] movie stars.”

Robert Pattinson currently portrays the Dark Knight in director Matt Reeves’ “The Batman” universe, but these films exist outside of the DCU continuity shared by the likes of “Superman” (2025,) “Supergirl” (2026) and “Lanterns.”

For those searching for any clues about the DCU’s iteration of the character, Gunn teased that Batman will be about the same age as his “future best pal” Superman, who is portrayed by 33-year-old actor David Corenswet.

Later, on social media, Gunn responded to a fan’s query regarding those rumored to be front-runners for the Batman role.

“No one is in the running,” Gunn wrote Friday on Threads. “We haven’t started casting yet.”

While fans can expect to see a new actor donning the cape and cowl, the future for Batman rogues gallery favorite Harley Quinn is a bit less clear. In his conversation with “Peacemaker” stars Jennifer Holland and Steve Agee for “The Suicide Squad: Is It Canon?” podcast, Gunn also addressed the character’s status in the DCU.

“I think Harley is actually one of the more difficult things in this to justify as being canon in the DCU,” Gunn said, alluding to the established lore of the popular character portrayed by Margot Robbie. Harley’s journey to becoming a villain is tied to her romantic relationship with the Joker, who has not yet been introduced.

“We don’t know if Joker exists [in the DCU] yet,” Gunn said. “And obviously, Joker is a part of Harley’s past. [But] Margot Robbie is one of my favorite actors to work with. She is so good in [‘The Suicide Squad’] … I love her as Harley.”

The “Man of Tomorrow” filmmaker said the bigger question is whether Robbie, whose star has continued to rise since she first took on the role, would even be interested in portraying the character again.

“Harley is a character I’m almost certainly going to use in the DCU,” Gunn added. “If Margot wants to play her, then I’ll bend over backwards to explain that in the world. But if she doesn’t then I might go with somebody else where I don’t have to be attached to what happens to Harley in [‘The Suicide Squad’].”

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‘Total disbelief’: Magic Johnson blasts Commanders’ clock management

Magic Johnson is relentlessly positive, a quality that has served him well as a player, a businessman and even while living with HIV since 1991.

The former Lakers great generally keeps his social media comments upbeat. Yet, a last-second mental lapse Sunday by one of the five professional sports franchises Johnson co-owns prompted him to tweet the equivalent of a distress signal.

“I’m in total disbelief my Commanders had such poor clock management in today’s overtime game against the Giants. All we had to do was kick the field goal and we would have won the game!”

The tweet ended with an emoji of a man facepalming, conveying Johnson’s exasperation over the last play of Washington’s 27-27 tie with the New York Giants.

The Commanders were at the Giants 24-yard line with 12 seconds to play, no timeouts and the clock running. What needed to be done was obvious: Quarterback Jayden Daniels takes a snap, spikes the ball and the field-goal team trots out.

Nope. Daniels took a snap, danced around, was tackled and the clock expired.

Head coach Dan Quinn ripped off his headset and slammed it to the ground. Daniels stood on the field looking stunned. Johnson, who acquired 4% of the team when his pal Josh Harris bought it for $6.05 billion in 2023, vented on social media.

Johnson’s public comments are usually motivational gems such as “When you face a crisis, you know who your true friends are.” Or “Life doesn’t stop because something happens to you.” Or “I’m the one who will take chances, not worry about the backlash.”

When the Commanders lost their first two games this season, Johnson stayed silent. When they upset the Seattle Seahawks two weeks ago, Johnson took to his keyboard to congratulate the team, tweeting a photo of himself in a luxury box.

The last time he had expressed frustration about the Commanders on social media was three years ago, shortly after Harris became majority owner and Johnson had chipped in $240 million as a limited partner. On Oct. 5, 2023, he tweeted “Tonight the Commanders played with no intensity or fire. We didn’t compete in the first half and got down 27-3 heading into halftime. It was too big of a hole to climb out of and that is why we ended up losing 40-20.”

This time, he didn’t need nearly as many words. Quinn and Daniels both took responsibility for the lapse.

“The right call is honestly, we can go clock it early and don’t put ourselves in that spot,” Quinn said. “That’s my responsibility.”

Added Daniels, whose nonchalance after getting tackled seemed to indicate he thought his team had a timeout: “We’ve got to stop the clock. We’ve got to know the situation. We’ve got to relay that as an offense. It starts from everybody, from the top down. Ultimately, you know, it’s on me.”

For his part, Johnson could turn his attention to another of the teams in which he has a financial interest: the Dodgers, who lost Game 1 of the National League Championship Series to the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday. He remained mum about that game, having last posted several congratulatory tweets when the Dodgers sailed through the NLDS against the Atlanta Braves last week.

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