James Gunn’s DCU May Be Setting Up SALVATION RUN as a Big Crossover Event

The first major crossover movie in James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC Universe might have just been revealed, and it could be Salvation Run.

According to a new report from Knight Edge Media, DC Studios recently registered a copyright trademark for Salvation Run. While that doesn’t confirm anything yet, it lines up a little too well with where things were left at the end of Peacemaker Season 2, suggesting this could be the first big unifying event for the DCU.

The new DCU timeline kicked off in December 2024 with the animated series Creature Commandos, followed by Gunn’s Superman in July. Then came the bonkers second season of Peacemaker, which wrapped up on HBO Max earlier this month.

That finale included a big cliffhanger when John Cena’s Christopher Smith aka Peacemaker was kidnapped and dumped on a mysterious planet called Salvation. It’s a world that Frank Grillo’s Rick Flag Sr. plans to use as a prison for metahumans.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because Salvation Run was also the title of a seven-issue DC Comics miniseries written by Bill Willingham and Lilah Sturges, with art by Sean Chen, Walden Wong, Joe Bennett, and Belardino Brabo. In the comic, some of DC’s deadliest villains are exiled to the hostile planet Cygnus 4019 and forced to fend for themselves.

Whether Salvation Run ends up being the next big DCU crossover film or just inspiration for future projects, it’s clear Gunn and Safran are setting up a connected narrative thread that’s already paying off. The trademark could simply mean DC Studios is securing the title, or it could signal something much larger in motion.

The report also noted that Salvation Run could be tied to the Bane/Deathstroke movie currently in development. Either way, the story’s themes of survival and villain alliances fit perfectly with the darker, more grounded tone Gunn has been building.

More clarity about the DCU’s long-term direction should come in 2026 with Lanterns on HBO, Craig Gillespie’s Supergirl movie, and James Watkins’ Clayface film. For now, DC fans can only speculate, but it seems like Salvation Run may be the next major step in Gunn’s evolving cinematic universe.

If that’s the case, the DCU’s first real crossover could be something wickedly wild with a cosmic prison world filled with villains fighting to survive, led by some of the most dangerous characters in the DC roster.