After teasing fans for over a month that his first wave of DCU announcements were coming, James Gunn has finally made good on his promise and revealed the first stage of his grand DCU plan. Following on from his own comments that the new DCU would be featuring a new, younger iteration of Superman, and recent quotes from Guardians of the Galaxy star Dave Bautista that Gunn is putting together something with a younger cast in mind, the reveal of where this will all begin finally gave fans a view of what it all means – but how did they react?

Although opinions on this kind of huge, franchise-altering announcement range from knee-jerk reactions to gripes about what has been changed or lost and finally to those of acceptance and occasionally excitement, the initial online reactions from fans have been split into two camps. Those looking forward to a new, and hopefully more coherent DCU story, and those still not quite getting on board.

There is certainly a sense of positivity from Gunn about the direction he is taking the franchise. After the very disjointed way the franchise has previously been handled that direction is something that is needed, even if there are still many DCU fans who are not yet on board with the “out with the old” ringing of the changes. You can see some of the initial fan reactions below.

Related: Dave Bautista Reveals James Gunn’s ‘Young’ DCU Plan and How It Impacts His Wish to Play Bane

James Gunn is Redefining the DCU, Which Can Only Be a Good Thing.

DC Studios / DC Comics

There has been an overriding sense of outrage over the Black Adam fiasco, with Henry Cavill’s Superman seemingly set to be a big part of the DCU’s future for all of three weeks until the rug was pulled and Cavill’s cameo in the movie seemed to have been as much of a lie as Sony’s marketing around Morbius with its numerous Spider-Man references. However, other than the vain hope of Snyderverse fans that the original Zack Snyder DCU and the love some fans have for certain actors, the DCU itself has been nothing but a vaguely connected mess since the departure of Snyder from Justice League effectively derailed the entire franchise. Since then, Warner Bros. has released an increasingly disconnected series of movies, with no possible way of connecting all the dots in the way they want.

The hiring of James Gunn and Peter Safran, because we should all remember that he is still part of the team even if it is Gunn who does all the talking, effectively guaranteed a reboot of the franchise. While there is still a chance that somewhere in the next few years, the likes of Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam and Henry Cavill’s Superman could meet again, for now, the focus is very much on a new beginning for the DCU and one that can hopefully, this time, not be nipped in the bud before it has the chance to bloom.