Why Booster Gold Is The Most Exciting Part Of James Gunn's New DC Universe

James Gunn and Peter Safran ended the first month of 2023 with a huge bang by announcing some of the massive projects that will be a part of the all-new DC Universe. As part of their story's first chapter, which has been christened "Gods and Monsters," the DC Studios co-chairs and co-CEOs revealed a number of unexpected movies starring Swamp Thing, Damian Wayne, Supergirl, The Authority, and more. They also outlined some surprising TV shows featuring Amanda Waller, Wonder Woman, the Green Lantern Corps, and Weasel from "The Suicide Squad."

But out of everything the duo revealed to select members of the press (including /Film's Jenna Busch) on Monday afternoon, one title, in particular, stood out from the rest. After being teased by a larger presence in film and television for over a decade, Booster Gold is finally getting his own series as part of the DCU.

Created by Dan Jurgens in 1986, Michael Jon Carter is a showboating glory hound from the 25th century that wants to be a superhero. After adopting the mantle of Booster Gold, Carter and his trusty robotic sidekick named Skeets traveled back in time to our present in order to stage heroic scenarios to build his reputation and star power. Essentially, he's a time-traveling reality show himbo mixed with a non-evil version of Old Biff from "Back to the Future Part II" that eventually becomes a real hero.

With so much potential for hilarious and heartfelt storytelling, it's mind-boggling that it's taken this long for a Booster Gold project to come together. But thanks to Gunn and Safran, it's finally happening and there's plenty to be excited about.

Previously, after a storied history in the pages of DC Comics, Booster Gold made his way to television in the 2000s thanks to the animated series "Justice League Unlimited" in 2004 and a 2011 episode of the acclaimed Superman prequel "Smallville." Also around that time, Syfy and Arrowverse architects Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg were developing a live-action show starring the fan-favorite character, but it ultimately never came to fruition, just like Berlanti's attempt at a Booster Gold movie in 2016.

However, when The CW introduced a DC series about a team of time travelers, the selfish but lovable rogue's adoring public continued to push for his involvement in "Legends of Tomorrow." After trying and failing to bring Booster aboard the Waverider alongside The Atom, White Canary, Constantine, and the whole crew for a number of seasons, executive producers Marc Guggenheim and Phil Klemmer finally introduced a version of the character played by Donald Faison. But before fans could get too deep into their campaign to cast his "Scrubs" co-star and real-life friend Zach Braff as Ted Kord AKA the Blue Beetle, the show was canceled after Faison's one and only appearance on the show. There's speculation that his storyline will be resolved in the ninth and final season of "The Flash," but official confirmation of that has yet to be seen.

With so many false starts over the years, fans are more ready than ever to see a proper Booster Gold production and it looks like we're actually going to get it this time. But what do the new DC Studios overlords have in mind for the charismatic Justice Leaguer when he makes his way to HBO Max?

During their presentation, Safran and Gunn revealed a little bit about the upcoming Booster Gold show. First, the former shared that the story will basically share the same origin that we know and love about "a loser from the future who uses his basic future technology to come back to today and pretend to be a superhero." But then the latter chimed in with what the show is really about. Gunn explains:

"I think of it as basically the story of a superhero with imposter syndrome and how do you deal with that? How does he use this future technology to be loved by people today and what is really at the base of that? It's a character study. It's going to be a very different kind of show."

Despite being a "different kind of show," it seems like "Booster Gold" could have a lot in common with "Peacemaker" in terms of tone. Michael John Carter and Skeets likely won't have to deal with neo-nazis like Chris Smith in the celebrated John Cena dramedy, but their adventures tend to have an air of shock and awww (but not necessarily awe). A great example of their escapades can be seen in the "Justice League Unlimited" episode titled "The Greatest Story Never Told," which plays up the comedic elements of the charismatic character while also showing that his empathy and drive to do good can (mostly) overpower his narcissism.

Finally, as hyped as we are to speculate about this character's involvement in the DCU, the head honchos did tease that they are currently in talks with an actor to take the role of Booster Gold. But after emphasizing during their presentation that they wouldn't move a project into production without having all their ducks in a row (like a script or a showrunner), it could be a while until we learn who will be taking up the mantle from previous Boosters like Donald Faison, Tom Everett Scott, Eric Martsolf, Diedrich Bader, and even "Batman: The Animated Series" co-creator Bruce Timm.

Personally, I think that former WWE Champion Mike "The Miz" Mizanin would be perfect for the role, but with his commitments to professional wrestling, his reality show "Miz & Mrs," and his production company, he may have too much on his plate to commit to playing the character across film, television, animation, and video games, which is what Safran and Gunn indicated at the presentation as a requirement when casting a performer from here on out.

Regardless of who ends up landing the role, it's an extremely exciting time to be a Booster Gold fan since we're finally getting what we've been promised after all these years.