Booster Gold. Photo: DC Comics

Back in May, superhero fans displeased with the DC cinematic universe’s sludge-heavy darkness saw a ray of light when the world learned a Booster Gold movie was in development. The character is a humorous DC Comics mainstay, a cocky gent from the future who steals some high-tech equipment, travels back in time, and seeks fame and fortune as a superhero in the present. What’s more, the potential film was being developed and possibly directed by Greg Berlanti, the super-producer behind sunny DC TV properties like The Flash and Supergirl. But as Vulture learned during our talk with Berlanti, it looks like Ol’ Boosty won’t be inhabiting the same shared universe as Batfleck and the murderous Henry Cavill Superman.

“As of right now we have no connective tissue to those worlds,” Berlanti said when asked if the movie would be part of the DC Extended Universe that already includes Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Suicide Squad (with Wonder Woman and Justice League following in 2017). “It’d be a separate thing.” He also said the project emerged from a long-dead Booster Gold TV show idea he was working on with longtime producing collaborator Andrew Kreisberg that “never got off the ground.” After it bit the dust, Berlanti and Kreisberg got into talks with DC Entertainment president and chief creative officer (and reported new film co-chief) Geoff Johns, and the topic of the producing duo doing a movie came up.

Working with Zack Stentz, a writer who had penned an acclaimed second-season episode of The Flash and co-written on Marvel properties X-Men: First Class and Thor, they fleshed out the story. If the movie comes to pass, it will be an interesting departure for the superhero-movie world, not just as a rare lighthearted DC flick, but also because it will exist as a standalone story. The name of the game these days is complex cinematic universes, so it’s interesting that Warner Bros. seems prepared to consider stepping outside that system, however tentatively and preliminarily.