More Details Emerge on James Gunn’s Firing as Head of the DCU

When I was in the hospital, hopped up on Dilaudid, I told my twin five-year-olds we would finally watch Iron Man when I returned home. They love superheroes (one more so than the other) and are well aware of the existence of the MCU (or at least the fact that there are a bunch of Marvel movies with “real people”), and dammit, I began to think that life was too short to keep that from them. This past Sunday, I finally made good on that promise, and it turned out fine.

While they certainly got a kick out of the more kid-friendly aspects of the film, a lot of it was more teen-adult oriented than I remembered. It’s not a movie that I return to often, so while I knew there would be some things that would hopefully go over their heads, there was more than I even realized. Regardless, it was a good time, and I already knew we’d skip the sequel. Thor and Captain America seem much better suited for them (and I’ve watched the latter pretty recently). In realizing that, it struck me how much the MCU really did start in the best way possible.

Iron Man is the face that launched the franchise, but Kevin Feige was smart in who he relied on next. With a mix of then-unknown actors and already established stars, he created a universe that put its bigger players front and center, even if they weren’t necessarily household names at the time. Spider-Man and the X-Men were unavailable, but he made these other heroes feel just as important and, within four years, had them all teaming up in the uber-successful Avengers.

Is that a hard formula to replicate? It depends. Starting with a relatively clean slate, as Feige did, arguably makes the task a lot easier. Inheriting a universe that still has remnants of the last is, arguably, a lot more difficult. That’s what James Gunn had to deal with. He took over the DCU during a time of transition where fans weren’t really sure what counted or not, and that included a film that Gunn himself directed. Hell, he was still trying to answer questions about that movie via a podcast within the last few weeks.

The writer/director tried to make Superman front and center, but that movie underperformed by industry standards (as solo Superman films have for the last 20 years). And instead of leaning on other well-known characters to lead his new universe, he pivoted to characters like Supergirl and Clayface. The former bombed significantly, while the latter fared better, despite being a Sony Spider-Verse-style “villain without their adversary” film. While Gunn has talked about bringing the ever-popular Batman into his universe, the existence of Robert Pattinson’s take on the character seemed to complicate things.

Despite reports that the upcoming Superman sequel Man of Tomorrow will feature a team-up of several DC heroes, Gunn’s DCU did not seem on track to replicate the MCU’s pattern of success within the same timeframe, nor did that seem to be the plan. While he seemed poised to keep shouldering on, it was announced yesterday that James Gunn and his partner, Peter Safran, would no longer lead the DCU going forward, being replaced by one of the architects of the MCU, Jeremy Latcham.

The Hollywood Reporter is now reporting that Gunn and Safran, despite feeling secure enough in their positions to already be planning another Superman film, were informed of the decision this past Friday by Skydance head David Ellison. The reporting claims that folks at Skydance were none too pleased that Gunn and Safran had so much power, nor that they were slow to reveal their plans for the burgeoning universe. It likely didn’t help that the duo’s plans have shifted since they were first announced.

Luckily, Gunn seems pleased as punch to return strictly to the filmmaking side of things. He claims to already be working on another DC film. Whether that is the third Superman film mentioned by THR remains to be seen, but I’d be surprised if Skydance went the route of a full-on reboot. Plenty of good, especially on the casting side, has emerged from Gunn’s take on this world. My guess is that Ellison just thought too much money was being left on the table. If anything, I bet we see the universe get ramped up in the next six to eight months, especially after Man of Tomorrow is released.