James Gunn reveals biggest issue with new superhero movies

Cameron Frew

As we shift into the new big-screen era of DC, James Gunn has sounded off on “lazy” superhero movies and the biggest problem facing the genre today.

Comic book movies pretty much define event cinema for today’s moviegoers – or at least, they used to. Early turn-of-the-millennium blockbusters like Spider-Man and X-Men supported the forecast set by the original Superman and 1989’s Batman, and Batman Begins was an even stronger sign: people had a huge, varied appetite for superheroes at the cinema.

The mania rightly peaked with Avengers: Endgame, but it’s been one step forward, two steps back since then: sure, we’ve had The Batman and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3, but we’ve also endured Ant-Man 3, Black Adam, Morbius, and Shazam! Fury of the Gods.

With DC fast approaching its rebooted slate, Gunn has addressed people’s complaints about the scourge of bad superhero movies filling up multiplexes.

James Gunn knows what’s wrong with new superhero movies

During a recent appearance on the Inside of You podcast, Gunn agreed there’s too much superhero media to consume, and assured his and Peter Safran’s DCU won’t “overextend” itself.

“We’re going to be very careful with the product that we put out and making sure everything is as good as it can possibly be,” he said.

However, it’s not necessarily a problem of quantity – if they weren’t “lazy”, the complaints would be few and far between. “People have gotten really lazy with their superhero stories,” Gunn continued.

“And they have gotten to the place where, ‘Oh, it’s a superhero, let’s make a movie about it.’ And then, ‘Oh, let’s make a sequel, because the first one did pretty well,’ and they aren’t thinking about, ‘Why is this story special? What makes this story stand apart from other stories? What is the story at the heart of it all? Why is this character important? What makes this story different that it fills a need for people in theaters to go see?’

“People have gotten a little lazy and there’s a lot of biff, pow, bam stuff happening in movies and I’m watching third acts of superhero films where I really just don’t feel like there’s a rhyme or reason to what’s happening… I don’t care about the characters. And they’ve gotten too generic.

“I like very serious superhero movies, and I like very comedic superhero movies,” Gunn said. “I like ones that are a murder mystery but it’s with superheroes. I like to see these different types of stories, as opposed to seeing the same story told over and over again.”

With the awkwardness of Blue Beetle and Aquaman 2 aside, the DCU officially begins with Superman Legacy, and casting has been heating up: David Corenswet and Emma Mackey are the frontrunners for Clark and Lois, while Alexander and Bill Skarsgård are both up for Lex Luthor.

You can find out more about every DCU movie and show currently in development here.