When we received word that James Gunn was being replaced at DC Studios, my first reaction was shock, which then transitioned into disappointment.
I’ll be the first to admit that even though a lot of people seemed to like his version of Superman, I was not one of those people. Ditto for Supergirl, which, even though he didn’t direct it, was still under his watchful eye. So, one might ask, well, why do you even care then that he got the boot? The answer is simple.
I just like James Gunn! I think he’s a wonderful creative, and even though Superman and Supergirl didn’t hit for me, that doesn’t mean that I didn’t want him to keep cooking. It just meant that I wanted to see what else he had in the oven. I’ll explain.
Like It Or Not, James Gunn Actually Had A Vision
First off, even though I didn’t particularly love Superman, I’ll tell you what I disliked even more - Man of Steel, which, even despite a rewatch, I still think is pretty bad. I’ve since reappraised Zack Snyder’s Justice League, and I now dig it, but here’s the thing about Zack Snyder and his now defunct Snyderverse - it was kind of boring. So much so that when it was time to say goodbye to it, I was pretty happy. It had definitely run its course.
Even though Zack Snyder did much darker versions (both literally and figuratively) of DC staples like Superman, Batman, Aquaman, The Flash, and Wonder Woman, that’s just it…he stuck with the familiar faces. Not so with James Gunn, who entered the DC universe with a new version of Suicide Squad, only to parlay that experience into eventually becoming the Co-CEO of DC Studios with Peter Safran.
From there, he greenlit WEIRD projects. Yes, we’re still getting The Batman: Part II (I hope), but from what came out of his tenure, we also got stuff like Peacemaker, Creature Commandos, Lanterns (which I’ll get into soon), and Clayface (which I’ll also get into soon). From stuff we heard rumors about, there were also supposed to be film versions of The Authority and Swamp Thing, plus TV series based on Booster Gold, Waller, and Paradise Lost. So, just a really diverse and different DC from what we’ve gotten in the past. And now, that will likely never come to be, which sucks.
A Movie Like Clayface And A Show Like Lanterns Were Steps In The Right Direction
I’m definitely part of the problem, because even though I started watching Lanterns, I missed a week or two and just decided that I would watch the whole show once the season was over. Now, with the news of James Gunn leaving, we might as well just say that the series is probably over, because we very well may not ever get a Season 2. That said, I didn’t hate what I saw of Lanterns, and it was taking risks that I’d never seen from a live-action take of these characters before.
In other words, even though I haven't finished it yet (And I might not now at all), I still think it was a step in the right direction. The same goes for Clayface. It wasn’t quite the horror movie I thought it’d be, but I do love that a relatively obscure Batman villain could get a movie of his own, and that it could still get number one at the box office. This wasn’t a movie about The Joker, which is a character who everybody knows. This was a movie about Clayface! And I can’t see something like that getting the greenlight from anybody besides Gunn.
Now, we’re getting another Marvel guy as Jeremy Latcham is replacing Gunn and Safran. The verdict is still out on him, and like Gunn, I’ll gladly let him cook. It just stinks that Gunn is already going away. Well, I don’t particularly care, but at least the fans are still getting a Superman follow-up in Man of Tomorrow, so I guess that’s worth something, right?
