A new era at DC Studios has begun. Co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran have announced their upcoming slate of DC movies and TVs, but not without calling out previous leaders who ran the show.
At a press event on Monday, Gunn and Safran emphasised that their plan will connect all of DC’s movies, tv shows and games under one banner – something the studio lacked in comparison to rival Marvel Studios. The disconnect, according to Gunn, was due to poor storytelling and previous management’s decisions to hire favoured actors and directors instead of good writers.
“As everyone here probably knows, the history of DC is pretty messed up, it was f***** up,” said Gunn (via Variety). “No one was minding the mint. They were just giving away IP like they were party favours to any creators that smiled at them.”
Gunn continued, “The degradation of the writer in Hollywood has been a terrible story…It’s gotten much worse since I first moved here 23 years ago. Writers have been completely left out of the loop in favour of actors and directors and making the writer more prominent and more important in this process is really important to us.”
Gunn is just one of the many writers who will be penning future DC projects. One of the projects includes Superman: Legacy,a movie that sees the Man of Steel focus on balancing his Kryptonian heritage, with his human upbringing. The movie is set to release in July 2025 and whilst no director has been attached to the project, Gunn is definitely the first choice for the job.
The 57-year-old has also worked on the outline for The Authority and wrote all seven episodes of Creature Commandos.
Gunn added that he believes superhero fatigue is a real thing largely because of the lack of care given to the writing process. Both he and Safran also believe that diversifying stories will be key in solving superhero fatigue.
“They make these movies where they don’t have third acts written and then they start writing them during [production], you know, making them up as they’re going along. And then you’re watching a bunch of people punch each other, and there’s no flow even to the action,” shared Gunn.
“You can’t be telling the same ‘good guy, bad guy, giant thing in the sky, good guys win’ story again. You need to tell stories that are more morally complex. You need to tell stories that don’t just pretend to be different genres, but actually are different genres.”
The newly appointed DC Studios co-CEO has been very vocal throughout this transition. Calling himself a fan, Gun vows that he will fix the mess by whatever means necessary.
“If somebody is doing something that isn’t working, we’re going to be honest,” Gunn said. “One of my primary focuses is being honest with everyone. Somebody brings me an idea that doesn’t work, I’m honest about it. We’re building right now the foundation for a studio that we want to last, and it just can’t last if we haven’t built on anything other than rigorous honesty.”
Don’t judge a book by its cover, for behind all this makeup, is a geek just like you. To simply put it, superheroes, Star Wars, Harry Potter and all things gore and creepy makes this girly girl swoon.
Natalie
Trinity Sun
