James Gunn’s experience working on the Marvel Cinematic Universe has definitely impacted his plans for the DC Universe, but his outsider perspective over the last few years has helped him out too. It’s no secret that the MCU has stumbled a bit through its Multiverse Saga, and Gunn discussed the franchise’s mistakes in a new interview with Rolling Stone published on Monday. He agreed that one of the biggest issues was a corporate mandate to produce and release too many TV shows and movies in the hopes of drawing subscribers to Disney+. Gunn doesn’t blame anyone at Marvel for this misstep, and he hopes that his burgeoning DC Studios can learn from it.
“I don’t even know if it’s really their fault,” Gunn said, noting that Marvel’s parent company Disney ordered the studio to ramp up production in order to fill its streaming library. “That wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right. And it killed them.” Gunn himself put out his last MCU movie in this era, but at the same time he was beginning to plan his new DCU. He said that he is prioritizing patience and perfectionism.
“We have to treat every project as if we’re lucky,” he said. “We don’t have the mandate to have a certain amount of movies and TV shows every year. So we’re going to put out everything that we think is of the highest quality. We’re obviously going to do some good things and some not-so-good things, but hopefully on average everything will be as high-quality as possible. Nothing goes before there’s a screenplay that I personally am happy with.”
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Earlier in the same interview, Gunn asserted that “the number-one reason” the film industry is struggling right now “is because people are making movies without a finished screenplay.” As the co-CEO of DC Studios, he has ordered that nothing will begin production until the screenplay is finished in his eyes, and admitted that he just recently “killed a project” that many people were excited about because the script was not up to snuff.
Gunn’s assessment of the MCU’s over-production problem is in line with many other critics, including Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige himself, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. Last month, the outlet spoke to more than a dozen people who have worked for the studio, and they described the changes at the studio as Disney asked for more and more content at a faster pace. They said that Feige himself was frustrated by the demands, and relieved when Marvel was allowed to go back to basics. Feige declined to comment on the report himself.
Hopefully, this failed experiment in oversaturation means that better days are ahead for the DCU, the MCU, and the superhero genre in general. Superman hits theaters on July 11th, followed by The Fantastic Four: First Steps on July 25th.
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