If you want to see a weird career trajectory in Hollywood, look no further than that of James Gunn. Confirming reports from earlier this year, the Guardians of the Galaxy director revealed casually in an Instagram comment that DC gave him the opportunity to make a Superman movie, but Gunn instead chose to make a new Suicide Squad.
Rather, Gunn’s new film will be called The Suicide Squad, a sequel (reboot?) of the 2016 Oscar-winning (ugh) David Ayer film. After Gunn posted a piece of concept art for an unused design in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, commentators stated their desire for a James Gunn-directed Superman film, and their disdain for the powers that be at DC and Warner Bros. Gunn responded to one such comment: “I chose Suicide Squad myself so you can only blame me for that, not Warners execs.”
James Gunn has had a mixed legacy for sure, with opinions on him, his work, and past behavior garnering a spectrum of reactions and opinions about the man. His defenders and fans will certainly tout his candidness on social media as a positive, as Gunn is very open about behind-the-scenes details and his ambitions and wishes for potential comic book film adaptations. Out of all of the filmmakers working for DC Films or Marvel Studios, Gunn perhaps engages with fans the most, often hosting livestream Q&As and responding to social media replies, as he did in this very case.
Ultimately, it shouldn’t be too surprising that Gunn chose to adapt Suicide Squad over Superman—the former property is ripe for more weirdness. As Gunn says himself in the aforementioned Instagram post, “Whether working for Marvel or DC I’m often interested in these cool, less well-known characters the most.” It’s safe to say that at the time of its release, the first Guardians of the Galaxy exemplified that personal philosophy more than anything else from mainstream comic book movies at the time. In case you didn’t know, Gunn is on record saying that he’d really like to adapt the Marvel Comics character named Doop, a floating green blob with a face with its own language and is perhaps one of the most powerful beings in the fiction.
Plus, if you’d like to see his take on the Superman mythos, there’s already Brightburn for you, which takes a different Gunn-centric twist on the concept. Our own review of that film may not be the most enthusiastic, but it definitely has Gunn’s fingerprints all over it. Real Superman appears to be in stasis at the moment—with Henry Cavill’s involvement still in question (the dude’s busy being The Witcher), and no plans for a proper Man of Steel sequel known to the public, we have to assume that Warner Bros. and DC are still in the process of figuring all of that out.
For now, we’ll have to wait for The Suicide Squad to hit theaters in August 6, 2021 to see James Gunn’s latest take on superhero fiction, with the case including Idris Elba as not-Deadshot and David Dastmalchian as Polka-Dot Man. After that, Gunn will jump back to Marvel Studios to direct Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, after a long behind-the-scenes dramatic saga.
