James Gunn on why he turned down directing Superman in the DCEU

Before James Gunn took over DC Studios with Peter Safran, he was offered the chance to direct a Superman movie for the DCEU. He said no.

“When I was originally offered to direct Superman back in 2018, I said no,” Gunn explained at a recent Q&A. “I was daunted by the task. I wasn’t sure how I was going to do it. Also, if you remember, there was other stuff happening with Superman at the time.“

In 2018, Warner Bros. was fresh off the box office disappointment of Joss Whedon’s Justice League. It was also the last DCEU film in which Henry Cavill played Superman until his brief cameo in Black Adam. There was obviously interest in another Superman movie at the time, but it was clear that the studio wasn’t sure whether Cavill would stay on as the character.

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Gunn continued, “They didn’t want it to be… It was going to be politically messy. So I said no, and I took The Suicide Squad, which was more a familiar type of group to me. Which I’m glad I did, that was fun.“

However, Gunn couldn’t get Superman out of his head. “How would I do it, if I did it? What would that movie be like? How could I make it work for today’s audience? How could it speak to people?” Gunn asked himself. “And eventually, [I] started to think that maybe it was maybe something I could do. So, when they reapproached me with the idea for writing Superman, whatever it was, three years ago, I said yes.” The result is Superman, which will officially hit theaters this Friday.

The film has received largely positive reviews, but our own Chris Bumbray thought it suffered from an overstuffed cast, cringy humour, and some subpar CGI. “It will be interesting to see how audiences respond to Gunn’s Superman,” Bumbray wrote. “I’ll give him credit: he takes a big swing and delivers a radically different take on the character. But for me, the movie gets bogged down in spectacle and completely lacks the warmth, humanity, and emotional depth that Superman needs in order to resonate with modern viewers the way he once did for past generations.” You can check out the rest of his review right here.

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