It’s no mystery that Marvel Studios isn’t as successful as they once were, and even critical hits like Thunderbolts* still managed to lose money at the box office.
With that in mind, DC Studios co-head James Gunn weighs in on Marvel’s current predicament, and he says it had something to do with corporate demanding that the studio increase their movie and TV output. Gunn tells Rolling Stone, “That wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right. And it killed them.”
With Gunn himself at the helm of DC and also having been on the creative side, he says that his studio is going to have a different approach when it comes to their comic book IP. He explains:
“We don’t have the mandate [at DC] 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.”
Currently there have been several projects announced for DC, but Gunn has confirmed that one has been cancelled because they couldn’t get the script right. Even The Batman Part II from Matt Reeves has been constantly delayed, and we’re barely getting information on the canon DCU Batman who is going to be directed by Andy Muschietti.
On the Marvel side of things though, the studio has managed to slow down with their announcements. Though they’re already backed into a corner with the next two Avengers films; fans are hoping that post-Secret Wars will mark a new era for Marvel Studios which will bring back the heyday and excitement of the Infinity Saga to audiences—which I personally doubt they can’t replicate anymore in this industry climate.
Catch Superman when it flies into cinemas on July 11.
