Do You Have Faith In James Gunn’s New DCU?

[Detective Conan]

It’s no secret DC over the years has had trouble finding its footing cinematically compared to Marvel’s incredible success.


For years now, many had suggested that in order for DC to really hit their stride in the movie landscape was to find an executive similar Marvel’s Feige. Now it seems DC has finally found their Feige in James Gunn, who of course we know from his prior experience of directing the GOTG movies. After Gunn’s recent slate announcements, I ask you my fellow hype members how much faith or confidence do you have in Gunn’s ability himself to pull DC out the hole they’ve been stuck in.

 

[Iceman]

Won't have much idea till the first batch of films starts releasing. If it was him alone I wouldn't be too confident. Gunn will certainly add something that's needed as a legit fan of all this stuff and having personally made a bunch of CBMS and also having MCU experience, but need a non-creative there too to keep any of his excesses in check and play the common sense role - the part of suits that we actually need. I don't know much about Safran but maybe he can be the ideal foil for Gunn. Patience, long term strategic thinking and the ability to manage so many concurrent projects and all the issues that are likely to crop up with those are not assets I would attribute to Gunn on impressions alone, but they need those qualities between the 2 of them.

 

[Scarlet Spider]

Faith needs to be earned but he has at least earned the benefit of the doubt. I am most certainly rooting for his success.

 

[Prison Mike]

I will have no idea until at least Superman Legacy comes out

 

[O'Haire]

Love Guardians, TSS, and Peacemaker. Slither and Super were awesome. Guardians 3 is looking fantastic.

Have more hope now for things than I did before.

 

[TheScarecrow]

Yes.

I wish him all the best and hope he doesn't let us down.

 

[Frodo]

Ultimately ,results speak for themselves , and faith has to be earned.

That said , I like what I'm hearing from him so far .

I certainly liked that his first partial slate of projects was alot more conservative than alot of fans wanted.

I liked that he's let Reeves do his own thing under the Elseworlds label, and didn't use the Reeves-verse as the basis for a full on DC cinematic universe.

I like that he's quashing alot of rumors before they get out of control , and debunking scoopers with false info relatively quickly.

So , for the Spokesperson aspect, of being one of the heads of DC Studios, he's done well imo.

 

[Boom]

Sure I do. I've really enjoyed most of his films, and the Chapter One slate is very exciting to me.

Still, it's very early and a lot can change yet.

 

[ArmsHeldOut]

Faith is a strong word, but I definitely recognize the effort Gunn is making here. And for the sake of these characters — what they mean to people the world over — I hope he succeeds.

 

[king666]

I think Gunn is a good storyteller. He understands what makes audiences connect with these characters. He also seems to understand the importance of finality in storytelling, which is imo the weakest link in the MCU.

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

Won't have much idea till the first batch of films starts releasing. If it was him alone I wouldn't be too confident. Gunn will certainly add something that's needed as a legit fan of all this stuff and having personally made a bunch of CBMS and also having MCU experience, but need a non-creative there too to keep any of his excesses in check and play the common sense role - the part of suits that we actually need. I don't know much about Safran but maybe he can be the ideal foil for Gunn. Patience, long term strategic thinking and the ability to manage so many concurrent projects and all the issues that are likely to crop up with those are not assets I would attribute to Gunn on impressions alone, but they need those qualities between the 2 of them.

I think that's a good summing up. He has the potential to deliver. If he and Safran can both play to their respective strengths and be left alone to focus on what needs to be done, I think we could see something very special.

 

[metaphysician]

I certainly have more faith in him than in anyone else they've brought in as a creative lead.

 

[Kane52630]

To answer the thread

 

[chintai80]

not a die hard fan of all of gunn's choices, but i'm almost certain he'll deliver something better than what the current status quo is.

while i like snyder's dc films a lot, he was never the right guy to lead the dc universe!
his directing style and storytelling choices are too niche and off putting for the GA!
that is how you kill a burgeoning franchise!

 

[J.Drangal]

On paper, the association between Gunn and Safran seems to be a good thing. A businessman and a creative. But ten years ago, I also believed that pairing a visually gifted director with an award-winning screenwriter couldn't go wrong...

So yeah, I'm cautiously optimistic.

I'm not a Gunn fan but I've had a good time with what I've seen of him (except GOTG2 where I think his flaws were exacerbated). I trust him to develop a roadmap that holds and I think he'll have the intelligence and care to allow other sensibilities than his own to express themselves on various projects.
If I never was excited at the idea of a shared universe, I won't lie, some of the projects announced really picked my interest and I really wish everything won't bathed in the same juice...
We'll see.

What I believe though, is that the whole project may have already missed the zeitgeist. And so, regardless of the quality of the films, I'm not sure that the public will be there in the proportions that Warner hopes.
Again, we'll see.

 

[FeedOnATreeFrog]

Its hard to say since I haven’t seen him do something outside his wheelhouse

In my head, I’m picturing DC movies that will be like Guardians 2 or The Suicide Squad, which were entertaining enough, but kinda weren’t for me in the end. But again, that’s with properties I don’t really care about in the first place.

 

[GREEN =w= DAY]

I liked what Gunn did with Guardians, Peacemaker, and The Suicide Squad so I am quite optimistic in what he will bring to DC

 

[emielaen]

He's a creative and understands creatives and has only talked about storytelling and screenplays being at the forefront of what he wants to champion, so all that sounds good. I don't see him having this dictatorial approach w other creatives nor do I think he'll want to implement his own style into every project. He's said that himself. He's even said he doesn't like a lot of comic book projects because they're all so similar, so I don't see him then doing that himself. He's also a legitimate comic book reader, so that's dope. He hasn't only read Miller, Moore, Loeb and only seen '89 and Superman The Movie.

He's easily one of the more interesting voices in a genre that lacks them and I'm not even a massive fan (despite really, really enjoying Peacemaker. TSS and Vol.1 are cool, Vol.2 not so much from what I remember.)

He's also not gonna be too bogged down by the business aspects and can focus on creating a road map for others to jump on board with while still creating his own stuff.

I'm very interested and this initial slate couldn't be more intriguing imo. You have the obvious heavy hitters with a not-so-obvious route to begin their respective stories. Superman gets the first film, which is the most obvious, but The Lanterns get the detective-style series, Batman "starts" with Damian as Robin, and there's a WW prequel. Then you have surprises in The Authority, Booster Gold and Swamp Thing. He's even going into different artforms early with Creature Commandos + really honing in on the comics by adapting a brand new (and incredible) run in World of Tomorrow.

I'm into it.

 

[Vader's Fist]

I have faith in Gunn himself. As for any of the other creatives that will be hired, we'll see. I think he's a suitable pick for Superman (I just hope he understands when to avoid some of the style of humor that was in his Guardians movies and that doesn't really lend itself well to Superman). You cannot build a DC Universe without getting Superman right. We saw what happened when the previous regime, in their utter foolishness, completely misunderstood that. Gunn, on the other hand, seems to have some common sense.

 

[Babillygunn]

Gunn tends to be a tad bit immature and sophomoric for my taste. But he does have a good brain trust with him. I do have confidence in him having Tom King helping out and having some creative inputs. That actually gives me confidence in the future of DC on film.

 

[TheFuture]

I think he's set himself a reasonable hand in this first "Chapter". Basically he just has to get Batman and Superman right, all the other projects are low risk, possible high reward types.

The key is that he delegates where has to and puts the right people in place for The Brave and the Bold.

I don't know if faith is the right word, more that he's capable of delivering the bar he's set himself.

 

[Mani-Man]

I have Faith in Gunn seeing as i enjoyed all his projects so far...its everyone else i dont trust.
Studio, "critics", Fans, Marketing etc...there is where i have trust issues.

But Gunn himself has done enough for me to trust his process.
And not just as Director, his posts about Superman etc tell me that he has a good understanding and cares greatly for these characters.

 

[GreenKToo]

I'm certainly several factors more excited over Gunn than I was for snyder.
Above all else, I'm anxious to see whom he casts as Lex.
That will tell alot.

 

[B]

Faith is probably the wrong word for the feelings I have on Gunn's DCU. I'm more nervous because of the actual real decision makers behind the scenes at WB pulling the strings.

People will get a better gauge if they've any faith moving forward after they've seen Superman, but potentially even the first couple of film(s) as you'll know quite early on if Gunn/WB/DC have learned any lessons from how the MCU built itself & how the DCEU effectively failed to build itself.

Connecting the universe & films should in my opinion be quite low on the priority list, the main objective should be to get 2-4 solid films released & under their belt, that establish main characters with all but subtle indications of a world outside of their own. It should be a slow burn as opposed to the gung-ho method that was used in the previous iteration.

I don't want to hear mention of a Justice League film until I've seen at least 1, Superman, Batman, Green Lantern & Wonder Woman film. I'll excuse them not having Flash/Aquaman film's for the simple fact that it's unlikely new takes will be given on either with both still having films to come out from the previous DCEU.. which is a mess if you ask me.

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

I don't want to hear mention of a Justice League film until I've seen at least 1, Superman, Batman, Green Lantern & Wonder Woman film.

Same here.