Guardians Of The Galaxy Director & DC Studios Boss James Gunn Addresses Superhero Fatigue: It Is “Very, Very Real”

James Gunn is suffering from ‘superhero fatigue’ — and that’s saying something from the director of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy and the co-CEO and chairman of DC Studios.

“I think there is such a thing as superhero fatigue,” said Gunn in an interview with Rolling Stone (via Indiewire). “I think it doesn’t have anything to do with superheroes. It has to do with the kind of stories that get to be told, and if you lose your eye on the ball, which is character. We love Superman. We love Batman. We love Iron Man. Because they’re these incredible characters that we have in our hearts. And if it becomes just a bunch of nonsense onscreen, it gets really boring.”

Gunn’s comments come after the lacklustre box-office performances of Ant-Man and the Quantumania and Shazam! Fury of the Gods.

The Suicide Squad helmer continued, “I get fatigued by most spectacle films, by the grind of not having an emotionally grounded story. It doesn’t have anything to do with whether they’re superhero movies or not. If you don’t have a story at the base of it, just watching things bash each other, no matter how clever those bashing moments are, no matter how clever the designs and the VFX are, it just gets fatiguing, and I think that’s very, very real.”

And that’s why he and co-DC Studios chief Peter Safran are exercising extreme caution when greenlighting movies. During their line-up presentation in January, Gunn said that under their watch the good old days of scheduling tentpole titles for theatrical release before the scripts are ready.

“People have become beholden to [release] dates, to getting movies made no matter what,” he said. “I’m a writer at my heart, and we’re not going to be making movies before the screenplay is finished.”

“I’ve seen it happen again and again — it’s a mess,” he added. “It’s the primary reason for the deterioration in quality of films today, versus 20-30 years ago.”

Meanwhile, Gunn is busy rebooting the DCU, starting with Superman: Legacy which he is writing and directing. It’s slated to be out on July 11, 2025. Then again, since he is his own boss, he may delay the date if the script isn’t in tip-top condition.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, his final Marvel movie (unless he plans to team up with rival Kevin Feige on crossovers), is out in cinemas on May 4.

Photos: TPG News/Click Photos, Disney

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