James Gunn on 'Superman,' DC's Gods and Monsters, and what's next (exclusive) (2025)

James Gunn is a man with a plan.

After making the Guardians of the Galaxy movies for Marvel, he's spearheading a new age for DC as a co-head of the studio with his longtime collaborator Peter Safran. Superman, coming to theaters July 11, is the first big-screen event in this envisioned connected universe of movies and TV series.

Entertainment Weekly spoke with Gunn on May 22 for an in-depth cover story on Superman, starring David Corenswet as the Man of Steel, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor. Below are excerpts from that conversation, most of which are not included in that feature piece.

From his active social mediapresence to upcoming projects, such as HBO'sLanternsand what filmmakerMatt Reeveshas planned for The Batman Part II, to titles coming even further down the line, Gunn previews the future of the DCU.

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James Gunn on 'Superman,' DC's Gods and Monsters, and what's next (exclusive) (1)

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You're one of the very few filmmakers, probably the only head of a studio, who is so active on social media. When did you decide that you really wanted that sort of direct line of communication between DC fans?

JAMES GUNN: I think that just happened naturally. In fact, I'm much, much less active than I ever have been on social media, just mostly because I'm busy, but also because it is just too much. I've been on social media really since MySpace took off and have had a lot of interaction with fans online since that time.

I am from Manchester, Mo. I didn't know anyone in Hollywood. Those few moments where I was young and I was able to interact with somebody who was a part of this — what I thought of as a magical and distant and far away world of Hollywood, or entertainment media in general — whether it was a local DJ or Joe Strummer, who I met when I was a kid, or Pierce Brosnan, who I met when I was a kid, really meant a lot.

I've always wanted to give that same thing back in terms of realizing these people who are buying tickets to my movies and making fan art and all these things are just people — and to treat them with the respect that human beings deserve and creating that type of mutual respect with fans that they deserve.

I joke with my colleagues that part of my job these days is debunking a lot of the "rumors" that go around online. I have noticed, quite frequently, you tend to shoot those down in the moment.

But now I've kind of quit because it just happens so often. There are a couple of people, specifically, who have pretty large followings who just consistently put out false stories, just one after the other after the other, 95 percent of the time. Maybe once out of every 20 times, they say something that has some slight or partial basis in reality. And it gets to be old. I'm not sure, some of those people, that I'm not actually helping them in a certain way by debunking them, because you're giving them traffic, which I always do, but I think they like it. So I mostly quit.

But every once in a while, there's a story that gets out of hand quickly, that has the possibility of hurting someone's feelings. For instance, if there's a director we're talking to about a project and all of a sudden it comes out a story that so-and-so other director who has nothing to do with anything is doing this project, you want to kill that pretty quickly because it's not true. Same thing with actors or whomever. So if people's feelings are at stake and there's something that's getting out of hand, I'll shut it down.

James Gunn on 'Superman,' DC's Gods and Monsters, and what's next (exclusive) (2)

What is it like for you to do that being the head of a studio but also the director of a film like Superman? Are you able to compartmentalize?

Listen, a lot of my social networking is done by other people. It's always me, it's always my words, but a lot of times there's other people that are posting it. And a lot of other times, other people are bringing me questions offline from online, and I'll answer them and send them those answers. But then every once in a while I have a long flight or a long drive or somebody else is driving or something, and I get on Threads and I answer questions. You can see when I'm actually doing that, because there'll be like five, six answers in a row about once every three weeks.

What has it been like juggling your responsibilities as a co-head of DC Studios with your responsibilities of writing and directing Superman?

So the balance isn't between creative and business. The balance is between specific creative and macro creative. Peter Safran, he does all our meetings, he does all the business stuff. For me, it's about writing and directing, but it's also about shepherding other writers and directors. It's about trying to come up with other ideas for other shows, other movies that I give to other writers to take care of. So my job is all creative. Occasionally, there are other things that you need to do, of course, as any writer/director does, but mostly it's taking care of the creative storytelling across all platforms.

That said, it's a little bit too much at times. I can't do everything. I've had to try to focus on what I can focus on, which has been part of my learning process over the past couple years of having this job. If I try to do everything, it's too little of any one thing, so I need to really focus on certain pieces of what's happening.

When I find somebody really terrific — what I found with Damon Lindelof and Chris Mundy and Tom King, who are running Lanterns — I read the scripts, I give them notes, but then I let them go do their thing. I mean, I'll watch the dailies, make sure everything's going okay, and then I'll watch when we start getting the cuts in, which I think we're supposed to get next week or something. I'll start giving them notes on the specific cuts, whereas maybe I was a little bit more involved during the writing phase, for instance, of Supergirl, because that was something that was one of the first ideas I had when I came to work at DC...I really wanted to adapt Woman of Tomorrow, the Tom King book. So it depends on what's happening.

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I picked up bits and pieces of this story here and there...How did you settle on Superman to be the first movie that you would write and direct in this new phase of DC?

All three things that are now coming out were already in process before I took over at DC. I was already hired to write Superman, I was already working on Creature Commandos, and I already had a deal to do Peacemaker season 2. The thing is that the priorities of what was up first changed. Because I was already writing Superman...he's one of the three biggest characters at DC, one of the most important characters in all of Warner Bros.' catalog, but was also really the figurehead of DC in a lot of ways because he's the first ever superhero. So it seemed like the right movie to do first.

James Gunn on 'Superman,' DC's Gods and Monsters, and what's next (exclusive) (5)

Two characters that I still have a question mark over are the Hammer of Boravia and this Ultra Man figure. Am I on the right track in assuming Ultra Man is Luthor's attempt to recreate a Superman kind of figure? Am I really off?

It's close. Yeah, I think that's close. Ultra Man is sort of Lex's thug and is pretty powerful.

And in terms of the Hammer of Boravia, we get that shot of Eve [Teschmacher, played by Sara Sampaio] taking a selfie while that battle is going on. So it implies a LuthorCorp connection.

Yes, totally. Lex is connected to everything. There's nothing bad happening in Metropolis during this movie that doesn't have some connection to Lex Luthor.

How much do you see Superman as a proof of concept for what big-screen films in the DCU can look like?

I don't think of it like that at all. I just think of it as I'm making another movie. I'm trying to make the best movie I possibly can. And I'm learning a lot. This process has been more similar to the first Guardians for me than anything else because I'm learning so much about how to shoot stuff with Superman, which is very different. You know, the flying and figuring all that out and figuring out the simplicity and elegance of this character, which is so different from anyone I've ever written a movie for before. I'm learning a lot along the way.

There was that situation on social media where people thought David flying was a CG superimposed thing. Was that telling, when you talk about having to figure out how to pull off these mechanics of getting David to fly authentically?

No, I don't think it was so much. It was a TV commercial and it wasn't a finished visual effects shot. So the part of him flying, it was a photograph of his face and him flying. It was a photograph of a drone flying in front of an actual background. So all the pieces were real, but it was incorporated in kind of a funky way. I didn't love the shot, so it's not even the shot that's in the movie. Sometimes I'm pretty strict about when I'm going through a trailer and looking at each of the shots, but sometimes the commercials, I forget to look at this closely. So that one kind of got by me.

You titled this first phase of the DCU as Gods and Monsters. How much of Superman is really crucial to that overarching story that you're thinking of telling across all of these films and TV shows?

Oh, it is very important. I wouldn't say Creature Commandos is important, but Peacemaker and Superman are both pretty important in terms of getting to the bigger story. At the same time, I am really trying to be careful that anybody can dip in and see the story that is up next and not feel like they're missing information. The other stories can provide added texture to what you're watching. That might change down the line as we get deeper into what's happening in this universe. It could be like Infinity War and Endgame, where you kind of have to see Infinity War to know what's going on in Endgame. But right now, I'm trying to keep it so that you don't have to see Superman to see Supergirl, for example. Even though there's a lot of stuff in Superman that leads to Peacemaker, you certainly don't need to see it to see Peacemaker. It's just good if you have, but we also say "Previously in the DCU" before every episode, so the TV stuff's pretty easy.

James Gunn on 'Superman,' DC's Gods and Monsters, and what's next (exclusive) (6)

Something your colleague David Zaslav [head of parent company Warner Bros. Discovery] said around one of these investor calls...He mentioned that Superman, Batman, Supergirl, and Wonder Woman are going to be the core pillars of DC, at least for now. Is that accurate?

Yeah, I think that's accurate, actually. I think that he got that from me. I wouldn't say only those four characters, but I would say that those four characters are incredibly important to us. Right now, I feel great about where two of those characters are, and then we're dealing with the other two.

Have you cast the other two, Wonder Woman and Batman?

No...Well, we cast Robert Pattinson, so he is still there. But he's still important. What Matt's doing is still really important, despite all stories to the contrary. We're supposed to see that script shortly and I can't wait.

One of the things that you and Peter emphasized early on is bringing this idea of unity and cohesion across all of these DC titles, but then you also have these Elseworlds titles, like Reeves' films and the Penguin series. How do you see both of those things remaining true?

Well, it is going to be mostly DCU, and then occasionally there's some Elseworlds tales. There are things that naturally lend themselves to Elseworlds tales. We have a lot of animated projects and they are sort of a different beast; they aren't all like Creature Commandos. The truth is, the DCU, we give people a lot of freedom to tell different stories, but also we have to be really involved to make sure that, say, the power set of Supergirl and Superman are the same. There's a lot of really silly s--- that we have to give notes on in screenplays, like powers or what cities exist in the DCU that don't exist in other places. We aren't the regular world; we're the DCU. There isn't necessarily Seattle, but there's an Evergreen. There isn't necessarily a New York, but there's a Gotham. So all of that type of stuff needs to be dialed in.

So there's definitely room for people to tell other stories...And when it's somebody who's important, like Matt Reeves — who I've had an admiration for a long time as one of the very, very few filmmakers who is out there making spectacle, commercial fair, that is also an artist — then you have to stand up and listen. The script still needs to be good. We're not going to make it unless we like the script. But I think that there are exceptions. I told it to one person who came in and pitched something that was an Elseworlds tale. It was a very, very, very famous movie actor. I said, "It depends on how the screenplay comes out...If it's a masterpiece, I'll make it, but it has to be a masterpiece." [Laughs] And he is like, "I don't know if it's a masterpiece." He got all funny. He's still working on it, though. He is still trying to do it, so we'll see. Masterpiece might be pushing it, but it's got to be really great.

If it's an Elseworlds tale, then it's worth telling something that might tend to confuse a few people. But also part of our thing is really being clear about what is Elseworlds and what is DCU. And the other thing is not just giving away properties like they're party favors to people doing low-budget TV shows or stuff that we have no quality control over because we're making a few thousand dollars on the rights. It is having some sense of quality control over everything.

James Gunn on 'Superman,' DC's Gods and Monsters, and what's next (exclusive) (7)

Peter Safran was telling me a little bit about Clayface and how the hope is to start filming at some point this year, assuming that the script is in this good place.[In the weeks following this interview, Gunn announced Tom Rhys Harries in the lead role.]

The new script is great. It's great. I mean, the first script was great, and then this new draft is even better.... The movie's definitely getting made.

What goes into a decision to bring Clayface into the DCU versus an Elseworlds title?

Well, I think it was just we needed DCU content. Mike Flanagan is somebody who I've been friendly with for a long time, and he wrote me about Clayface. He texted me about it really early on in my DC journey. Just being honest, I did not think that was something that was going to happen, but he came in and he pitched the idea and I was like, "Oh s---! That's cool." It's a body horror movie. It's a horror movie that, like any cool body horror movie, just happens to be in the DCU. And then he wrote the script, and the script was fantastic. We did not plan to do Clayface. That was really something he brought to us.

Because this is DCU, is this the same Clayface that we met in Creature Commandos?

I think that everyone will find that out.

In terms of the timeline for the Gods and Monsters phase, Superman is shot and coming out this year, Peacemaker season 2 coming out this year, Supergirl is wrapped, Clayface is going to be filmed. What's the next project that's closest to starting principal photography?

I'm about to wrap Peacemaker. Peacemaker and Superman are both going to end up being sound mixed and color timed at about the same time in the next two weeks. We're going to see early episodes of that soon. Lanterns is halfway through filming. We're going to see early episodes of that soon.

Then there's another TV show that's my favorite thing in all of this, that is hopefully getting made soon. It's just my favorite thing. And then there's the movie...Oh s---! I don't know what I'm allowed to say or not say, but there's a couple of other movies that are being written, one of which is in pretty good shape, another which is kind of closer to the start, but we feel positive about. And then there's a thing I'm writing, which I think it's okay.... So what will be the next thing after Clayface is not 100 percent certain, but it's pretty certain.

How much of these undisclosed titles are things that have already been announced versus things that haven't?

My favorite thing has not been announced at all. One of the scripts people kind of know about. My script people don't know about. The other script people don't know about. So it's mostly stuff people don't know about.... A couple of those things [announced in January 2023] are in pretty good shape in terms of coming up, but there was one thing that I knew about from the very beginning, that when I pitched to David Zaslav what the DCU would be, I pitched to him, but we did not announce in that first meeting because I felt like it was too easy to rip off by another company. And so that's one of the main things.

James Gunn on 'Superman,' DC's Gods and Monsters, and what's next (exclusive) (8)

Is a Superman sequel on your mind?

What I'm working on is in some way…I mean, yes, yes, yes, yes. But is it a straight-upSupermansequel? I would not say necessarily.

Is there anything more that you can say about this mystery project that you're writing next? Is this the project that you'll direct next?

Well, I always leave saying I'm going to direct something till I'm actually done with the screenplay, and then I say, "Yeah, I want to do this." But it's probably what I will direct. Yeah, probably, to be totally realistic. Yes, probably.

For a long time, Guillermo del Toro wanted to make a Justice League Dark project. Just knowing your sensibilities and what you're into personally in comic books, it felt like this might be up your alley.

And I love Guillermo, and we own a movie theater together. By the way, Guillermo's never said that to me. I hear all these things about, "Guillermo would love to do Justice League Dark." Well, Guillermo's never said that to me. "Just let Steven Spielberg do his Blackhawks movie that he wants to do!" Steven Spielberg, who I love above anyone else, has never said that to me. So these things get blown out of proportion. Years and years ago, I said I wanted to make a Thunderbolts movie. I was in a convention somewhere, and somebody asked me, "What did I want to do that wasn't Guardians of the Galaxy?" I said Thunderbolts. And for years and years, it's like, "James Gunn should be allowed to make his Thunderbolts movie." I have a million things that I thought I wanted to do in certain moments.

I also wanted to ask about Sgt. Rock. With all the information flying out there, could you set the record straight on that in terms of where it is?

I feel like we're in a pretty good place. We're still moving forward, but it's not going to be...What would Peter want me to say here? ... So it's still moving forward, but, yeah, right now it wasn't exactly where I wanted it to be creatively, and so it needs to change a little bit.

Paradise Lost...

Paradise Lost is moving along. It's slow-moving, but it's moving. And, yeah, I really love that project a lot.

Is that really directly connected to your larger plans for Wonder Woman in this space?

Yes. Well, yes and no. Wonder Woman's a separate thing. We're working on Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman's being written right now. So it's different. I mean, not different. They're connected. She's from f---ing Themyscira, so...

James Gunn on 'Superman,' DC's Gods and Monsters, and what's next (exclusive) (9)

Also, a lot of people, I'm sure, are blowing you up on social media, probably in person too, about the state of The Batman Part II.

Listen, we're supposed to get a script in June. I hope that happens. We feel really good about it. Matt's excited. I talk to Matt all the time. I'm totally excited about it. So we can't wait to read the scripts, but we haven't read it yet, if that's your question. People should get off Matt's nuts because it's like, let the guy write the screenplay in the amount of time he needs to write it. That's just the way it is. He doesn't owe you something because you like his movie. I mean, you like his movie because of Matt. So let Matt do things the way he does.

It sort of relates to one of the first questions I asked you, which is your relationship to social media. I can't imagine being in Matt's position, having to write a script while also being hounded on social media for updates.

Well, I don't think Matt really pays attention to that stuff so much. He's got a lot of other things happening, so I don't think he lets it affect him. He's fine. But I am irritated by people. I mean, it's just that thing people don't need to be entitled about. It's going to come out when he feels good about the screenplay. And Matt's not going to give me the screenplay until he feels good about the screenplay.

One last question: Are there other characters who will appear in Superman who have not been announced yet?

Yes.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and brevity.

James Gunn on 'Superman,' DC's Gods and Monsters, and what's next (exclusive) (2025)
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