James Gunn is taking notes from Marvel’s downfall, and he’s making sure the same thing doesn’t happen at DC.
Gunn Blames Disney for Marvel’s Decline
In a new interview with Rolling Stone, which kicks off the article noting “the currently shaky Marvel Cinematic Universe,” Gunn said Marvel’s problems in recent years weren’t entirely their fault. According to him, the studio was forced to pump out too much content under Disney’s orders.
Rolling Stone points out, “Over at Marvel, they’ve been pretty open about the fact that they realized what’s gone wrong over the past few years. They put out too much stuff.”
Gunn replied that Marvel producer Louis D’Esposito told him privately the studio was under a corporate mandate to deliver more movies and shows than they could realistically handle:
“And [longtime Marvel executive producer] Louis [D’Esposito] said that privately to me. I don’t even know if it’s really their fault.”
“That wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right. And it killed them.”
DC Will Do Less — And Better
Gunn made it clear that DC won’t follow the same path. Unlike Marvel under Disney, he says the new DC Studios doesn’t have a quota to meet and each DC project will be treated as a one-off opportunity that has to earn its place:
“We don’t have the mandate to have a certain amount of movies and TV shows every year. We’re going to put out everything that we think is of the highest quality.”
He admits not everything will be great, but says the goal is consistency, not volume:
“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.”
Quality Over Quantity
The biggest difference? Gunn says nothing at DC gets made without a script he personally approves:
“Nothing goes before there’s a screenplay that I personally am happy with.”
After Marvel’s overstuffed Phase 4 and 5 releases, Gunn appears to be betting that restraint and focus will give the DCU a better shot at long-term success. Gunn also recently revealed he killed a DC greenlit project.
