UPDATE 8/28: Gunn’s co-headliner just dropped out. Guillermo del Toro says he is not attending the forum — “Not me. No voy.” — leaving the DC Studios co-CEO as the biggest Hollywood name on Crunchyroll’s bill.
James Gunn is coming to New York for New York Comic Con week. Not for Man of Tomorrow. He is coming for anime.
Crunchyroll announced Monday that Gunn will speak at its first Anime Future Forum, a daylong industry summit set for October 7 at the Javits Center, one day before NYCC opens its 20th anniversary run in the same building.
Guillermo del Toro and Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse directors Bob Persichetti and Justin K. Thompson are also on the bill, along with Sony Group CEO Hiroki Totoki and Sony Pictures chief Ravi Ahuja. Here is the full lineup.
There is still no DC Studios panel on the NYCC schedule.
As we noted when ReedPop released the first wave of programming, DC’s four panels are all comics, with Jim Lee headlining Saturday, and Gunn’s side of the company had no listed presence. That has not changed.
Man of Tomorrow opens July 9, 2027.
Three Cons, Zero Man of Tomorrow
This is a pattern now.
At San Diego last year, Gunn showed up for Peacemaker Season 2 and Peacefest with John Cena on HBO’s dime, while Superman skipped the con.
This year DC Studios skipped its own Hall H panel entirely.
Lanterns got the Friday slot with its cast and creators, again courtesy HBO, and Gunn’s contribution was a video message taped on the Man of Tomorrow set in Atlanta.
No slate panel, no Superman sequel footage.
Now NYCC.
Gunn will be inside the Javits Center on Wednesday for an invite-only room of executives from Toho, MAPPA, Aniplex and Sony. On Thursday, the doors open to fans, and as of now, DC Studios is not there.
Gunn passed day 85 of shooting Man of Tomorrow last Thursday. Whether or not cameras are still rolling in October, he has cleared a day in New York for Crunchyroll and none for the DCU’s next movie.
It fits everything we have reported.
Per our insiders, Man of Tomorrow is being built as Gunn’s farewell, loaded with cameos because the merger contract won’t let the outgoing regime sign long paper, while The Brave and the Bold sits on hold until the Paramount deal settles. Nine months out from a tentpole is when a studio starts the drumbeat. This studio’s co-CEO is doing an anime keynote.
Crunchyroll’s stated purpose for the forum is to bring “potential new partners and allies” into Sony’s anime ecosystem. Gunn, whose DC Studios deal runs into spring 2027, will be in that room.
Gunn And Anime: What’s On The Record
Gunn is not a random booking for Crunchyroll.
Asked on Threads in November 2024 which anime he’s a fan of, he answered: “Oh my gosh. So much. Miyazaki always. Makoto Shinkai. A Silent Voice. Old school stuff like Professional: Golgo 13. Perfect Blue, Paprika.”
His Japanese genre roots go back further.
He has said he “grew up adoring Ultraman,” and during The Suicide Squad press tour he called the original Kamen Rider “just the greatest,” crediting tokusatsu’s sincerity for that movie’s tone.
DC Studios also has an anime in the works.
In June at Annecy, the studio greenlit Joker: Laugh Riot, its first anime series, from Japan’s SOLA Entertainment and director Yasuhiro Aoki.
Peter Safran made that announcement, and Crunchyroll has not said what Gunn will discuss on October 7.
So the anime interest is real and the DC anime is real.
What is not real, as of today, is any Man of Tomorrow presence at the East Coast’s biggest fan convention, with Gunn already in the building the day before it opens.
