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In what’s generally been a rough year for huge franchises on the big screen, The Flash might still be the most resounding flop of them all.
For some weird reason, Warner Bros. Pictures and the former DCEU regime thought all they needed to sell the troubled project was a past Batman incarnation that zoomers don’t even know and re-visiting a highly divisive Superman movie instead of, you know, focusing on the titular character. Well, now DC Studios head James Gunn is trying to rewrite history that still feels too recent.
So far, Gunn has put out nothing but bangers at both Marvel and DC at a consistent rate, and he’s been really good at delivering surprising cameos without losing sight of the bigger stories he tells. So it’s stupid to worry at this point about the increasingly crowded Superman: Legacy cast that’s being tasked with kicking off a new on-screen continuity. He’s earned our trust.
But that doesn’t mean everything he says as the head of DC Studios should be praised. His latest tepid take comes from a comment on Threads, where he briefly discussed with fans how he approaches busy character rosters and what he thinks of cameos that make comic book readers point at the screen and add nothing of value otherwise. Unsurprisingly, he’s critical of them. But wait, didn’t he say The Flash was one of the best superhero movies of all time earlier this year?
We get it, you gotta do what you gotta do, especially when you’re stepping into a difficult situation and trying to earn the fans’ trust back. Gassing The Flash up was part of the deal. He wasn’t responsible for what that movie (or many other recent DC releases) ended up being, and no one should be blaming him for that, but now it’s almost 2024, so we believe he could cut the BS or at least find better words to criticize a very real problem without friendly-firing on the movie he “loved” half a year ago. It’s not a good look, especially when he’s been typically earnest and transparent online.
Gunn being so opinionated is (and will be) a doubled-edged sword too, as he’s clearly throwing under the bus many of his longtime partners at Marvel Studios. It’s the type of sincerity we wish we’d get more often from studio heads and big creative minds at Hollywood, but at the same time, he’s gotten himself into trouble in the past by talking too much. Let’s just hope history doesn’t repeat itself now that he’s an even bigger deal.