As the co-CEO of DC Studios responsible for shepherding the franchise’s creative direction for the next decade, it’s fortunate that James Gunn developed a thick skin for dealing with trolls and critics a long time ago.
The filmmaker is always going to be fighting an uphill battle to win over a vocal minority of doubters for the sole reason that he isn’t Zack Snyder and won’t be continuing on the narrative throughline that began a decade ago with Man of Steel. It’s over, that much has been made clear, but there’s an awful lot of people out there refusing to get over it.
Even though Gunn’s impact on upcoming sequel Shazam! Fury of the Gods was minimal, it still marks DC’s first major release since he and Peter Safran swept into power, with the Guardians of the Galaxy director marking his maiden red carpet appearance since being appointed as the captain of the ship at last night’s premiere.
As you can imagine, the comments and replies instantly got swamped by “fans” not only inevitably calling for their SnyderVerse favorites, but blaming Gunn for the box office failure of a film that hasn’t even released yet.
Sure, Fury of the Gods may be tracking for a theatrical run that hardly puts it among the DCU’s top performers, but given that it costs roughly half as much as your average blockbuster comic book adaptation, the margins for success are a lot smaller. Whether it tanks or not, Gunn and Peter Safran are here to stay, even if we’d be stepping out of line by even daring to suggest that the volume of negativity is going to start getting even the littlest bit quieter once Gods and Monsters starts rolling out its first wave of projects.