James Gunn channels Emperor Palpatine to reaffirm his dominion over DC Studios

One of the defining issues of the DCU’s first decade was constant behind the scenes reshuffling and studio interference, something that’s hopefully going to be drawn to a close under the James Gunn and Peter Safran regime.

To put things into perspective, at various points throughout the shared superhero universe’s existence, names including Zack Snyder, Walter Hamada, Jon Berg, Geoff Johns, David Zaslav, Michael de Luca, Pamela Adby, Ann Sarnoff, and even more besides all had a say on the direction of DC Comics adaptations, an approach that hardly worked wonders.

Since being appointed, Gunn and Safran have repeatedly underlined that the days of heavy-handed meddling in projects – something that affected Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, and Birds of Prey to name but three – are over, with the co-CEOs the first and last line of defense when it comes to making all of the biggest calls.

However, while addressing concerns that history could end up repeating itself, the Guardians of the Galaxy director inadvertently channeled Emperor Palpatine’s famous “I am the Senate” line when assuaging doubts over the length of he and Safran’s creative leashes.

The buck stops with Gunn and Safran, then, which is either a huge positive or a galling negative depending on which side of the DCU divide you choose to set up shop. SnyderVerse supporters are still beside themselves with fury and will inevitably continue trashing anything that comes down the pipeline, but the best and simplest (although never the most straightforward) method of winning over the doubters is to keep knocking top-tier comic book content out of the park in perpetuity.