James Gunn has awkwardly prevented his own DC franchise from snatching an easy win from the MCU

With the release of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, James Gunn is officially saying goodbye to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in order to spearhead the DC universe. Ironically, however, with his parting offering for Kevin Feige, he’s made it infinitely harder for his own franchise to swipe what was once looking to be an easy win from the MCU.

At the top of the year, with films such as Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, The Marvels, and Kraven the Hunter courting indifference, the belief began to surge through social media that, against all the odds, The Flash might end up being the best superhero movie of 2023. This was only emphasized when the trailers came out and everyone (pretty much) liked what they saw.

However, Guardians 3 has now stuck out its foot and has seemingly tripped up the Scarlet Speedster on his sprint to the finish line. The threequel might not have won over the critics as much as its predecessors, but audiences are loving the cosmic team’s farewell outing. So much so that one Twitter user is already regretting their previous prediction about The Flash‘s superiority.

As Twitter user @NebsGoodTakes went viral for posting:

The Flash may have been in development at DC long before Gunn took the reins, but he’s made clear that it will be integral for clearing the field to make way for his rebooted DCU. What’s more, Gunn has hyped up the Ezra Miller vehicle as much as he can, to the extent that we can almost classify it as an honorary part of the Chapter One: Gods & Monsters lineup.

And yet The Flash will have to be seriously, seriously good in order to trump Gunn’s own Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in the eyes of comic book film connoisseurs once it runs into theaters this June 16.