James Gunn officially begins his tenure as co-CEO of DC Studios tomorrow, with the filmmaker and producer Peter Safran given the unenviable task of steadying a ship that’s been navigating through choppy waters for a long time.
Whether it’s the alarming volume of projects to have been announced over the years that never even came close to getting made, the myriad of pocket universes being overseen by a number of talents, a greater sense of continuity the former WB regime was actively trying to abandon in the wake of the Justice League fiasco, or any of the other noted issues to have plagued the former DCEU over the years – it’s not going to be an easy job.
It isn’t going to be a case of The Suicide Squad and Guardians of the Galaxy director simply turning up on day one and laying down the law, either, with a report from The Wrap claiming that one of Gunn’s first duties will be to gain the affections of the creative talents who already have skin in the DCU’s superhero game.
An insider told the outlet that the 56 year-old will need to “win over all the other filmmakers” who’ve already set up shop prior to his arrival, and we know exactly who several of those names are. Dwayne Johnson’s Seven Bucks Productions, Matt Reeves’ The Batman mythology, and Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie à Deux are arguably the three heaviest hitters currently involved in the sprawling DC multiverse, but the latter two operate independently of official continuity.
We’re not expecting Gunn to rock the boat in the slightest, but we will be keeping our eyes and ears open to see how much input (if any) he ends up taking on the theatrical and streaming slate that exists outside of mainline canon.
