James Gunn has a lot of hard work to do in order to convince the general public that his incoming reboot of the DCU is going to be worth their time and attention, because the franchise just can’t seem to catch a break.
Black Adam still ranks as the superhero universe’s highest-grossing release in the last five years without sniffing $400 million at the global box office, and even if you discount the pandemic era then there’s no good news to be derived from the performances of Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Flash, or Blue Beetle, although the latter definitely deserved to fly much higher than it ended up soaring.
One person fully in agreement is Marvel Cinematic Universe veteran and VFX supervisor Stephane Ceretti, who lamented the fact it’s taken Blue Beetle so long to crack $100 million despite stellar reviews and an infectious sense of fun and enthusiasm that comfortably makes it one of the DCU’s finest origin stories.
Of course, as well as working on X-Men: First Class, Captain America: The First Avenger, Doctor Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Avengers: Endgame, and Eternals, Ceretti is also a Gunn regular having contributed to Guardians of the Galaxy‘s first and third volumes along with the Holiday Special, while he’ll be reuniting with the filmmaker for Superman: Legacy.
Not that it makes his position cynical or biased when he’s 100 percent correct, but he’s going to play a key part in trying to breathe new life into the flagging IP, so he’s a lot more invested than most of us when it comes to watching DC’s nonstop string of flops continue.