In an era where superhero fatigue and streaming oversaturation are becoming increasingly common, filmmaker James Gunn is pulling back the curtain on what he believes is the root cause of the film industry’s current struggles.
He blamed it on movies being made without finished scripts. With Gunn now at the helm of DC Studios, fans are finally getting a closer look at how he intends to rebuild the crumbling cinematic landscape.
James Gunn Believes Making Films With An Incomplete Script Results In Failure
In a candid new interview with Rolling Stone, James Gunn, best known for his work on Marvel’s ‘Guardians of the Galaxy‘ trilogy, voiced a brutally honest critique of Hollywood’s blockbuster factory system. “The number-one reason [the film industry is dying] is because people are making movies without a finished screenplay,” he said, without mincing words.
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According to Gunn, the problem isn’t that audiences have stopped loving movies or that home entertainment systems are too good. The real issue is that too many films go into production with incomplete foundations. This then leads to disjointed stories, wasted budgets, and audience disappointment.
And Gunn is doing more than just talking about it, he’s actively changing the game at DC Studios. “We’ve been really lucky so far because Supergirl’s script was so fing good off the bat,” he said, proudly. “Then Lanterns came in, and the script was so fing good. Clayface, the same thing. So we have these scripts that we’ve been really lucky with or wise in our choices or whatever the combination is.”
Even more telling is Gunn’s revelation that DC recently killed a greenlit project simply because the screenplay wasn’t up to par. In an industry obsessed with franchises, this kind of decision is practically unheard of. However, it’s a clear sign of the kind of quality-over-quantity approach Gunn is advocating.
James Gunn Calls Out Marvel’s Output Overload And Teases Batman’s Future
While James Gunn’s loyalty to Marvel during his time directing GOTG and ‘The Suicide Squad’ was clear, he didn’t hold back when discussing what went wrong with the MCU. The problem, he said, stemmed from a corporate mandate that forced Marvel Studios to increase their output in the wake of Disney+. “That wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right. And it killed them,” Gunn said bluntly. “We don’t have that mandate [at DC].”
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He believes this approach took a major toll on Marvel’s storytelling. Marvel, once invincible, became bogged down by quantity. It was pumping out series and movies at breakneck speed, with scripts that often felt rushed and underdeveloped. Disney CEO Bob Iger has since admitted that pushing too much content too quickly was a mistake. Gunn, for his part, is determined not to repeat it.
That philosophy carries over into his careful approach to DC’s most iconic characters. His upcoming ‘Superman’ film is set to debut next month, and only ‘Supergirl’ has wrapped filming beyond that. However, while fans clamor for updates on Batman and Wonder Woman, Gunn is taking his time. “Batman’s my biggest issue in all of DC right now,” he confessed. “I’m not writing Batman, but I am working with the writer. He’s incredibly important to DC… Batman has to have a reason for existing.”
Gunn wants to avoid simply slapping the Bat-logo onto a project for the sake of brand recognition. “He can’t just be ‘Oh, we’re making a Batman movie because Batman’s the biggest character in all of Warner Bros.’” He recognizes the challenge: Batman has been done, redone, rebooted, and reimagined countless times.
“Every single Batman story has been told… So how do you create that property that’s fun to watch?” In contrast, he finds Wonder Woman a slightly easier puzzle to solve, perhaps because she hasn’t had as many iterations on screen. However, even then, he’s not rushing the process. The scripts must be “right,” and that means taking the time to get them there.
