DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn has been very hands-on with the DCU, helming Superman and most of Creature Commandos and Peacemaker Season 2.
This year, he takes a step back (well, sort of; the filmmaker is gearing up to shoot Man of Tomorrow for a 2027 release) as Supergirl, Lanterns, and Clayface will all be released without Gunn at the helm. However, his fingerprints are seemingly on all of them, something that was evident from the recent Supergirl trailer.
It looked and felt more like the Guardians of the Galaxy movies than Tom King and Bilquis Evely's Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow series. Now, Gunn has confirmed that we shouldn't necessarily expect a straightforward adaptation.
"I love Millie Alcock in the movie, and I think it’s a space fantasy, which is like 'Guardians' in a way, but it’s based on the Tom King book, but it doesn’t follow it religiously, but it has a lot of the core of that there," he explained (via The Playlist). "And I’m really excited for people to see it and to see Millie. It’s going to be awesome."
The filmmaker and studio executive was responsible for casting Alcock as the Maiden of Might, but reiterated that the upcoming Supergirl movie is "very much" going to be "Craig Gillespie's vision."
While you'd think that Cruella is what sold Gunn on Gillespie, it was actually his 2017 movie, I, Tonya, starring The Suicide Squad's Margot Robbie. "[That] should have won [Best Picture]. And that’s what made me so interested in Craig when he came in," he enthused.
While Gunn and Peter Safran's DC Studios deals have been extended to 2027, there remains considerable uncertainty surrounding the DCU's future. Supergirl and Clayface need to do well at the box office, and with Netflix in the process of acquiring Warner Bros. Pictures, the duo may soon find themselves reporting to new leadership.
Whether they'll give Gunn and Safran the same level of creative freedom isn't clear. Asked for his thoughts on the $82.7 billion deal, Gunn replied, "Do I have hopes? No, I really don’t because everything’s unknown. I think it’s all really exciting, frankly. So I hope and pray for the best."
"And I’ve been through these sorts of changes so many times that I’ll always be careful what you wish for because you don’t really know until you know," he continued. "And I hope it goes well, and I think it’s exciting, you know, every direction has really exciting things for DC, so I’m excited about where it’s going to go."
As of now, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav appears happy to let Gunn and Safran do their own thing. Whether Netflix would be as accepting of the Superman director making his passion projects when there's money to be made from bigger-name characters like Batman and the Justice League is TBD, and the streamer is bound to have certain actors and filmmakers it wishes to bring into the DCU.
That's why the next couple of years will be crucial for DC Studios, because if it can produce a string of hits, Gunn and Safran will surely find that they have a lot more leverage when the change in leadership happens.