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Long before he brought Superman back to life with his new blockbuster, James Gunn thought of himself as a hero. Back in 2010, the filmmaker — not then as powerful as he is now — directed low-budget dark comedy Super. It starred Rainn Wilson from the US version of The Office as Frank, a loner convinced God wants him to be a superhero. Laughs came from Frank’s homemade costume but they grew uneasy in a film with an oddly violent flavour. “Frank is me, in many ways,” Gunn said then. It didn’t make the comedy any more comfortable.
But Hollywood will always have a place for the kind of good guy who delivers what Gunn, 58, can at the box office. Starting in 2014, he made three hugely popular films in the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise. Together, they earned $2.5bn. Now the chance has come for Gunn to put his stamp on Superman — the most super of all heroes.
Gunn’s story has not been without controversy. In 2018, his career derailed after crass historic tweets were uncovered. But his exile was brief and his ensuing success has enabled him to ascended to the C-suite. As well as writing and directing Superman, Gunn is now his own producer, as co-chairman and co-chief executive of DC Studios, the comic book arm of Warner Bros Discovery. The appointment was made in 2022 by Warner CEO David Zaslav. Despite the weirdness of some of his earlier work, Gunn is known as a genial figure. Zaslav has a reputation for being hard-headed. Yet his regard for Gunn is such that he has let him make a very personal Superman film for a reported $225mn.
That big bet comes just as superhero movies are in mortal danger. A time traveller from 10 years ago would read that sentence in disbelief. Back then, comic book films in general — and Disney subsidiary Marvel in particular — reigned supreme thanks to two brands. One was the crown jewel Avengers series. The other was the gonzo Guardians, the first instalment of which marked Gunn’s breakthrough.
If blockbuster superhero films can sometimes feel impersonal, this one was loaded with signatures: zany characters, talking animals and a dude-ish everyman in star Chris Pratt. Gunn had once been something close to that himself, a real-life fan of trashy cult movies from a large Catholic family in Manchester, Missouri. Even after the success of the first Guardians film, he was sufficiently irked by the lack of respect for Marvel among Hollywood peers to write a public Facebook post chiding the “self-appointed elite”.
Mostly, though, these were glory days. Audiences for superhero pictures were very large, and very loyal. Until, for Marvel at least, they weren’t.
Since the Avengers last assembled in 2019, box office demand has dwindled, with the company apparently struggling for inspiration. As if to underline the point, its most recent hit was Deadpool vs Wolverine, a semi-spoof that made jokes at the expense of Marvel’s business.
What killed the superheroes, or at least left them in the last chance saloon? One answer is the frequent awfulness of the endless spin-offs the genre gave rise to. Another is the changing, increasingly polarised society that superheroes found themselves in.
In 2018, Gunn himself was caught in the crossfire. The problems began with the director making sceptical comments about Donald Trump. Conservative outlet The Daily Caller then reposted tweets he had written in 2008-09 involving jokes about taboo subjects such as rape and 9/11. (Their would-be provocative tone recalled the younger Gunn of Super). He made a long apology, but despite support from colleagues, Disney publicly “severed” its relationship with him. Gunn later said he felt that his career was over.
The following year, Disney reconsidered. Gunn was hired to make a third Guardians film. It proved another giant hit. But it is not hard to imagine his smile of satisfaction when Zaslav asked him to jump ship for Warner, with a promotion thrown in. He may also appreciate the irony that, if his Superman rescues the superhero movie, it might also help Marvel.
If the experience in 2018 cowed Gunn, it is not obvious from this film. Politics are in plain sight. Superman is an alien in America, whose status makes him a target for villains in cahoots with the US government. Gunn has openly talked of his Superman as an “immigrant” story.
Yes, he has said, he expects complaints over a tale about “basic human kindness”. But the people making them will be “jerks”. (“Screw them,” he added.) Having almost lost his living to the culture wars, his demand for kindness now sounds pretty blunt itself.
Part of his revenge on the jerks might be how much Superman still feels like a James Gunn movie — wacky and comical. But there is also the serious matter of his hero. Because while this Superman is light-hearted, he is not an edgelord like Deadpool. Instead, he is an outsider with a fierce optimism about humanity, and a will to bring people together.
And to keep doing it. The movie is filled with hints of future sequels. For now, that can feel like tempting fate. This weekend we will find out whether audiences still want or need a superhero, the way Gunn and the studios do.
Superman, then, is a $225mn gamble. A new franchise will be another triumph. Likewise, a flop will be laid at his door. But more than career implications alone, you sense Gunn may have an even bigger mission in mind. First, you save the superhero movie — then, perhaps, the world.
danny.leigh@ft.com